WHY BOTHER?

Below I rant for a bit about the obsequious genuflections a group of Jews intend to perform for the Vatican's amusement.

Now, something else has occurred to me: what does a frum scholar like Benjy Blech want with a Rambam manuscript? Is he going to venerate it? Nothing it might contain can alter the way Judaism is practiced today, and no one in Orthodoxy is likely to accept anything the manuscript might tell us about how halacha evolves develops. In fact, someone like Blech (ed note: and someone like me!) isn't really permitted to believe that a medieval Rambam manuscript has anything to say to us.

So what's the point? Why are Blech and the boys so excited about this opportunity that they are willing to show their thanks by engaging in some serious Papal toe-licking?

Maybe Simcha Gil knows.