Sefer HaBris

Thanks to a reference I saw in another work, I recently started learning once again the Sefer HaBris. This is a work published in 1797 by a Rabbi who traveled around Europe quite a bit. He had a group of translators translate numerous scientific, historical and geographic books into Yiddish and then proceeded to present an understanding of the Torah through the lens of modern science. It was a highly popular and much used work in its time.
There are some important aspects of Jewish thought that are made clear in his work and that have become rejected or forgotten today by many. I will try over the coming months to share with you some of his ideas. Among them they include:

1. Not everything said by our Sages is meant to be taken literally.
2. We need to reinterpret Torah based on the latest scientific knowledge.
3. Some of the earlier commentators misconstrued verses in the Torah because they did not know scientific realities.
4. When our Sages retold stories of the Tanach and added details, at times they were sharing facts that they knew by tradition, at times they were giving an educated elaboration and at times they were just trying to make a moral point.