[Avodah] manipulating bodily energies

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 10:58:24PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
:                                   I think what RRW has done is go from
: a concrete to an abstract, become attached to that abstraction,
: analysed it, and then used it to criticise the original.

On the contrary. I read RRW as asserting the Rambam's version of the
5th ikkar (the one about not praying to anyone or anything but Hashem,
not to introduce a middleman between oneself and the Borei). The Gra too
had much objection to the distance from that version taken by Chassidim.

And yes, many of the masses certainly do cross the line. Think how
precise one's kavanos at a qever have to be in order to be mutar. How
many people are aware of capable of towing that line?

The comparison to R is heavy handed to the point of falsity, though. One
misteaches the concept of mitzvah and aveirah, and leads people astray.
The other is people unable to understand a subtle philosophical
distinction.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It's nice to be smart,
micha at aishdas.org        but it's smarter to be nice.
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