[Avodah] Cave and desert island

[Doron Beckerman]

>> If the job is to perfect oneself, one can't choose to avoid sin by
accomplishing less.

Binyamin, Amram, Yishai and Kilav were great people, recorded in
Tanakh for all time as tzadiqim. But none of them are as commemorated
as the ushpizin, who did sin. We bless our kids to be like Ephraim and
Menasheh, not their uncle. Moshe and David are recognized as
surpassing their fathers, and Kilav is barely known -- and didn't get
the melukhah over his brother. <<

But the Ushpizin did not knowingly put themselves in situations where the
risk of sinning was too high for comfort, except Dovid, who asked to be
tested and is chastised for it. The Rambam in Hilchos Deos, AIUI, is saying
that just as one cannot put himself in physical danger to do a Mitzvah, (and
indeed the Gemara in 6th Perek of Bava Kama tells us that Dovid would not
quote a Halachah in the name of soldiers who put themselves in danger for
the sake of a Halachic query), so too one cannot put himself in spiritual
danger to do a Mitzvah. The pull of a corrupt society is so powerful that it
can require secession from it, sometimes even physically moving oneself away
from it.

 Avraham had influence on many people, but it was on his own terms. He had
no plans of going to Sdom.
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