[Avodah] Lo Bashamayim Hee

[Richard Wolpoe]

On Jan 29, 2008 5:48 AM, Richard Wolberg <cantorwolberg at cox.net> wrote:

> The Sages relate that the angels complained to Hashem when He chose to
> share His precious Torah
> with His people. They argued, "Your glory (Your Torah) should remain among
> the Heavenly beings. They are
> holy and Your Torah is holy, they are pure and Your Torah is pure and they
> are everlasting and Your Torah
> is also." One of the answers to that is three words from the Torah: "Lo
> bashamayim hee".
>
> However, Midrash Shochar Tov 8 says that  Hashem responded that the Torah
> could not remain amongst
> them because they are perfect spiritual beings with no mortality, impurity
> or illness. Hashem's true glory would
> ultimately come from man plagued by impurity and mortality.
>
> ri
>

Of course the Torah was meant for fallible humans to help US.
the point of the Midrash is this:  Hazal wanted us to know that once th
Torah left the heavens it would no longer remain the pristine Perfect
Handiwork of HKBH, but would henceforth be managed and interpreted by
error-prone humans. Nevertheless - despite the loss of innocence for the
Torah - this step was necessary. The time had come for the innocent Torah to
mix it up with the mortals and to help us even if if would not remain in its
original state.

It's a warning against us humanstaking on perfectionistic or highly
fundamentalistic notion of Torah - and rather allowing  it to do its thing
even though it would never be quite the same as it was

-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
see: http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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