[Avodah] Niskatnu haDoros

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Mar 23, '08 at 2:48am UMT, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote (on
the subject "R' Angel & Geirus Redux"):
: As we distance ourselves from our roots, we're losing a great deal
: of sensitivity. We try to compensate for this loss of of subjective
: discernment by increasing our objective rules, but it pales in comparison.

: RMB's comment that "And thus, it's not calamitous." was intended to be
: comforting. But it is a cold comfort. But, I suppose, that's galus for ya.

I didn't intend to give nechamah. Nor is it related to galus. Nisqatnu
hadoros dates back to Moshe's petirah, and the need for Osniel to codify
rules for all the dinim lost with his passing.

My point was more to tie the change in halachic process with the change
in Jew. The loss of Jewish values is tragic, not the codification.

Contrary to RMShinnar's perception of my position, I do believe halakhah
could have evolved otherwise. Some may recall my speculation about
Issacerism, a parallel to Judaism named for another sheivet associated
with talmud Torah, that might have existed if the sheivet Yissachar
would have been around to return in Ezra's day. An implementation of the
beris that evolved so differently than ours that even though they
both implemenet beris Sinai, they might do so so differently, they
aren't recognizable as the same religion.

What I wrote is that given the loss of feel, the codification was
inevitable. Not good or bad in itself, just a natural consequence.

If someone tries to reopen questions because they consider the
codification an ossification that runs against the health of halakhah,
they have to start by restoring the Jews who were capable of playing with
those higher stakes, of being the giants on whose shoulders we stand.

And, to look at the same thing from a very different angle... If someone
could find a throwback, someone with the mesiras nefesh of R' Yehudah's
generaion who lived among R' Papa and Abyei (to cite the people who coined
"nisaqtnu hadoros), we would call that a BG gadol mimenu bechokhmah
uveminyan.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Life is complex.
micha at aishdas.org                Decisions are complex.
http://www.aishdas.org               The Torah is complex.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                                - R' Binyamin Hecht