[Avodah] Cave or desert island

[Michael Makovi]

> TK:  I agree with R' Hirsch and emphatically disagree with R' Berkowitz.
> One of the reasons that we were dispersed all over the world was precisely
> because we failed to accomplish our mission of "ohr lagoyim" when we were in
> our own land.  We were therefore given another way and another opportunity
> to do it, scattered among the nations.
>
> In the nations that we live among, Jews have acquired a reputation for being
> intelligent, industrious, law-abiding and peaceable citizens.  We have had a
> positive influence on the entire course of history and Western civilization.
> Tragically, all too many of our fellow Yiddelech have also been among the
> major destroyers of civilization -- the name of Marx especially comes to
> mind, but one may also count Freud, Asimov, Betty Friedan, Carl Sagan, Peter
> Singer, Noam Chomsky and many other Jewish mechablim, great and small.  But
> the list of Jews who have benefited the countries they lived in, and who
> created a wondrous name for the Jewish people, would literally fill pages.
>
> "We don't have an army, government, or economy"  -- we don't /need/ an army,
> government or economy to be a memleches kohanim and ohr lagoyim.  Remember
> R' Saadia Gaon's famous dictum, "Ein umaseinu umah eleh betorasa"  -- We are
> a nation by virtue of our Torah.
>
> While our main purpose as frum Jews scattered among the nations is to live
> Torah lives and serve as a model of probity and morality, we also have an
> obligation to positively and actively influence the goyim among whom we
> live. Of course, that obligation holds only to the extent that circumstances
> make it possible.  In America, we have an obligation to vote for the
> candidates who will most advance the morality of the country.  We also have
> an obligation to make our voices heard in the public square.

Absolutely, I'm not saying that Jews in galut don't have a kiddush
hashem effect. But this is secondary. Rav Hirsch himself, in his essay
to Tisha b'Av I think, as well as elsewhere I'm sure, says that the
primary location from which we are to execute our task, is from davka
eretz yisrael, where we will have a land, whose entire national
existence is devoted to Torah, from economy to army to government. And
Rav Hirsch wasn't what you'd call a Zionist. He himself says that our
being exiled has an incidental effect of our being able to do kiddush
hashem. But the primary purpose of galut was to educate us, not the
gentiles.

> RMM:  >>....Likewise, we don't serve for Olam Haba....Rav Hirsch says that
> Judaism exists for
> this world, and that is why the Torah doesn't speak of olam haba -
> because it's really not very important. ....Rather, the Messianic Era will
> come, and we'll be
> resurrected, and thus we'll live in the Messianic Era for eternity -
> see Rabbi Berkovits [in] G-d Man and History.<<
>
> TK:  I am very uncomfortable with the way you keep quoting R' Berkovits and
> RSRH, as if they were equals and contemporaries.  The two are simply not
> comparable, and R' Berkowitz is barely even on the normative Orthodox scale.

Rabbi Shalom Carmy in his review of Essential Essays says it is
dangerous to judge a thinker by his most provocative work. He says
that G-d, Man, and History is an excellent work of Jewish hashkafa
that says very little new but puts it in a fantastic vehicle.

And of course Rav Hirsch is higher on the scale. But IMHO, Rav
Berkovits was no small fry, not by a long shot. And IMHO, even his
provocative work has serious merit (as Rabbi Carmy shows in the same
review, despite his vociferous protest to other aspects), kal vachomer
his non-provocative work.

> I also think you are seriously misreading Hirsch if you have come to the
> conclusion that "olam haba really isn't important."  Your understanding of
> Hirsch has been influenced by your reading of a modern left-Orthodox
> philosopher, it seems to me.

I gave the sources. Rav Hirsch himself says he never seriously
contemplated the afterlife, because it's almost incidental to doing
mitzvot here on earth.

Notice how throughout Pirkei Avot, Rav Hirsch uses almost any
opportunity to wax at length about schar mitzvah mitzvah, not in the
sense of mitzvah goreret mitzvah [acheret], but rather that the schar
IS the mitzvah; likewise in his other writings, this theme is one of
his favorites. But in Avot, when afterlife comes us, Rav Hirsch merely
parrots what the Mishna already said, giving it a mere sentence or
two. His intention is obvious IMHO.

> RMM:  But why? Why did He choose us? Why did He love us? Why did He
> sanctify
> us with His mitzvot and proclaim His name on us?
>
> AL KEN n'kaveh...AL KEN. The reason He chose us, the ENTIRE reason,
> the entire reason for the entire first paragraph of Aleinu, is for us
> to bring the whole world to worship Him. <<
>
> TK:  I think there is a confusion here about the two meanings of the word
> "why."  (There may even be more than two meanings.)  "Why?" can mean, "What
> is the reason, the cause?" or it can mean, "What is the purpose?"
>
> The *reason*:  the Avos chose Him.  In sharp contrast to all the nations who
> rejected or just ignored Him, our forefathers sought Him out and chose to
> cling to Him in defiance of all the other gods and religions of their time.
> A similar thing happened again when Hashem offered the Torah to all the
> nations of the world, and once again, the goyim rejected the Torah while the
> nation of Yisrael embraced it.
>
> BTW this is as good a time as any to quote again one of my favorite bits of
> doggerel.  This was in answer to the anti-Semitic couplet, "How odd of G-d/
> to choose the Jews."  The response was:  "It's not so odd/ the Jews chose
> G-d."

Absolutely. No disagreement here. Hashem offered the Torah to all the
nations, and they all spurned it. I myself am quite fond of that
quote.

BUT, why did He offer it to them in the first place? One could follow
Maharal that this Midrash shows that the Torah was never meant for the
nations, and He offered it to them just to show us that they'd reject
it, and that it was meant for us all along.

But I'd say davka the opposite: He offered it to them because after
all, the Torah isn't meant for only us. Rather, it is meant for all
humanity. And someday, the day will come when this becomes reality. As
Rabbi Meir says, this is the law which if a MAN keeps...

(Now, don't take me too literally and say that they'll be 100%
bona-fide Jews with the 613. The point is that all of mankind will
serve Hashem and such, and it doesn't have to be taken too literally.
In fact, I'd say that since mankind was originally given the Noachide
laws only, and these were to be sufficient without the the other 613
minus 7, I'd say that the non-Noachide commandments are extra add-ons
to intensify and magnify and assist in our being ambassadors of the
ikkar Noachide ones. So if all mankind one day has the Torah, it
doesn't mean they'll have all 613, because they don't need the 613 in
order to keep the ikkar of the Torah, which is the 7.

For example, if we say that all Americans will one day be patriotic
and loyal, it doesn't mean they'll all be government employees.
Likewise, saying the gentiles will have the Torah one day doesn't mean
they'll be Jews.)

> The *purpose*:  "so that the whole world will be filled with the knowledge
> of Hashem."  He chose us to keep the Torah and to teach G-dliness to the
> whole world.

Bidiyuk. He didn't choose us for the sake of us. He chose us for the
sake of the rest of the world. Again, I cite Rav Hirsch to Shemot
19:5-6 - if Rav Hirsch didn't already say it, people would probably
brand me a heretic for saying it (at least in the yeshiva where I
currently am, which has a lot of Maharal-type thought saturating it).

But there is an additional factor: When we chose Hashem, why didn't we
remain Noachides? After all, our choosing Hashem didn't reduce the
liability for the rest of the nations (save a midrash that I've never
heard anyone follow, that the Noachide laws are no longer incumbent on
the nations). And we ourselves were already obligated to choose Hashem
even without Sinai and all that. So why did our choosing Hashem make
us special?

Answer: Hashem made us His pecular tool, His am segula, to use to
redeem the rest of the world. Our purpose is not to serve Hashem
ourselves, but rather to act as His ambassadors to bring everyone else
to join us in serving Him.

Mikha'el Makovi