[Avodah] Rav Aviner on Amen Meals

[Micha Berger]

The problem I have is not the newness of the idea (whether these
things are really new or not) of "Amein meals", saying Pereq Shirah,
women gathering to be able lifrosh challah with a berakhah, giving the
husband of an expectant woman pesichah, it's the contemporary motivation
that underlies the popularization of all these practices.

Today it's more and more commonplace to adopt new practices in order to
get things out of it. It's a little beyond al menas leqabeil peras. Here
isn't not mitoch shelo lishmah ba lishmah -- the entire activity only
exists for the sake of gleaning reward.

Smelling things on Yom Kippur is to fulfill the notion of 90 berakhos
a day. There is a duty you're supposed to fulfill daily, and why not
try for it on YK of all days? I don't see the comparison.

Why people are saying pereq Shirah, for example. Our grandparents would
have said Tehillim -- but that has no segulos attached.

In contrast, shemiras halashon has gone from being about bein adam
lachaveiro to a rite to invoke whenever things go wrong. A more pure al
menas leqabeil peras example. (And the fact that it's usually a woman's
only campaign started when things go wrong has made at least one woman
in my extended family feel like they're being singled out as the target
of blame for the community's ills.) And yet the machsom lefi programs
did reduce LH overall, it seems to me anecdotally, so how against them
can I get?


In The Lonely Man of Faith, RJBS writes about the rise of Adam I, the man
who comprehends, masters and utilizes the world. The Adam of Bereishis
pereq 1, the pinacle of creation who is told "vekivshuha". In contrast
to Adam II, who seeks redemption through community and covenent, by
partnering with the Almighty, by seeking a mate, etc...

Adam I subverts religion. "A family that prays together stays together"
might have been a successful ad campaign in getting some people to
church. But it made prayer a means to an end. It is functional. Not
covenental - redemptive.

I also recently mentioned a number of times R' Elchanan Wasserman's take
on BB 1Ob, as per R' Bachya and numerous rishonim in between. The gemara
says that nachriim only do good for the sake of self-glorification. REW
says that this kind of giving for the sake of self-agrandizement is the
definition of pagan religion. Doing things in order to manipulate
heaven.

The Litvak in me is bothered also by the whole practical qabbalah aspect
of much of it as well. It defies the attitude toward "tamim tihyeh"
that I was raised with.

In my mind, all of the above is intertwined. A basic picture emerges
(in my mind, I'm not claiming objectivity) of a pagan approach (REW)
of Adam I (RYBS) utilizing religion to get what he wants. A shift from
a tefillah mindset to a locheish al hamakah one. A departure from the
historical concept of Avodas Hashem.

I think therefore there is reason to speak up against these hafrashas
challah gatherings or berakhos parties and the like not because they are
assur or mutar, but because risk causing a distortion of the traditional
notion of the role of mitzvos.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

PS: With thanks to RnTK for being my sounding board of a less developed
version of the ideas I wrote here. (Not saying she agreed with them;
rather, her corrections to that version are reflected in what I wrote
above.)

-- 
Micha Berger             The purely righteous do not complain about evil,
micha at aishdas.org        but add justice, don't complain about heresy,
http://www.aishdas.org   but add faith, don't complain about ignorance,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but add wisdom.     - R AY Kook, Arpilei Tohar