[Avodah] Forces Within Man

[Saul Mashbaum]

I wrote:
>>
What bothers me about the s'irim is the lottery, which seems to
indicate that not conscious, moral choice, but mere chance and fate,
as it were,  determines whether a s'ir becomes la-Shem or la-Azazel.
...the lottery is a unique, intrinsic element of the 2 s'irim. However, I am
unable to fathom what its symbolic message is
>>

With the much-appreciated aid of REli Turkel's invaluable work
"M'korot Harav", I discovered that RYBS related directly , in a public
discourse, to the symbolic meaning of the lottery on YK.
See Divrei Hashkafa, p 214.

RYBS sees the lottery as relating not to the s'irim per se, but as
symbolic of the human condition, reflecting man's helplessness in the
face of forces over which he has no control. This helplessness has two
significant implications:
1) It engenders in man the quality of humility, an essential moral
trait, and one which brings man to repentance
2) Man is worthy of forgiveness and atonement, because his esssential
condition is so
precarious, and so much is beyond his control.
Thus the essential Yom Kippur motives of t'shuva and kappara are
reflected in the lottery, a central part of the Avodat Yom haKippurim.

If the s'irim represent "Forces within man", the lottery represents
"Forces beyond man".

This passage is in a public lecture of RYBS on the topic of "The
Metaphysical Meaning of Purim", the lottery being a theme common to YK
and Purim.

I found this passage very interesting as a most clear example of RYBS'
existential thought, man's response to a world filled with
irrationality and absurdity. Indeed RYBS explicityly relates in this
discourse to the fact that man often encounters, and must respond to,
the absurd.

Shabbat Shalom

Saul Mashbaum