[Avodah] Where Bread Comes From

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Joel Rich wrote:
> To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke's famous insight (Any
> sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
> magic), Any sufficiently advanced mnemonic for bitachon is
> indistinguishable from superstition.

A brilliant analogy!

And I'd suggest the following insight into both of them: In both cases, it is critical to distinguish between the performer and the observer. The observer merely sees the external trappings, and (especially if he is reltively uneducated) will consider the actions to be magic and superstition. But the performer is in a very different situation: if he understands what he is doing, and how it works, even on a most rudimentary level, then it is technology and bitachon.

But how basic can this rudimentary understanding be, and still be valid? My guess is that if someone blindly feels that a schlissel challah (in and of itself) will somehow bring parnasa, that is superstition. But if he says something even so minor as, "I'm doing a minhag. I don't know the reason for this minhag. I just do it because my parents did it. And that brings me closer to HaShem. And in zechus of THAT, I may get a good parnasa." -- that's not superstition, that's a reasonable cause-and-effect.

(Disclaimer: In my mind, I'm still not sure what the difference is between "I don't really understand how this 'computer' works, but the experts have a very good understanding, and that's good enough", and "I don't really understand how this 'eye of newt and toe of frog' works, but the experts have a very good understanding, and that's good enough.")

Akiva Miller

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