[Avodah] Avos - milsei dachasidusa or not (was [Areivim] more RCA reaction)

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 04:50:00PM -0400, I wrote:
: Meaning: Avos is called avos because it refers to the categories which
: underly halakhah. It's not only no less aboud chiyuvim than the topics
: of the other mesechtos, it's about the chiyuvim that are themselves the
: reasons for the other chiyuvim. More fundamental.

: How different is Avos in content from the truths that R' Simlai said
: various nevi'im reduced the 613 mitzvos to -- asos mishpat, ahavas chesed,
: and hatznei'a lekhes im E-lokekha; or "simhru mishpat va'asu tzedaqah";
: "dirshuni vichyu!"; "tzadiq be'emunaso yichyeh".

Barukh shekivanti!

R Yehudah Amital makes a similar statement in Gush's recent Shavuos
mailing. http://www.vbm-torah.org/archive/chag70/shavuot70-a.htm

    Even though Rabbi Simla'i opened with a reference to the 613 mitzvot,
    some of the things mentioned in connection with David, Yeshayahu,
    and Mikha -- such as "walking humbly with God" and "shutting one's
    eyes from seeing evil" -- are not included among the six hundred
    and thirteen commandments! The verses cited here deal not only
    with mitzvot, but also with values -- values that are an integral
    part of the Torah. Mikha reduced the 613 mitzvot to three values,
    and these values have binding force just like mitzvot.

    Rabbi Chayyim Vital develops a parallel idea regarding character
    traits (Sha'ar Kedusha I:2):

	The good and bad traits depend on this soul; they are the seat,
	foundation, and root of the rational soul, upon which depend the
	613 mitzvot... It is for this reason that the character traits are
	not included among the 613 mitzvot. They serve, however, as the
	primary preparation for the 613 mitzvot... because the rational
	soul is not strong enough to fulfill the 613 mitzvot through the
	613 organs of the body, but only through the fundamental soul
	that is connected to the body itself... Hence, one must be more
	careful about bad traits than about fulfilling the positive or
	negative precepts. For when a person has good traits, he will
	easily fulfill all the mitzvot.

RYA also discusses R' Aqiva (ve'ahavta lereiakha) vs Ben Zoma (eileh
toledos ha'adam), values derived from halakhah (eg "The value of
gratitude is derived from the verse: 'You shall not abhor an Egyptian,
because you were a stranger in his land'"), the role of General Value
(what we've called here "Natural Morality", etc...

And, while on the subject of R' Aqiva vs Ben Zoma, YU's Shavuot-to-Go
from last year has a piece by R' David Horwitz on the machloqes and how
they relate to another theme that has been recurring lately -- Kant's
Categorical Imperative.
http://www.yutorah.org/togo/shavuot/articles/Shavuot_To-Go_-_5769_Rabbi_Horwitz.pdf
or <http://bit.ly/atu86K>. In a recent blog entry I mention why it left
me unconvinced. But interesting none-the-less.

:-)BBii!
-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