[Avodah] better not to have been born

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 04:48:17PM +0200, Arie Folger wrote:
: I should state here that in writing that post, I was inspired by R'
: Menachem Leibrtag's approach to Navi, with mankind and particular
: Mensch Yisroel's mission being to proclaim G"d's Name in the world and
: to found a just society based upon His commandments, so that knowlegde
: of G"d will spread in the world (ki maleah haaretz de'ah et H). Since
: becomming acquainted with that understanding, I have found it
: confirmed over and again by many of our sources, whether in TSBK or
: TSBP.

I am inspired by R' Shimon Shkop's approach, that mankind's mission is
to continue HQBH's goal to be meitiv others. And sure enough, to this
screwdriver everything looks like a screw.

Not that the difference in goal changes your answer to Peter Singer's
questions. IIUC, it rests only on agreeing that the value of life inheres
in Hashem's purpose for it rather than in our pursuit of happiness.

Speaking of Hashem's purpose for our lives...

Lekhavod and lezeikher R' Mordechai Eliyahu, I translated the introduction
he wrote for his siddur and blogged it. (It was a rush job, and surely
could stand for some proofreading --
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2010/06/rme-prayer-influence.shtml>) RME
defines the role of man as bringing Hashem's world to the purpose fo
which He made it, talmud Torah is to learn that purpose, asei Retzono
kirtzonekha, and tefillah is because human ratzon alone has no guarantee
of success without ze'aqah to HQBH.

We therefore daven prewritten words, as we are crying out for help doing
what He created me to do.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A person must be very patient
micha at aishdas.org        even with himself.
http://www.aishdas.org         - attributed to R' Nachman of Breslov
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