[Avodah] Must we agree with the Torah?

[Zev Sero]

On 8/08/2013 5:50 PM, Lisa Liel wrote:
> On 8/8/2013 11:32 AM, shalomyitz at comcast.net wrote:
>>
>> OK.  I deliberately made my subject header provocative... Of course we have
>> to agree with the Torah in the sense that we have to obey the Torah. However,
>> I want to know if we have to be happy about everything that HaShem commands
>> us (or, at least try to).  I may wish that I could eat bacon; obviously I can't do it, but
>> is it a problem if I want to and wish the Torah made bacon kosher?
>
> Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says "From where do we see that a man should not say 'Pork disgusts me; therefore I won't eat it', but rather, 'I want it, but what can I do, seeing that my Father in Heaven has decreed against it'?"


I don't think that answers the question.  What REBA seems to be saying is
that one shouldn't say that I wouldn't want pork, and even if it were
permitted I wouldn't eat it, so the prohibition is no burden on me.  But
I think the question here is, now that it *is* prohibited, is it proper to
want it anyway, but to dutifully avoid it, or is it proper to say that
although it's probably tasty, and if I didn't know that Hashem doesn't
like it I'd probably eat it, but since I do know that I no longer want it.


-- 
Zev Sero               A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and
zev at sero.name          substantial reason' why he should be permitted to
                        exercise his rights. The right's existence is all
                        the reason he needs.
                            - Judge Benson E. Legg, Woollard v. Sheridan