[Avodah] Must we agree with the Torah?

[Kenneth Miller]

R' Zev Sero wrote:
> ... perhaps, now that you know Hashem says they're bad, it
> would be proper, a midas chassidus, not to *pretend* not
> to like them, but to develop a genuine distaste for them.
> Perhaps now that you know He doesn't like them you ought
> to try to become like Him by not liking them either.

I asked:
> How can one possibly accomplish this, without knowing *why*
> Hashem doesn't like them? How can one "develop a genuine
> distaste"?

With sincere thanks to R' Nachum Klafter for his quote from Rav Aaron Lichtenstein on this topic, I think I can now answer my own question:

We often think of ourselves as intelligent creatures, but we are also emotional creatures. One of the effects of our emotional side is (as Rambam put it), "l'olam yhe daato shel adam m'ureves im habriyos - A person's personality will inevitably be influenced by those around him."

This is one of my answers to the question of how Hashem can command an emotion such as emunah, and how that emotion can be obtained: Simply surround yourself with believers, and eventually it will rub off on you.

We find in the advertising world, that if a popular personality endorses a product, there are many people whose response is "If he likes it, then *I* will like it!"

So too here: If Hashem sees pork as something to be avoided, then I want to avoid it as well. I don't really need the Taamei Hamitzvos that I mentioned in my previous post. What I *do* need is a real love of Him and identification with Him: If *He* likes it or doesn't like it, then that goes for me too. THAT is "Asei Retzono retzonkha".

As believing Jews, we are instinctively revolted by the words "idol" and "idolize", especially when applied to shmutzige pop stars. But perhaps that usage can teach us something positive: If we would idolize Hashem the way some people idolize their actors and singers, this whole thread might never have gotten off the ground.

Akiva Miller
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