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Role of Ritual in Other-Focused Orthodoxy</title><link rel="stylesheet"
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content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body>Aspaqlaria has posted a new
item, '<a href="https://www.aishdas.org/asp/ritual-in-ofo">The Role of Ritual
in Other-Focused Orthodoxy</a>'<br>
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<p>Rav Shimon Shkop gives a very inter-personal view of Judaism, writing that
the we were made “וְחַיֵּי עולָם נָטַע
בְּתוכֵנוּ — and eternal life was planted among us”
(quoting the <em>berakhah</em>‘s description of the giving of the Torah)
is entirely ” להיטיב עם זולתנו — to be of benefit to
others, in imitation of the Creator. Rav Shimon even defines <em>qedushah</em>
as a consecration to the mission of benefiting others.</p>
<p>What then is the role of <em>mitzvos bein adam laMaqom</em>, that mediate
between me and the Creator?</p>
<p>Rav Shimon is quite terse:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="rtl">והנה כשהאדם מישר הליכותיו ושואף
שתמיד יהיו דרכי חייו מוקדשים להכלל ,אז כל
מה שעושה גם לעצמו להבראת גופו ונפשו הוא
מתיחס גם כן אל מצות קדושה, שעל ידי זה יטיב
גם לרבים, שבטובתו לעצמו הוא מטיב עם הרבים
הצריכים לו, …<br />… ברעיון ושאיפת הרוח
מתרחבת מצוה, זו גם על כל מפעליו ומעשיו של
האדם גם בינו לבין המקום,</p>
<p dir="ltr">Behold, when a person straightens his path and strives constantly
to make his lifestyle dedicated to the community, then anything he does even
for himself, for the health of his body and soul, he also associates to the
mitzvah of being holy. For through this he can also benefit the masses.
Through the good he does for himself he can benefit the many who rely on
him….<br />… [W]ith insight and the calling of spirituality, this
mitzvah broadens to include everything a person causes or does even between
him and the Omnipresent. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mitzvos between man & G-d are an essential part of “caring for
the goose”. R Shimon says this outright, if only in a single phrase in a
paragraph that is otherwise about how one’s own rest and enjoyment can
also be holy when they are for the sake of a healthy part of a life
consecrated to benefiting others. Prayer is holy the same way someone can make
their vacation holy — because it can help you be there for others.
Wow!</p>
<p>How are the mitzos that mediate our relationship to Hashem, all those
rituals, part of caring for the goose? For that I can only propose my own
extrapolations:</p>
<p>1- You can’t bring G-d’s good to others without yourself being
a conduit connected to the Source. If you are not well cared for, you
don’t have what it takes to help them. Thus, “In the case of a
sudden reduction of cabin pressure, put your own mask on before helping the
person sitting next to you.” Without spiritual grounding, you’re
too busy dealing with your own needs to help someone else.</p>
<p>2- We need to know what the right choice is. We also need to make decisions
based on the Maker’s knowledge of how people work, rather than only
relying on our instincts about what is helpful. I can’t distinguish
between helping others and enabling them in something the two of us only think
is beneficial without being attuned to the Divine Will. So, the more I have a
relationship with G-d and with His Torah, the more I can actually help rather
than be well intended but wrong.</p>
<p>3- We need to develop the character such that we can make the right choices
when in the moment. When being there for someone else conflicts with
tiredness, or having to choose who to benefit. Getting beyond ego and
ingratitude, laziness. recklessness or stinginess.</p>
<p>In addition, these last two steps can be inculcated in two different
ways.</p>
<p>A- Educational. This is Rav Samson Rafael Hirsch’s approach to
<em>mitzvos</em>. Mitzvos are a means of not only relaying truths that one
needs to be a good Jew, but to inculcate those truths on a core level. People
learn at a greater depth through metaphors and symbols, especially hands-on
objects and practices, compared to just teaching ideas.</p>
<p>We can adapt this idea to our framing of the Torah’s goals. The
notion of truths passed as symbols more naturally speaks to learning values,
becoming in tune with what will truly help others in the long run and avoiding
helping someone make self-destructive decisions. But you are also working with
a symbol system about what it takes to be a fully contributing human being,
whose “<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/ShaareiYosher.pdf#page=4"
class="aioseop-link">greatest desire is to be of benefit to others, to
individuals and to the masses, now and in the future, in imitation of the
Creator (so to speak)</a>“. Not just knowing what it is G-d wants of me,
but doing so in a way that makes that truth a motivator. Something that can
overcome desire, laziness, anger or ego.</p>
<p>B- Practice. <em>Halakhah </em>as a set of <em>mussar </em>exercises to
make people more capable of giving, of internalizing the right priorities.
Also about internalizing the ideal. But not through ideas, though exercises
that have us constantly practicing the right values. </p>
<p>Each of these modes — education vs practice, is easier to apply to
different kinds of <em>mitzvos</em>. Rav Hirsch would write about which
mitzvos involve symbols that emphasize the importance of remembering one is a
free-willed human being, and not merely an intelligent mammal. Rav Yisrael
Salanter would write about those mitzvos that have us exercising
<em>perishus</em>, separation from those temptations that lead us down a more
crass path.</p>
<p>I don’t know if Rav Shimon spent much time contemplating Rav
Hirsch’s approach. But we know that he consciously tried to follow Rav
Yisrael’s path in general, so presumably this would be his approach here
too.</p>
<p>And Rav Yisrael’s approach doesn’t need Hirschian symbology. It
could well be that a mitzvah works as a practice in ways we don’t
understand. Try it, it works. I found this a weakness in Rav Hirsch’s
approach, in that I cannot believe that for centuries or even millennia, from
sometime after prophecy or after Chazal until Rav Hirsch’s day, even our
greatest rabbonim missed out on the keys to get the primary benefit from their
observance of mitzvos.</p>
<p>Still, Rav Hirsch’s Horeb is an effective way to add meaning to the
observance of ritual mitzvos. It can imbue meaning into every detail, such as
Hashem’s choice of <em>esrog</em> for the <em>mitzvah</em>. I find it a
useful second layer. A second level of meaning beyond the practice approach,
that allows one to have <em>kavvanah</em> about aspects of observance rather
than taking it on faith that somehow this practice is character- or
value-shaping. So why not lean on both?</p>
<p>This ended up touching on the primary topic of <a
href="https://www.aishdas.org/asp/rsrh-mussar" class="aioseop-link">Rav
Hirsch, Rav Yisrael and Me</a>, but coming up with more of a synthesis
solution. Different days, different moods.</p>
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