[Avodah] RYBS TEEM Musings

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, February 9, 2007 12:03 pm, R Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer wrote:
:> Self awareness is the flipside of bechirah. One can only consciously
:> choose if one is conscious of the process of choosing. And so, RYBS's
:> position as I understood it isn't that far from the Meshekh Chokhmah
:> (although not the same), who identifies tzelem E-lokim with bechirah.

: Do we know that dolphins are not aware of themselves, their biology and
: their drives?

That's not my given, that's what I'm trying to conclude.

1- The Meshech Chokhmah identifies tzelem E-lokim with bechirah. So animals do
not have bechirah (leshitaso).

2- Bechirah and metacognizance (awareness of one's awareness) are flipsides of
eachother. It is because we take our thoughts themselves in as "inputs" that
we can respond and modify them.

I therefore concluded that, according to RMSKD (R' Meir Simchah haKohein
miDvinsk, as my grandfather a"h refered to him in a voice filled with awe and
pride), animals could not be metacognizant.

Which is why I thought that RYBS's identifying the tzelem E-lokim with a
unique ability to be aware of one's own condition was not far from RMSKD's
shitah.

:> : "Natural law" sounds to me like Rousseau. Is RYBS suggesting that  human
:> : beings are "naturally" ethical?

:> I believe so... That HQBH created us with a yeitzer hatov.

: Yes, but he says: "Firstly, in order to experience the ethical norm,
: external divine intervention is necessary. Only through the divine
: command can man transcend his natural biological self and experience the
: ethical...." etc.
: I don't see a YhT as distinct from kiyum mitzvos here.

Of course not. This is the author of Ish haHalakhah. As the students of
Vilozhin told R' Itzele Blazer when they bodily evicted him from the beis
medrash, "De bester mussar iz a blatt gemara." Your world view has a focus on
an ethic beyond and underlying halakhah. RYBS's does not.

RYBS's yeitzer hatov is in the ability to obey (and help create) halakhah. And
halachic life and the ultimate ethical life are identical.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
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