[Avodah] RSRH and tum'ah

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, October 17, 2007 11:58 pm, Michael Poppers wrote:
: For RSRH on tum'ah, see his Torah commentary's essay in P'Vayiqra
: between 5:13 and 5:14 (re tum'as miqdash) and in P'Shmini at the end of
: 11. I'm reminded of "...uvacharta bachayyim!" and, after all, shouldn't
: we be constantly "choosing" properly from the moment we wake up? ...

In my neglected manuscript, I have a bit about defining tum'ah based
heavily on RSRH. I therefore have quotes from his peirush on 11:47 on
line. See the first two pages of
<http://www.aishdas.org/mesukim/5764/tazria.pdf> and of
<http://www.aishdas.org/mesukim/5764/chukas.pdf>. (RGS apparantly
didn't notice I duplicated myself largely. I didn't either.)

In short, I argued that the Ramchal's definition of taharah in the
mussar sense -- freedom from ta'avah, and RSRH's freedom from thinking
we're merely extreme mammals, are really the same. And both
explainable in REED's model as mobility of bechirah point, as opposed
to being prejudiced that one is chomer, little more than basar vadam.

But along the way I relate "bayom hazeh yakhapeir aleikhem" and
"letaheir eskhem" -- kaparah/kapores/covering the process that is the
product of our living in bodies and taharah/purity from the effects of
that taavah on our bekhirah chafshi.

But halakhic taharah is that which can create that mental state. Not
the mental state itself. It's possible to get mussar-tum'ah without
being halachically tamei, and it's possible to unknowingly touch a
meis and thereby be halakhah-tum'ah without any mussar-tum'ah. It
would seem that the halakhos of tum'ah either define a related
metaphysical state that isn't this cognitive one (mussar-tum'ah), or
are "merely" aimed at reducing the probability of the cognitive
acting-like-the-animal-I-am state by requiring and prohibiting certain
situations.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv