[Avodah] Societal Needs vs.Self-Perfectin was re: Religion and Falsifiability

[Richard Wolpoe]

On 11/2/07, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> However, like in my summary of RYBS's dialectic in "Community", people
> build communities because the individual does better in a group. The
> group doesn't spawn individuals. There is an asymmetry. Man's calling
> to serve the community can be seen as deriving from the community's
> ability to help as many individuals as possible. And thus it's really
> just my calling to help other individuals -- a tool for doing so. One
> can't reflect that back to the community's duty to serve the
> individual.
>
> --
> Micha Berger



This is imho putting the cart before the horse.  Vayichan shows the need for
communal unity for receiving the Torah [ayein sham Rashi Parshas Yisro]

Man doesn't SERVE the community. He fills his destiny by performing his
role. Yonah didn't SERVE Ninenveh by warning them he did his mission.
Yirmiyahu did no SERVE his era,. he fulfilled the role that was his destiny
[beterm etzorcha bebetten yedaticha]  Did HKBH not know Shau'l's charatctger
flaws BEFORE Sh;'mu'el annointed him?  I'm sure HBKH did and His big
ciomplaint was as a warrior Sha'ul should hve bee nmore thorough with
Ameleik and Aggag.  That is probably what Made HKBH Agog over his failure.

David may have been a beter Eved Hashme as a warrior than Shlomoh was as a
peace-maker. But Shlomoh got to build the Mikdash. As a warriro, David's
role was not as a builder.

Torah  was NEVER given to individuals and the righteous deeds of shem
v'ever are really never mentioned in Mikra at all!  Nor are the deeds of
Yisro given any shrift EXCEPT in his interactions with the People of Israel
and its leader Moshe.

Moshe was appointed the receiver - according to Hirsch - davka because of
his flaws [ a flawed public speaker]. Had he taken a Dale Carnegie Course
first he would  have been rejected for the role to being with!

The point is obvious!. Torah was and is alwasy a covenant with a community.
In fact, we always brag about 2.5 million witnesses to mattan torah vs. the
PRIVATE revlations to J. of Nazareth, or Mohammed, or Buddha etc.  That is
no co-incidence. Unlike every GURU of every religion - Torah Judaism is NOT
based upon some model ofsome enlightened guru bent on self-perfection but
upon a peoplehood serving HKBH as a nation. This is the unique mesge of
Torah that NO other religious community shares.  [Tibetans might come the
closest aisi.].

The Community is not a shell to serve the individual, the inidividual is a
cog in the greater hole. The stories are even aback by ba'alei msusar who
tell rich people to stop fasting and do THIER tasks of doing charity.

Tzibubr requires resha'im - tzibbur - notrikon Taddik beinoni rasha.
Even you Pesach Sedre would be incomplete witha visit from one special
Rasha.

V'hoshe Kohanim l'advodassam. etc. implies every get back to their roles. If
self-perrfection were the ideal then we COULD say, v'hosheiva Tziddikim
l'avodsom,. Hassidim leshiram v'zimram and Yesharim lin'veihem. That would
be a model of meirotcary based upon self-perfection. Let's get the
perfectionsist to run everything. But are prayers are not about
perfectinionism but proper role playing.

Let's use football as a model.  We pray that the blockers block, the passers
pass, the receivers receive, the defense tackles, the defensive line
pressures the QB and the defensive backs cover the receivers like a glove.
It's not about their individual athletic abilities, it's about their roles.

And remember while one locust is harmles, a swarm is almost invincible.
Torah is about a society.

 We all give lip servie to AL targyag mitzvos. Do you know ANYONE who has
sat down and made a list of which mitzvos pertain to thmselves as a
indiviaul [as e.g. kohen a levi ,or a man or a women etc.]?! I haven't! No
one I know makes a personlized book of mitzvos that pertains to themselves.
The whole idea of perfection is 248+365 mitzvos is about ALL 613.  Yet 613
requires a society and government, a hierarchy etc. it is impossible for any
one person to do all 613.   Read Shoftim You need a melech, a kohein, a
navi, a  Levi , a tzeva, a shofeit a shoteir. Unless one is Andy Griffith in
Mayberry one doesn't wear all those hats onself.

Self perfection is really popular in the Mussar world for about 130 years or
so.  The idea that all of Torah was about self-perfection would have
probably been a head scratcher except maybe for a groups of lamed vavniks in
each and every generation.

And also most members are Americans imbued with a kind of "rugged
indvidualism" this ide never existed in the world unilt the last 200 years
or so.  In ancient and feudal societies there was no virtually such thing as
an individual

Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
Please Visit:
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20071103/e10f4447/attachment-0001.htm>