[Avodah] What is Mindfulness and does Judaism have it

[Richard Wolpoe]

On Nov 20, 2007 7:25 AM, Arie Folger <afolger at aishdas.org> wrote:

>
>
> Says who? An ultrarationalist. Many would interpret this literally, lo
> levazot
> et hamitzvot, even if the 'hallah doesn't know the difference. This might
> belong to proper religious mannerisms.
>
>
In the following cases there are "mystical" explanations and  rational
ones..


   1. Not eating nuts on RH
   2. Not Benching Hodesh Tishrei
   3. Covering mirros at a shiva

I don't know if I am an ULTRA rationalist or not, but I think if there IS a
raional explanatoin I would suspect it to be the normative one and the other
explanation for the less-educated

See SA harav on #1 and iirc#2 also.  He favors the rational explanation. I
would not term him an ultra-rationalist.

I might add that a nieghbor of mine who was not frum made a lot of fun of
the "mirror-covering" because some apikoros rabbi belittled the idea of
Sheidim etc. I think if a rational alternative had been offered the practice
would have been perceived in a better light.  I guess that cust both ways,
that a ratonal ta'am can be construed as apologetics, but I still think it
is healthier to think that way.

On a tangent, the Gemara in Yoma talks about the case of a mistake about
amud hashachar and seeing the moon. It says that this  g'zeira could not
have been literally been concerning the 10th of Tishre since the moon is  in
the wrong position, If  you live in a world of miracles/magic/muysticismc
then why did the Gemara make that assumption?. After all It could have been
a supernatural sighting of the moon whilst out of position!  It seems that
this passage pre-supposes a natural flow of events.

I think that super-natural explanations are either used Allegorically or
when the text needs to punt because no rational explanation can be found.
However, if there is a  valid rational explanation it would "naturally" take
precedence over the supernatural
-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
Please Visit:
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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