[Avodah] Religion and Falsifiability

[Micha Berger]

In v24n20, we have a post RRW wrote on Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:28:56 EDT:
: The Torah is not about SELF-PERFECTION but creating SOCIETAL
: perfection, i.ea mamlehces kohanim

Your proof text would state the opposite. It's not a kingdom that
serves as a collective priest, but kohanim, belashon rabim -- a
kingdom of many priests.

If I were to take this pasuq, I would conclude that it's both:
Mamlekhes kohanim describes us as a sum of holy parts, and Goy qadosh
describes us as parts of a holy whole.

But despite that seifa, the reisha would argue that one must find a
personal refining element of halakhah on the individual. That said,
one could argue, as does R Dr Y Leibovitz, that halakhah is a legal
code and therefore it isn't guaranteed that every law help every
individual. Rather, it as a system guarantees the proper help for the
most possible individuals. (And perhaps one must add that overall,
something in the system would help pretty much anybody.) I do not
agree with this notion, just presenting it as the nearest equivalent
to RRW's idea supportable by the pasuq.

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