[Avodah] Religion and Falsifiability

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, October 25, 2007 6:58 pm, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
:> All that said, I would be surprised if our community did show a lack
:> of measurable refinement overall. In chessed alone...

: Comment: And the above seems to supports the notion that it is what
: the community accomplishes as a UNIT that is the over-riding goal or
: criteria for perfection.

As RDE already wrote: We are only speaking of the collective as a way
to use the law of large numbers. It's statistics magic to average out
the effects of all the other things in an individual's life. We can't
measure if Torah refined an individual O Jew, because we have no
access to who he would have been otherwise. But on average, we can be
compared to the average of an otherwise similar population of other
people.

That said, this is the central dialectic of RYBS's "Community". Man
banded together to make communities to accomplish more than he could
himself. The community exists, therefore, to serve the individual.
However, man's highest calling is to serve the community, not himself.

Like all of these dialectics, I think it arises from the basic
giver-recipient problem: Hashem created us to receive His Good. His
greatest good is His Own Nature to give good. Thus: We must receive
the opportunity to give. Which in turn means that we can't simply get
everything we need passively, as then we didn't receive the greatest
gift: the opportunity to contribute!

Man is betzelem E-lokim. The individual. Thus, unlike RYBS, I find it
impossible to consider collectivism as a real equal in this dialectic.
We exist to get, and the best thing we can get is to give to others.
Since society exists to serve the most possible people, one great
thing we can get is the chance to advance society.

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