[Avodah] Rabbi Michael Rosensweig - Kedoshim Tihiyu: The Obligation to Internalize Halachic Values and Adopt a Halachic World View

[Micha Berger]

I was asked offlist for a clearer description of my problem with RMR's
devar Torah.

IMHO, halakhah is made by analyzing the sources to obtain what
possibilities exist. Then, one weighs the pros and cons of the various
options. I described the criteria for such assessment as falling
into three categories:
- textual arguments: Ideas such as the majority of sources, whether the
  idea appears in a code or in a teshuvah, the bredth of acceptance of
  the author, etc... (IOW, sevara doesn't simply tells us what options
  exist, some options exist more or less.)
- mimetic weight: what did my father and grandfather do?
- hashkafic value: does one or the other fit my general approach to
  avodas Hashem or otherwise help me relate to the mitzvah?

The Gra favored the book sources (at least for his own practice), Yekkes
will accept much textually weaker arguments if they justify halakha
as received. Whereas Chassidum changed numerous practices to fit the
Chassidic worldview.

Brisker derekh is in the first camp. I'm not sure this is where R'
Chaim Brisker himself was, as he fought being a poseiq lemaaseh, but
the approach his derekh halimud fostered in further generations is
highly textualist.

I believe that both RRW and I lament this shift.

RRW mourns the loss of consideration of minhag avos, and the loss of
inertia it creates.

My concern is more on the hashkafic plane -- pesaq is increasingly
divorced from anything that can create passion.

On other threads, REB, RERackman, and Prof Sperber take this concern
too far. (Obviously, IMHO.) They so seek to reintroduce Torah values
that they understate the role of that first step, the textual analysis
of which positions are actually viable options. They each question the
current width of range of choices, not just the choice being taken.

Here, I find RMRosensweig is making a comment I think is classically
Brisk: 
: The Obligation to Internalize Halachic Values and Adopt a Halachic World
: View
: Rabbi Michael Rosensweig
...
:                     ... the Ramban projects the obligation to cultivate
: kedushah as a fundamental approach to halachic life. He formulates
: kedoshim tihiyu as the requirement to strive to internalize halachic
: values, insuring their application beyond the obligatory norm. He seems
: to extend this analysis to argue that kedushah relates to the cultivation
: of a religious personality ("aval ha-perishut hi...she-baaleha nikraim
: perushim"). Indeed, the Ramban strongly condemns individuals who abuse
: and exploit the halachic system by scrupulously observing the letter
: of halachic law, ever the while trampling on its fundamental values and
: contravening its most sacred principles. Kidoshim tihiyu, as understood
: by the Ramban, demands that we not only punctiliously observe halachic
: law but that we embrace a broad halachic worldview.

Not at all! The Rambam is saying that we need to embrace a broad Torah
worldview, one that isn't limited to halakhah! IOW, he is commiting what
I believe is the opposite error.

His words echo those uttered in Volovzhin, when R' Itzele Petersburger
was bodily carried out of the beis medrash: A daf gemara is de bessere
(the best) mussar seifer.

Why work on Mussar, or Chassidus, when halakhah has it all?

Historically, though, we didn't actually find this happening in
practice. People don't simply study halakhah or religiously follow
halakhah and absorb the mindset that prevents becoming menuvalim.

There is a reason for the gemara containing aggadita. Torah > halakhah.

And so I find a need to respond when a prominent Rosh Yeshiva takes the
Ramban's call for absorbing aggadic values to know how to walk lifnim
mishuras hadin, and tones it down by telling people the Ramban is calling
for absorbing the halachic mindset.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 14th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        2 weeks in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Malchus sheb'Gevurah: How does judgment reveal
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            G-d?