[Avodah] Conflating TIDE with TuM Philosophies

[Michael Makovi]

> On the contrary! I think he captured TIDE almost identically to the
> Seridei Eish's description:
> R' Micha

I hope so! After all, I was trying to quote him (and Rabbi Danziger in
Living Hirschian Legacy, who quotes Rabbi Weinberg, and adds that
TIDE's mekor is simply that this is the world we live in, before we
ever get involved in Torah; before we are Jews, we are humans, with
all that entails. G-d told all mankind, Jews included, to master the
world and be sovereign. If humans are to be involved in the world, in
derech eretz, etc., then so are Jews. The Torah rather tells us *how*
to do all this (besides also telling how to educate the rest of the
world in how to do all this). A Mensch-Yisrael is a mensch of the
Jewish persuasion, not a Jew who is a mensch. Just as a kohen is a
type of Yisrael, a Jew is a type of human. We are a mamlekhet kohanim
for the rest of the world's Yisraelim, so to speak.

If all this is so, then surely DE must have some sort of imperative.
After all, an object cannot exist with form alone; the matter is
indispensable.

It is interesting then, what R' Micha says about TuM being too
academic, while TIDE covers all culture. I have seen TuM as covering
all culture and not merely academia, but perhaps I have simply been
conflating TuM with TIDE after all.

Now, if I say DE is imperative, what aspect of it is? Must everyone
learn chemistry? Go to the opera? Perhaps it'd be according to a
person's ability. If a person has academic skills, then his DE would
be science or some such. On the other hand, someone without any
particular abilities, perhaps his DE could simply be to be a mensch in
his workplace and conduct his business honestly. Even a Torah-only
rabbi would have to know the DE of the world in order to lead everyone
else in that DE; i.e., he'd have to know the sciences and
entertainments and economic practices and such, at least cursorily; at
least he'd have to read the daily newspaper. So the imperative of DE
would be according to whatever that person's abilities are and
whatever his role in the world is.

Mikha'el Makovi