[Avodah] the nature, definitions, and obligations of a brit in the Torah...

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Sep 08, 2009 at 10:29:18PM -0700, Harvey Benton wrote:
: 1. What exactly defines a brit and its acceptance; passive,
: forced or under any other circumstance?  

Isn't this the whole machloqes about how to understand the midrashim
of whether acceptance at maamad Har Sinai was voluntary or only because
kafeh aleihem hahar kegigis?

...
: 3. On what grounds are we bound by a Brit (other than Hashem
: telling us that we are)? 

The beris was entered to with a national entity. We inherited our
obligation. Or, as the other medrash put it, our souls too were at Har
Sinai.

: 4. Why is an 8-day old infant bound into a covenant...

This is just a confusion between entering a beris and receiving an
os beris. The child is born into the covenant, even if he were a she,
a hemophiliac, or not gemalt for the wrong reasons.

: 5.  What happens if we
: don???t keep our end of a Brit? Will Hashem ACTIVELY destroy us (as mentioned in
: Devarim and other places) or will it be just a PASSIVE  letting go of the flock (machmas keri) to the
: 70 nations around us (which by their natures will destroy us???)  

Actually, there is no statement of Hashem actively destroying us.
Actively causing us to be forced out of EY, yes.

Or, to put it another way, as Toynbee noted, our continued existence is
well beyond the normal run for nations. As he failed to note, this is
the consequence of the beris. Our existence is unnatural, and thus
without Hashem's aid the normal course of events would destroy us. All
the chumash is saying is that without our holding up the beris, disaster
is bound to follow.

Since HQBH is also the Author of nature, the distinction you're making
probably is not as clearly defined as it seems to us humans anyway.

: 6. If a Brit is Bi-Lateral, does Hahsem do what He asks of
: us?  Namely, to go against our natures
: and act in a certain way?  This is how I interpret
: the pasuk in Dvarim (5:2) when it says "Hashem Elokeinu karat imanu brit
: bachorev". That Hashem "forged" a brit with us; implying he has to actively do
: something as well.

I think this asks questions about the "nature" of G-d, and thus goes
beyond human ken. He doesn't have time, He doesn't change, He doesn't
even have a multiplicity of actions -- just one Action that has all
the events of the universes as a consequence. Can we divide between
His "normal" activity and what Hashem does "special" for a beris? Is
there even a meaningful way ot formulate your question?

BTW, "koreit" would be more to slice off a covenant, not to "forge" one.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Strength does not come from winning. Your
micha at aishdas.org        struggles develop your strength When you go
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