[Avodah] Three from RSRH

[Yitzchok Levine]

[I combined three of RYL's posts of RSRH's words into one, to try to
keep the overhead down. -micha]

Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:03:19 -0500
Subject: Superstition and Good Fortune

RSRH write on Bereishis 44

	5 This is the one from which my master drinks, and he has a
	presentiment about it. What you have done is evil.

    The higher a persons rank, the more marvelous his fortune, the more
    superstitious will he become (one need only think of Napoleon);
    for he himself is surprised at his good fortune. An ordinary person
    credits himself for his success. But once a person reaches a point
    where he recognizes that he does not owe his good fortune to his
    own Tzidkes, his own merit, he can easily come to ascribe it to
    supernatural causes.

    Nechush is forbidden because of its demoralizing effect. For once we
    begin to believe that we can promote our own good fortune by means
    other than doing what is right and good, and that we have other things
    to fear besides doing evil, we are in real danger of corrupting our
    actions. Because of nechush we will neglect to do good, and because
    of reliance on nechush we will do evil. We will no longer measure
    our actions by the standard of Gods Torah; we will cease to do our
    duty, because we will then believe that we have found another way
    of attaining our objectives.

Personally, I wonder how this relates, if at all, to reliance on Segulos
in light of the following comments from The Mezhbuzher Rav, Harav Avraham
Yehoshua Heshel Bick, shlita:

    [Segulos] are nothing more than bubbe maasos, eitzas yetzer hara
    that give people a license to spend money way beyond their means
    and then ask for a yeshuah. All these formulae saying Shir Hashirim
    forty times, Tehillim HaChida, etc. are methods used by the yetzer
    hara to take from us the little [spirituality] we have left.

    Prayer, on the other hand, is not a segulah; prayer is a way of
    communicating with the Ribbono shel Olam. When we use segulos to
    get what we want, its as if we are stealing something from Him,
    something that is not rightfully ours. It reminds me of todays Chinese
    auctions at charitable events. Whereas women used to give charity
    without ulterior motives, they have now replaced their mitzvos with
    Chinese auctions.

(This is taken from an article that appeared in the Hamodia Magazine that
I have posted at http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/hamodia/segulos.pdf .



Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:25:14 -0500
Subject: What is True Rachamim?

What indeed is true rachamim and what is its source? RSRH writes the
following on Bereshis 43

	14 May the All-sufficing God grant you compassion [Rachamim]
	before the man, so that he may let your other brother and
	Binyamin go. As for me, if I must be bereaved of me children,
	then I will be bereaved.

    Rachamim denotes the attribute of Gods love for His creatures, which
    is most general and will never be lost. The attribute of Rachamim
    should also be the guiding principle in human relations. Rachamim is
    love of family, love of parents for their children, love of children
    for one another because of the one Rechem from which they came forth.

    People tend to confuse Rachamim with the popular expression Rachmonis
    and take the attribute of Rachamim to be pity. Pity, however, is of
    a much lower level than that of true Rachamim.

    Which is rarer, which is nobler: sharing in others pain or sharing
    in others joy? Very few people do not feel pain at the suffering of
    their fellow men. But this is certain: not all those who today share
    in a poor mans pain will rejoice to the same degree if overnight he
    becomes rich, and tomorrow passes them in the street, riding with
    his family in an elegant carriage.

    Rachamim, the attribute by which our nation is distinguished
    (Yevamos 79a), means more than pity. Rachamim stems from Rechem,
    which denotes the most intense and self-sacrificing investment
    of energy by one being for the formation and emergence of another
    being; the commitment of all of ones blood and energy for the sake
    of another beings formation and completion. Rechem, the womb, is
    the hearth of the deepest devotion. Afterward, too, when the new
    being has been completed, the Rechem this deepest devotion effects
    not only sympathy with the babys crying but even more intimate joy
    with its smiling. A smile of a baby on the lap of its mother makes
    up for years of worry and sleepless nights.
    From Rechem derives the attribute of Rechamim. This attribute not
    only suffers when the other suffers, but knows no rest until it sees
    him happy.



Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:56:39 -0500
Subject: Aggadata Was "Originated" by Later Generations

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 43
	12 And take double [mishneh] money in your hand, and bring back
	with you the money that was returned at the top of your sacks
	perhaps it was an oversight.

    Shana itself, however, denotes what is different in its individuality,
    the repetition of the same phenomenon, repeated in another individual.
    Thus, from the very word shana by which the Sages of the Mishnah
    designated their teachings of the law we learn that they merely handed
    down what had come down to them by way of tradition; they merely
    repeated what they had heard and received. Thus also shmeittata,
    that which has been heard, as opposed to aggadata, that which is
    original, self-produced. shana does also occur, though, in the sense
    of contrast: to change oneself.

RSRH is telling us that Aggadata is not something that was passed on
like mishnah. It was "originated" by later generations. Indeed, he says
in his essay Limitations of Agadah (Please see
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/faxes/hirschAgadaEnglish.pdf and
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/faxes/hirschAgadaHebrew.pdf )

Agadah Is Not Rooted in Transmission

I think this stands to reason, first of all, because all agadic statements
are not rooted in the transmission from Sinai that forms the basis of the
"Na'aseh venishma" covenant; they are rather the personal ideas of the
maker of the individual statement.

Yitzchok Levine