[Avodah] ikkarim: mashiach

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 08:32:43AM -0800, Saul.Z.Newman at kp.org wrote:
: http://shiratdevorah.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-is-belief-in-moshiach-one-of-13.html
: on why  not believing  in mashiach makes one a deficient  jew 

I blogged on this topic too at
http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/05/hashem-and-morality.shtml
    ...
    So yes, HQBH did choose good vs evil without being subject to
    external constraint, and yet still the choice was not arbitrary.
    Socrates gave Euthyphro a false dichotomy -- there was a third
    choice. Hashem has a reason, but that reason wasn't conforming to a
    preexisting morality.G-d created us because He could only bestow
    good if there is someone to receive that good. That is our
    individual purpose, to make ourselves into utensils, receptacles for
    emanations of Divine Good. (I once suggested to Avodah that
    "Qabbalah" isn't to be translated as "that which was received",
    but rather "the art of reception".) Given that personal purpose,
    the definition of "tov" feeds directly into a "spiritual health"
    model of reward and punishment. Oneshim are the product of not being
    proper keilim for shefa, and therefore one is incapable of receiving
    the sechar. It's not that the sechar is being withheld -- the
    problem is with the reception.This makes following the tzavah
    (command) of the Melech a derivative -- learning to be a good
    subject is part of what it takes to be a good keli. Perhaps this is
    why they are called mitzvos (that which were commanded) rather than
    tzavos (commands).

    This means that of the Rambam's ikkarei emunah, perhaps the last
    three are the most critical. Without an eschatology, without a final
    state, we have no way of defining which acts advance us to that
    goal, and which are ra, shattering that which was already built.
    ...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You cannot propel yourself forward
micha at aishdas.org        by patting yourself on the back.
http://www.aishdas.org                   -Anonymous
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