[Avodah] Assur to be Stupid...

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 08:53:21PM -0600, Ira Tick wrote:
:> RYBS was wont to knock on the desk or microphone three times as a
:> mnemonic for the idea of submission. We can have all our rationales --
:> we can ask the questions and propose answers -- but none of that can
:> change our observance. At some point, we have to live with hte question
:> or table it for later, because halakhah comes before logic. I saw him
:> as speaking of submission to halakhah, not to ideas.

: I don't believe that submission of human logic to Halacha is a trend
: supported by history...

RYBS's context would be, for one real example, after telling the story of
the kohein who fell in love with a non-Jewish girl. She ends up becoming
a giyores. Both become serious about their Yahadus, and are well on the
way of becoming shomerei Torah uMitzvos. Along the way, he finds a pair
of duchaning hands on his paternal father's matzeivah. So, after all that,
RYBS in the end had to tell them they could not marry after all. That's
when all the reasoning goes out the window, and we have to submit.

Or, Avraham's submission of his intellect at the Aqeida.

I think the distinction between the two contexts is that you're speaking
of what RYBS would call the cognitive and creative process of halakhah,
vs submission when the limits of that process is reached.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             With the "Echad" of the Shema, the Jew crowns
micha at aishdas.org        G-d as King of the entire cosmos and all four
http://www.aishdas.org   corners of the world, but sometimes he forgets
Fax: (270) 514-1507      to include himself.     - Rav Yisrael Salanter