[Avodah] anarchy/libertarianism

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 11:39:00PM -0500, t613k at aol.com wrote:
: You have touched on this before, but it's still not clear to me.  Does  the 
: Rambam actually say or imply that only intellectually superior people go to 
:  olam haba or to the highest level of olam haba?

>From the last pereq of Moreh, as translated by Friedlander
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/gfp/gfp190.htm
    The fourth kind of perfection is the true perfection of man: the
    possession of the highest, intellectual faculties; the possession of
    such notions which lead to true metaphysical opinions as regards
    God. With this perfection man has obtained his final object; it
    gives him true human perfection; it remains to him alone; it gives
    him immortality, and on its account he is called man....

Hil' Teshuvah 8:3 "Kol hanefesh ha'amurah be'inyan zeh" -- the inyan of
pereq 8 is OhB -- "... hadei'ah shehesiga meihaBreo kefi kokhah
vehesigah meihadei'os hanifrados ushe'ar maasim".

Also, he introduces the 13 iqarim by telling us that they are the minimum
knowledge necessary to qualify as "kol Yisrael" in "kol Yisrael yeish
lahem cheileq leOhB". Also (earlier in that text), "Velakhein hivtiach
behasaras kol eileh, veyihyu beri'im usheleimim *kedei shetashleim lahem
yayedi'ah veyizky lekhayei OhB."

"Ratzah HQBH lezakos es Yisrael, lefikhakh hirba lahem Torah umitzvos",
as explained in PhM (Makos 3:17) is to provide one opportunity of acting
fully lishmah. And of course the Rambam holds that
"lishmah" means for the sake of yedi'ah, again, as found in the
introduction to Cheileq (where it is translated "hasagah") and the end
of the Moreh.

The second role of maaseh is that obviously the right ideas would cause
a person to choose the right actions. And therefore certain actions get
punished with kareis because they demonstrate a lack of yedi'ah. (intro
to Cheileq)

BTW, note also that even though the Rambam cites Chazal that chassidei
umos ha'olam get olam haba, in Hil Melakhim 8:11 he tells you that someone
who keeps the 7 mitzvos for reasons other than their being given by HQBH
at Sinai is meichokhmei umos ha'olam. To be michasidei umos ha'olam,
there is also a yedi'ah requirement!

: The confusion to me is that Shuby's brain may be limited but surely his  
: neshama is not limited?..

That's why I can't really leverage the Rambam's paneh laTorah on these
things in my own avodas Hashem.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Never must we think that the Jewish element
micha at aishdas.org        in us could exist without the human element
http://www.aishdas.org   or vice versa.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                     - Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch