[Avodah] Defining Derech Eretz

[Micha Berger]

The topic of just what is derekh eretz came up on Areivim. I would
like to point the chevrah to my posts in vol 4. 

v4n36 (short, so I'll quote in full):
    I think this is a different usage of DE. I've identified what I
    believe to be three different usages:

    - Yafeh TT im DE -- involvement in the outside world

    - DE kadma laTorah -- midos and being a mentsh

    - zu p'rishus DE -- proper usage of ta'avos gashmios (or at least
      one of them)

    What the three have in common is knowing how to live in and proper
    utilize Olam haZeh -- a/k/a "eretz".

And then in v4n395, I use this to elaborate a derashah from my
greatgrandfather's, R' Yisrael Avraham Abba Meir Simcha Krieger's, sefer
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol04/v04n395.shtml#09>:

...
    Avraham Avinu discovers HKBH by noticing the wonders of eretz, is
    mekareiv people, willing to associate with what he thought were three
    sand-worshipping idolaters. This is TIDE. He is mekareiv them how? By
    performing chessed -- DE in the sense of DE kadma laTorah. And he is
    given the b'ris milah -- DE as in the "perishus DE" of the haggadah.

    TIDE is about using DE -- the proper involvement with this world --
    as a means to kedushah, the substance that one is makdish and through
    which one is makdish his own life. One has soil, and tries to lift it
    into a mountain. TuM extends this to the people who share the aretz
    with you, while the Austritt approach does not. (I'm not convinced
    that the Austritt is part of TIDE, and not a second issue.)

    TIDE and TuM are also dangerous...
...

Then, rounding out the avos as role models for our various derakhim today
(although leaving the subject of Derekh Eretz):

    Chassidus is very much Yitzchak's field...

    Yaakov ish tam yosheiv ohalim. The Yeshiva movement, developing
    da'as Torah (da'as = Ya'akov). Titein emes liYa'akov...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 48th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        6 weeks and 6 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Yesod sheb'Malchus: What binds different
Fax: (270) 514-1507             people together into one cohesive whole?