[Avodah] Chumros

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Apr 05, 2011 at 08:25:10PM +0300, Doron Beckerman wrote:
: RMB writes:
:> To case my point into RSWolbe's terms: Rote practice without spirituality
:> is frumkeit, not the pursuit of qedushah. And perishus from the mutar
:> is supposed to be all about qedushah.

: I think we are looking at it from two different vantage points - you are
: looking at it in terms "what do I want to get out of it", and I think that
: when it comes to Rav Wolbe's frumkeit, the more relevant question is "where
: is it coming from."

: RSW begins the second paragraph of that piece with the following -
:  "Frumkeit is a natural, instinctive urge, to draw close to the Creator."
: and later - ".. the approach of frumkeit, is to  constantly feel the
: spiritual pulse, is it in a situation of closeness or distance, and to force
: himself to closeness."

AISI, RSW is focusing on avodah that is founded on da'as, and (quoting
Rabbeinu Yunah) da'as means primarily man's pursuit of deveiqus. Thus, I
saw frumkeit as someone trying for closeness without thought, reflexively,
just doing more and more in attempt to satisfy a ra'av ... lishmoa' es
divrei H', without actually looking things that actually satisfy hunger.

Whether that's someone thinking he can be yotzei-zain with just going
through the motions (my example) or someone in the chumrah-of-the-month
club (yours).

...
: A person can, must,  develop a sense of caring about the will of Hashem and
: drawing close by fulfilling it - Mitoch Daas...

And this is the basis for:
: I think we are looking at it from two different vantage points - you are
: looking at it in terms "what do I want to get out of it", and I think that
: when it comes to Rav Wolbe's frumkeit, the more relevant question is "where
: is it coming from."

Living life trying to drawing close mitokh da'as is (to my mind) looking
to do things to get holiness out of it. Which is a "place" that chumeros
could come from that actually will satisfy man's thirst for HQBH. (As
opposed to the chumrah-of-the-month-niks of Sotah 22b.

And of course they need another chumrah, and then another... because they
never manage to get what they're looking for out of the last one...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             We are great, and our foibles are great,
micha at aishdas.org        and therefore our troubles are great --
http://www.aishdas.org   but our consolations will also be great.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Rabbi AY Kook