[Avodah] The Basics

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 03:31:15PM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: I've wondered whether there was ever a time when Nidah or Kashrus
: was held in that sort of ignorance. And conversely, was there ever a
: time when a mitzvah was considered "the basics", even though it is one
: which we're not so careful about today? For example, it has often been
: said that people were much more careful about Erev Shabbos in the past,
: but even so, I don't think it was among "the basics".

RYBS's comment about the "erev Shabbos Jew" wasn't about halakhah. It
was about people having a feel for what Judaism is all about. It's not
that we were more careful in hilkhos E"Sh, but that the man on the street
could feel the anticipation of Shabbos arriving.

As I just wrote, I don't think two of those three mitzvos are particularly
basic in any halachic or hashkafic sense. They show commitment, they
are lifestyle changing, but kashrus and taharas hamishpachah are not
more central to Yahadus than geneivah, LH, talmud Torah, yishuv EY or
tzitzis (each are called "keneged kulam", although there is wheedle room
in yishuv EY bizman hazeh as long as you're not being honest about it),
tzedaqah, etc...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A pious Jew is not one who worries about his fellow
micha at aishdas.org        man's soul and his own stomach; a pious Jew worries
http://www.aishdas.org   about his own soul and his fellow man's stomach.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rav Yisrael Salanter