[Avodah] Zeh leUmas Zeh

[Micha Berger]

I had this sitting on my to-do list for a few days.

R Chaim Brown, claimng to lack the cheshek to write, posted three comments
about the collection of R' Gifter's letters available on Hebrewbooks.org.

RCB's post: http://divreichaim.blogspot.com/2011/09/rav-gifters-letters.html
The collection: http://hebrewbooks.org/50397

This example of zeh le'umas zeh seemed the kind of thing our chevrah
would be interested in:

    3. Rav Gifter quotes (p. 80-81) the AB"D of Telz (I am assuming he
    means R' Leizer Gordon here, unless it's R' Bloch?) as saying that
    if in Telz they don't eat butter made of cholov aku"m, in Paris
    they will be careful and not eat pig meat, but if in Telz they are
    meikil on butter, in Paris they will eat tarfus. I have seen the same
    idea quoted in the name of R' Yisrael Salanter, and I had assumed
    it reflected the notion that Klal Yisrael is a unified entity,
    and where the head goes, the tail will follow, albeit a few steps
    behind. However, R' Gifter quotes R' Daniel Movshovitz of Kelm (R'
    Simcha Zisel's SIL?) who understood the idea far more broadly. He says
    that GR"A's delving into the deepest truths of Torah in his little
    hidden kloiz in Vilna caused the light of truth to shine more brighly
    into the world, and because of that Immanuel Kant sitting a world
    away in Berlin was able to formulate his categorical imperative. (I
    don't know yiddish -- hope I'm right in assuming based on the context
    that it's the categorical imperative he is referring to. And just
    agav urcha, maybe I'm too cynical, but are the days when a gadol
    might refer to an insight of Kant as a "he'ora nifla'ah amukah"
    gone forvever? Just asking.)

His suggestion, as filtered through my exposure to R' Tzadoq, appears
to be (as per my subject line) that Gra and the Kant were consequences
of the same mystical revalation. In R' Tzadoq's thought whenever more
chokhmah comes to the world, it emerges in both Torah and chol venues.
He calls this zeh le'umas zeh, but the chol isn't always le'umas qodesh.
His example is Greek thought, I'm invoking it WRT Kant. Both were
harnessed and put to qodesh work. So I never understood his use of
the idiom.

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