[Avodah] The Superbowl Maariv

[Harry Maryles]

[First attempt to post this came out garbeled. Hopefully this cleans it up.
-micha]

On Fri, 2/24/12, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
> R' Emanuel Feldman posted the following in Cross-Currents. I found the
> question he raises very AishDas-y:

>> The Super Bowl Maariv
>> from Cross-Currents by Emanuel Feldman
>> http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2012/02/24/the-super-bowl-maariv/

>> On the morning of the recent Super Bowl football game, a shul in
>> New Jersey sent out this e-mail to its membership:
>>> There will be a minyan for Maariv at __________ Synagogue (name
>>> deliberately omitted) at ten minutes after the beginning of the
>>> Super Bowl halftime.

>> How should one react to this? One could be benevolent, in the spirit
>> of the Berditchever Rebbe who, paraphrasing himself, might have said:
>> "O L-rd, how wondrous is Thy people. Even in the midst of the Super
>> Bowl, they think of Thee!"

>> Or one could be severe and paraphrase Isaiah 1:12: "Mi bikesh zos
>> miyedchem -- who asks this of you, saith the Lo-d, to trample on My
>> holy ground and daven with trivialities in your heart!"....

> RYBS would say there is no synthesis. Halakhah gives us a way to live
> with the resulting dialectic tension, but there is no resolution. The
> conflict is part of what fuels bekhirah.

> But I think this essay gets to the essence of what I was trying to write
> about when I raised the topic of whether Halakhic Man is a sound ideal for
> a community. My argument was that it is not. That halakhah as a creative
> process is something only felt by rabbanim; to the masses, nearly all
> performance is following instructions. And this notion of a dialectic,
> if poorly followed, becomes justification for compromise. Unlike, say,
> Chassidus, which when poorly followed still produces a more observant and
> loyal Jew than if had no ideal; HM if given to the masses will produce
> many weaker Jews. If you forgot this conversation (it's been almost 4
> years), see <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2008/07/halakhic-community.shtml>.

The Super Bowl Maariv works quite handily with Halakhic Man. This is very
much the way I see living as Jew. The idea that we do not ask why... but
the what.

The classic Brisker Derech HaLimud tells you that that the Ikkar is how to
do the Mitzvah properly. Why we do it is irrelevant to the requirements
of God. In terms of our own human needs we may infuse actions with any
manner of meaning that will enhance our human experience thus better
motivating us. But as it pertains to fulfilling God's will that meaning
is irrelevant.

That's why RYBS uses the example of Neilah as seen thru the eyes of
Halachic Man. he does not see Bein Hashmashos Of YK to have any other
meaning than its relvance to being the last moment the gates of heaven
are open to Teshuva.

The dialectic tension between homo-religiousus and cognitive man is
nothing more than the process by which one arrives at the state of
Halachic man. It is a means and not a result. IOW this is how we arrive
at the what. The why never begins and is unnecessary in fulfilling the
tennents of Judaism -- an obligation based religion.

IMHO this is the correct way to see what God wants of His people.

HM is an ideal to be reached. It does not speak to the fact that human
nature may require other motivations in order to serve God properly. These
motivations can come from different modus operandi which are designed to
appeal to to various different aspects of human nature.Different people
have different needs in that dept.

For example some people need Chasidus to motivate them. Other like
the Yeshiva Experince of Limud HaTorah. Still other like the Mussar
movement. Others see RSRH is the ultimater way to see the fulfillment
of Judaism. Some would not be Frum without Carlebach.

But I maintain that stripped of all these externals -- necessary though
they may be to the individual -- the essense of Judaism if seeing the
world through Halachic eyes as per RYBS.

HM