[Avodah] Torah Pre-Sinai

kennethgmiller at juno.com kennethgmiller at juno.com
Fri May 25 04:41:28 PDT 2012


RMB wrote:

> RCVolozhiner holds like Rashi, and answers your question in
> NhC 1:21. He holds that they were aware enough of their souls
> to detect what was missing and intuit halakah.

R' Joel Rich wrote:

> They were at such a high level that they resonated to HKB"H's
> frequency.  (my summary of the Nefesh hachaim)

I'd like to expand on this a bit.

It is relatively easy to apply this to some mitzvos, such as kashrus: A sufficiently spiritual person can figure out on his own that predatory species are to be avoided, that the gentler species should be killed in a way to minimize their pain and residual blood, and that the mixing of their milk and meat is offensive. But other mitzvos, such as rituals like tefillin and mezuzah are more difficult. And historical commemorations before-the-fact are on yet another level.

But I don't have a problem with any of it. If we truly believe that certain cycles are built into the briah, causing a climate of teshuva on this day each year, and a climate of geulah on that day each year, I see it as entirely possible that a sufficiently spiritual person might pick up on that even before the events that we associate them with.

Here's a practical example, in my view, of how Klal Yisrael has collectively exercised this approach, as recently as in the past few centuries:

We have collectively understood that it is appropriate, after saying the Shemoneh Esreh, to say Tehillim 6 and certain other tefillos known collectively as Tachanun. At the very same time, we understood that on certain days, we have (or *ought* to have) a level of simcha which renders that act INappropriate. And there is a pretty low threshold of simcha needed for this to kick in, resulting in a large number of days when we skip Tachanun.

But there is another tefillah that we also say each morning - Tehillim 20, Lamnatzeach. This is also skipped on joyful days, but the threshhold is at a higher level of simcha, resulting in many days (of relatively small levels of simcha) when we skip Tachanun but we do say Lamnatzeach.

How did this distinction develop? I don't think anyone ever sat down and debated which days to say this and which days to say that. Rather, I suspect that Klal Yisrael collectively intuited what is appropriate. And whichever poskim set these rules down on paper, did so based primarily on their observations of what Klal Yisrael had already decided, with perhaps some adjustments based on their own Daas Torah.

I doubt there are any who say that the Avos went beyond Eruv Tavshilin, and went so far as to say Tachanun and Lamnatzeach each morning, and even skipped them on the days that we do. But if WE can intuit which is appropriate and inappropriate, then if their antennae were long enough, why couldn't they feel it too?

Akiva Miller

____________________________________________________________
53 Year Old Mom Looks 33
The Stunning Results of Her Wrinkle Trick Has Botox Doctors Worried
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/4fbf701923c4b170475est02vuc



More information about the Avodah mailing list