[Avodah] The Main Idea of Judaism

[T613K at aol.com]

[RCM speculates:]
> R'nTK quoted:
>> Ta'amu ure'u ki tov Hashem

> The Y-mi doesn't give a mekor for this memra. I speculate that perhaps
> it is the pasuk in Tehilim that R'nTK quoted. This is in the sense
> that the pasuk tells us that we should (are required to) taste of the
> world so that we should recognize the goodness (read hatava) of HKB'H
> (and come to bless H' for it). (This would be better if the pasuk was
> reversed -- re'u veta' amu. This also conflates two different meaning
> of this shoresh -- 1) to see (or to come across in our context) 2)
> to comprehend).

Amazing how two people can look at the same thing and see it two
completely different ways!

"Ta'amu ure'u" doesn't mean "enjoy the pleasures of this world"! (Not that
Hashem doesn't want us to enjoy the delicious and beautiful things He gave
 us in His world -- of course He does!)

It means: Learn Torah, taste how sweet the Torah is, taste Shabbos,
taste Yom Tov, EXPERIENCE Torah life ("ta'amu") and make an effort to
UNDERSTAND IT INTELLECTUALLY ("ure'u") and you will then know in your
bones as well as in your heart and in your mind, that Hashem is good! And
even when things
 don't go so well and people suffer hardships, pain and tragedies, they
will still know in their bones that Hashem is good and that ultimately
He runs the world and that everything -- the honey and the sting, the
obviously good, sweet and delicious as well as the apparently bitter
and painful -- is all for our good and all done by Hashem for our benefit.

We daven every morning, "Veha'arev na Hashem es divrei Sorascha befinu
u'vefi amcha bais Yisrael" -- please make the Torah sweet in our mouths,
that we will be able to TASTE how sweet it is!

Ta'amu ure'u ki tov Hashem. Of course there are sub-categories (all
implicit in the pasuk): That He exists. That He created us -- and the
world. That He wants us to do certain things -- that He created us with
obligations and responsibilities. That everything He did and does is for
the good. Even that He wants us to emulate Him, and be good like Him
(mah Hu rachum af atah rachum....).

Ta'amu -- "Tavlin yesh ushemo Shabbos" -- there is no substitute for
EXPERIENCING and LIVING Torah -- but the main idea of Judaism is that
G-D IS GOOD.

--Toby Katz

--
Romney -- good values, good family, good hair