[Avodah] 13 Middos

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Sep 08, 2015 at 10:35:55AM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: True, but I think the notion of magic days and procedures that gain even a
: measure of kapparah without necessitating teshuvah is also very
: problematic...

And I don't believe there is such a thing, so I have no problem.

I suggested twice now 2007
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol23/v23n174.shtml#12 and 2010
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol30/v30n130.shtml that
itzumo shel yom mechaperes only someone who acknowledges and embraces
the etzem shel yom.

>From 2007:
> My understanding is that itzumo shel yom is mechapeir, but without inuyim,
> one isn't connected to that etzem. IOW, someone who eats on YK doesn't
> get kapparah, but someone who observes YK gets kapparah from YK itself,
> not the zekhus of observance.

> And it's clear from R' Elazar ben Azaryah on Yuma 86a that YK is never
> effective in and of itself.
> - For an asei, teshuvah is effective
> - For a regular lav, teshuvah must first achieve selichah (removal of
>   onesh) before YK can effect kaparah
> - For a chayav kareis, one needs teshuvah and YK for selichah, and onesh
>   brings kaparah
> - For chillul Hashem, only misah brings kaparah.

> The philosophical problems are
> (1) The justice in YK being mechapeir
> (2) Given a ba'asher hu sham approach, why would onesh or misah in and
>     of itself help?

> I couldn't make heads or tails of it without stretching the notion,
> and saying that YK is mechapeir to the extent that one allows oneself to
> experience the soul-changing nature of YK, and thus change the ba'asher
> hu sham. Similarly oneshim or misah.

I know all this could be seen as dachuq BUT, Divine Justice is the 11th
iqar. I would prefer to take a number of chazal's statements as colloquial
shorthand for more nuanced ideas than to dismiss what we have blessed as
a defining feature of Yahadus. Or IOW, given that Ani Maamin and Yigdal
made it into the siddur, I feel the burden rests on those who take itzumo
shel yom in its simple sense.

(And yes, "problematic" should be tken as "a problem for us to
understand.")

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If a person does not recognize one's own worth,
micha at aishdas.org        how can he appreciate the worth of another?
http://www.aishdas.org             - Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye,
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef