[Avodah] L'sheim shmayim

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

R' Micha Berger wrote:

> ... my general monomania about fighting this identification of
> Torah with halakhah; halakhah is "only" a subset. And without
> aggadita and a study of values, there are halkhos that cannot
> be followed -- qedushim tihyu, ve'asisem hayashar vehatov, etc...

I disagree slightly, but my problem is less with the monomania and
more with how you're describing it. In my view, "halakhah" certainly
does include "qedoshim tihyu, ve'asisem hayashar vehatov, etc". But
for some reason, many people don't see it that way, and they value the
rituals above the menshlichkeit.

There's a story I've heard many times. This version comes from Rav
Frand at https://torah.org/torah-portion/ravfrand-5755-naso/

> At the eulogy of R. Yaakov Kaminetzsky, zt"l, one speaker
> related the following: There was a nun in Monsey, New York
> who complained about the way the Jewish population related
> to her: Everyone used to walk right past her... The "correct"
> people ignored her, and the "super correct" people spat. This
> nun then related that there was, however, one old Jew with a
> white beard that used to say "Good Morning" every single day.
> (That Jew was R. Yaakov.) That’s Kiddush Hashem and "looking
> the other way" is Chillul Hashem.

Such stories are NOT hard to find. The "frum" newspapers and magazines
and parsha sheets are full of them. I don't know why so few people
greeted that nun pleasantly. I hope that it changed when that story
started to get around.

If I write any more, I'll get even more depressed than currently.
Suffice it so say that the only reason I'm posting this at all, is to
clarify the point that I think RMB was trying to make, and to agree
with it.

Akiva Miller