[Avodah] L'sheim shmayim

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 04:16:38PM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: 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.
: 

This is why I wrote that the hashkafah is necessary in order to
observe halakhos like qedoshim tihyu.

But I realized the language problem, which is why when I replied
to Lisa I used the idiom "black-letter halakhah", to refer to
the kind of laws that can be codified in the SA.

Which isn't only ritual. Eg the limits of ona'as mamon is black-letter
halakhah.

One of the saddest things about the writings of the CC (other than the MB)
is that they represent the realization that shemiras halashon and ahavad
chessed were going to continue to get short shrift unless someone made
black-letter halakhah out of them.

When in reality, HQBH would be "Happier" -- I am guessing, of course
-- if we would do things things simply because ve'ahavta lerei'akha
kamokha. At the Alter of Slabodka put it: I don't love mtself because
there is a mitzvah to do so. So too, the mitzvah is to develop of love
of others, and therefore all these things would come naturally.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 47th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        6 weeks and 5 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Hod sheb'Malchus: What is glorious about
Fax: (270) 514-1507               unity-how does it draw out one's soul?