[Avodah] Naso

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 07:53:42PM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: It seems to me that although religious or ritual behavior is
: important, Rebbe Yossi HaKohen is teaching us that behaving
: appropriately towards other human beings is EVEN MORE important.

Look at the list of holidays in parashas Emor. 23:21-22 describe Shavuos.
Look which mitzvos are associated with Shavuos.

Go to the instructions for how to prepare a conversion candidate on Yevamos
47b. We teach some mitzvos qalos and some mitzvos chamuros, and which
mitzvos are listed specifically?

Interestingly, these same mitzvos are central to Megillas Rus, our choice
of Shavu'os reading.

To my mind, this is because while we may think of "observant" in terms
of Shabbos, Kashrus and ThM, Tanakh and Chazal assume the paragon of
observance is leqet, shichekhah, pei'ah and ma'aser ani.

We really need a flavor of O that takes Hillel's "de'ealh sani", or
R' Ariva's or Ben Azzai's kelalim gedolim, or for that matter the
oft-quoted medrash "derekh eretz qodma ... leTorah" as one's actual
first principle for life. And not just a platitude for the early
grades, a truism repeated unthinkingly to get nods during the rabbi's
sermon.

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?