[Avodah] Redemption

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 01:53:18PM +0300, Lisa Liel wrote:
...
: >(B) Things that are morally wrong, but only to the point of prohibition
: >when you do them against your sibling.
...
: 
: I would argue that the very idea of (B) implies the imposition of an
: outside ideology onto the Torah.  Because the Torah certainly
: doesn't label anything as morally wrong and yet permitted against
: non-Jews.  Anything in (B) is necessarily a subjective and personal
: judgment that should not be attributed to the Torah.

But there are things that are morally wrong and yet not prohibited.
"Stretch goals" like the Rambam's take on ego and anger in Dei'os pereq
2, the Ramban's "hatov vehayashar".

Here, the gemara talks about (1) a ma'avir al midosav, (2) taking insult
and not responding, it even says (3) a tzadiq is one who never takes
revenge -- which, if it were about neqamah when assur, would be heaping
overly high praise on someone for just keeping the din. So, two or three
times that I am aware of, the gemara talks positively of the middos that
would avoid ever taking revenge.

It seems neqamah in particular is a moral wrong even when the black-letter
halakhah allows the act.

The Torah does manage to relay to us goals beyond those it prohibit or
demand in black-letter halakhah. (Something Chassidus and Mussar were
each founded on...)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Someday I will do it." - is self-deceptive. 
micha at aishdas.org        "I want to do it." - is weak. 
http://www.aishdas.org   "I am doing it." - that is the right way.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                   - Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk