[Avodah] Rabbi Friedman - The Soul and the Afterlife: Where Do We Go From Here?

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 01:32:55PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: A talk on this topic given by Rabbi [Manis Friedman] is at
: https://youtu.be/YzFUXKk2B4I
...
: Beginning at about 9 minutes and 30 seconds into the talk, Rabbi [Friedman]
: talks about how the soul needs us to say Yizkor and will not allow people
: "pull strings" to get people l to say Yizkor.

What he says is that if the soul is to get anything out of Qaddish,
Yizkor, or tzedaqah, it must be done by those the person was in
relationship with.

If you listen with an ear to figure out what is obvious intent is, how
he makes sense (rather than someone trying to find flaws), he means "need"
in the same way people talk about "needing" coffee. Does this mean the
person will literally die if they don't get their coffee?

Similarly, the dead manipulate even quite assimilated descendents into
getting to shul for Yizkor because they need Yizkor.

Where in his tone or context do you get a justification for insisting he
couldn't have meant it idiomatically?

(If RMFriedman weren't chassidish, I wonder if you wouldn't have cut
him more slack. This post reads like yet another in your tiresome string
of misnagdishe threads.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Imagine waking up tomorrow
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