[Avodah] Analogies

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 07:43:49AM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> The analogy certainly resonates with me. Whenever I talk about the benefits
> I experienced in the spring while the shuls were closed, I make sure to
> point out that it is merely a silver lining in the cloud, and it is *not*
> the way we are meant to be...

I agree intellectually, but in practice, it feels like I am getting more
out of my davening at home, at my own pace, saying the things loud that I
want to say loud, picking my tunes, etc...

> But if you are trying to quantify a specific prioritization level for
> thinking about this, I believe the search to be fultile. Suffice it to say
> that it is important; to ask *how* important is like trying to prioritize a
> tzedaka that you identify with very closely even though it is
> geographically distant versus one that merely happens to be very local. The
> question does have an answer, but you won't find it with mathematics.

There is also another issue with prioritizing tzedaqah... You can somehow
find more money to give when you are more moved by the cause. After all,
there is a good deal of elasticity to the question of how much money we
need to live. So, telling everyone to strictly follow rules like aniyei
irekha qodmin will end up reducing total giving.

To some extent these are rules one needs to learn to make one's emotional
priorities, and not necessarily always to implement before reaching that
point.

Thus brining me back to my first comment... Except in the case of minyan,
there is a hard halachic call to choose minyan over not. Maybe one could
use davening kevasiqin to halachically justify "not" if there is enough
of an emotional difference.

Chodesh Tov!
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 The first step towards getting somewhere is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   to decide that you are not going
Author: Widen Your Tent      to stay where you are.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                 - JP Morgan