[Avodah] Meshech Chochma on kedusha

[Ben Bradley]

Can't see your take on this in his words.
He starts by saying that the kedushos of eretz yisroel and Yerushalayim are 'pratei usnifei haTorah v'niskadshu bikedushas ha Torah'. Ie the root is Hashem's Torah not our actions.
Further on in the words I quoted in the last email, the word 'bishvilchem' is vital. It's for 'for you', that's quite different to being 'from you' , ie me'itchem or some similar term. And he uses the term  bishvilchem twice twice in that passage.
A bit further again: 'ki ein shum kedusha v'inyan eloki klal biladei metzius haBoreh yisbarach shemo'.  No reference to our role in maintaining kedusha there.
And more broadly, his whole thesis revolves around the misunderstanding that kedusha can be a feature of something in the world independent of ratzon Hashem. So Moshe smashed the luchos to show the people how 'they hadn't achieved the goal of emuna in Hashem and his Torah hatehora'. That is, they had to realise that even the luchos were only kadosh because HKBH willed it. I'm part paraphrasing that section of course but,I think, accurately.
It's true, he does also make clear that kedusha is depedant on us. But that's because without us it's meaningless, not because it originates with is.

Ben



________________________________
From: Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org>
Sent: 08 March 2021 06:32
To: The Avodah Torah Discussion Group <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
Cc: Ben Bradley <bdbradley70 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Avodah] Meshech Chochma on kedusha

On Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 08:54:46AM +0000, Ben Bradley via Avodah wrote:
> ... I took a look at the meshech chochma ad loc, Shemos 32:19

> He certainly says, and emphasises, that kedusha is never an indepedantly
> inherent quality of a place or item. But his point there is that kedusha
> is always comes from Hashem and is a function of His relationship from
> with us. It originates with Hashem's tzivui and lasts as long as we
> relate to it the correct way...

I think we are reading "ve'eizu qedushah beli mitzvas Hashem" differently.

You see it as a reference to the tzivui itself. I see it as a reference
to our performing the mitzvah. And so what you call "and lasts as long
as we relate to it the correct way" to me is just a natural consequence
of qedushah coming from our performance of a mitzvah. As R Meir Simchah
haKohein writes further down,
    ki ein benivra qedushah be'etzem
    raq mitzad shemiras Yisrael haTorah
    kefi Retzon haBorei yisbarakh shemo haqadosh...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

--
Micha Berger                 Between stimulus & response, there is a space.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   In that space is our power to choose our
Author: Widen Your Tent      response. In our response lies our growth
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    and our freedom. - Victor Frankl, (MSfM)
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