[Avodah] Are We Trying to Grow?

[David Riceman]

I want to set up a framework to comment on this.  The Rambam in H. Deos (1:4-5) distinguishes between a Tzaddik, who cleaves to the middle path, and a Hasid, who deviates slightly from the middle path.  Now why does the Hasid do this? The Rambam (in the 8 Perakim following Al Farabi following Aristotle) cites the example of a person whose personality is naturally deficient (due, I suspect they thought, to an imbalance of humors) and does something frequently to balance the effect of his deficiency.  So, for example, he might give a small donation to charity daily rather than a large one monthly.  But he could equally well have mentioned, not a natural defect, but a defect due to environment, which can also require rebalancing.

Synagogues (and takkanot hakahal and local minhagim) often respond to those shared environmental factors which keep us off the middle path in a more or less uniform direction.  I think the problem you’re all addressing is what to do when the deviations aren’t so uniform.

What happened to the members of the shul who RYL’s rabbi drove away? Was there a more suitable shul close by or was it the only one in town? Surely how we evaluate his behavior depends a lot on that.

Similarly RMB suggestion that a shul require strong commitments in its membership agreements.  Are there options available for people who won’t commit?

Whereas the Rambam’s paradigm calls for individuals to deviate from the mean when appropriate, your suggestions seem to call for setting up a smaller kehilla for each environmental stress.  Of course that itself is an old mahlokes, though I suspect it will become newly relevant in an era of socially distanced, zoom enhanced Jewish practice.

Three more comments:
  RYGB’s Pinnochio story: I myself say "slah lanu avinu ki hatanu" thrice a day in Shmonah esrei.  How is that different? Maybe Hazal and their congregants danced the same dance as that modern Rabbi and his congregants, and maybe it’s not that different from the small charitable donations every day.

  The title:  I’ve been troubled recently that the word “teshuvah” tacitly implies that removal of defects trumps development of capacity.  Are there canonical Jewish sources using “growth” as a metaphor?

  RYL’s shul:  People offer substantial resources of time and money to build the physical and social embodiments of institutions.  What happens to them if their efforts are repurposed in a way that drives them away? Will the next generation of donors be as willing to offer resources?

David Riceman


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