[Avodah] taking a stand?

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, 22 Jun 2022 10:38:11 EDT, R David Riceman <driceman at optimum.net>
wrote:
>> Going back to RDR's point... I think that the Rambam agrees that human
>> evil (as defined by the antonyms of chessed, mishpat and tzedaqah)
>> depends on ignorance. But not because he rejects yh"t vs. yh"r, but
>> because he feels the sufficient yedi'ah is what allows the yh"t to win.

> But then why the emphasis on acquiring good midos through repeated
> practice in 8 Perakim and H. Deos? Shouldn't he just say 'mashcheihu
> l'beis hamidrash'?

I had a chance to look over the last pereq of the Moreh again, and think
the prolem is that last time I had the Rambam's causality backward.

Again, he lists four kinds of perfection in ascending level of importance
and centrality: wealth, health, middos and chokhmah.

(Sidenote: Chokhmah is the right Hebrew term, given the pesuqim he
quotes.)

But it's not that perfection in chokhmah "allows the yh"t to win". Rather,
it's that it is that perfection in middos is an important tool for
reaching perfection in chokhmah.

Acting in the ways of chessed, mishpat and tzedaqah is a siman and mesoveiv
of having achieved the goal of chokhmah, not a sibah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 We are great, and our foibles are great,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and therefore our troubles are great --
Author: Widen Your Tent      but our consolations will also be great.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                      - Rabbi AY Kook