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<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;">I have an ongoing
debate with one of my colleagues at MTA. Were he not Jewish, he would
be Catholic, and he believes that a la Catholicism, mitzvos are meant
to have a salvational effect on us.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;">On this basis, he
justifies the teaching of Gemara b'Iyun to lower-track students - viz.,
it has a salvific effect even if they gain little enlightenment from
it. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;">I, OTOH, believe that
mitzvos are meant to have a refining impact on us - and that applies
even to the most obscure and mystical rites we possess.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;">As such, I have great
difficulty justifying the almost pointless instruction of the lower
levels in Gemara b'Iyun. Better to teach them Sefer HaChinuch.<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;">YGB<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt;">Micha Berger wrote:<br>
</p>
<blockquote
cite="mid49308.171.159.192.10.1172700363.squirrel@webmail.aishdas.org"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Anyone notice how many of our threads lately revolve around the question of
the relationship between halakhah and aggadic moral imperatives? Not that I'm
really sure they are aggadic, I think it's more the vagueness of mitzvos about
being tov, yashar, and qadosh -- TYQ.
We have the discussion about slavery, the question of whether we are
mechuyavim to speak up about the Sudan, or whether such interest may be
assimilationism from liberal Judaisms that distracts us from more central
priorities, the issue of avaq ribis being close enough to ribis to be wrong
but not prohibited...
</pre>
</blockquote>
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