<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 11/2/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Micha Berger</b> <<a href="mailto:micha@aishdas.org">micha@aishdas.org</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br><br>However, like in my summary of RYBS's dialectic in "Community", people<br>build communities because the individual does better in a group. The<br>group doesn't spawn individuals. There is an asymmetry. Man's calling
<br>to serve the community can be seen as deriving from the community's<br>ability to help as many individuals as possible. And thus it's really<br>just my calling to help other individuals -- a tool for doing so. One
<br>can't reflect that back to the community's duty to serve the<br>individual.<br><br>--<br>Micha Berger </blockquote></div><br><br>This is imho putting the cart before the horse. Vayichan shows the need for communal unity for receiving the Torah [ayein sham Rashi Parshas Yisro]
<br><br>Man doesn't SERVE the community. He fills his destiny by performing his role. Yonah didn't SERVE Ninenveh by warning them he did his mission. Yirmiyahu did no SERVE his era,. he fulfilled the role that was his destiny [beterm etzorcha bebetten yedaticha] Did HKBH not know Shau'l's charatctger flaws BEFORE Sh;'mu'el annointed him? I'm sure HBKH did and His big ciomplaint was as a warrior Sha'ul should hve bee nmore thorough with Ameleik and Aggag. That is probably what Made HKBH Agog over his failure.
<br><br>David may have been a beter Eved Hashme as a warrior than Shlomoh was as a peace-maker. But Shlomoh got to build the Mikdash. As a warriro, David's role was not as a builder.<br><br>Torah was NEVER given to individuals and the righteous deeds of shem v'ever are really never mentioned in Mikra at all! Nor are the deeds of Yisro given any shrift EXCEPT in his interactions with the People of Israel and its leader Moshe.
<br><br>Moshe was appointed the receiver - according to Hirsch - davka because of his flaws [ a flawed public speaker]. Had he taken a Dale Carnegie Course first he would have been rejected for the role to being with! <br>
<br>The point is obvious!. Torah was and is alwasy a covenant with a community. In fact, we always brag about 2.5 million witnesses to mattan torah vs. the PRIVATE revlations to J. of Nazareth, or Mohammed, or Buddha etc. That is no co-incidence. Unlike every GURU of every religion - Torah Judaism is NOT based upon some model ofsome enlightened guru bent on self-perfection but upon a peoplehood serving HKBH as a nation. This is the unique mesge of Torah that NO other religious community shares. [Tibetans might come the closest aisi.].
<br><br>The Community is not a shell to serve the individual, the inidividual is a cog in the greater hole. The stories are even aback by ba'alei msusar who tell rich people to stop fasting and do THIER tasks of doing charity.
<br><br>Tzibubr requires resha'im - tzibbur - notrikon Taddik beinoni rasha.<br>Even you Pesach Sedre would be incomplete witha visit from one special Rasha.<br clear="all"><br>V'hoshe Kohanim l'advodassam. etc. implies every get back to their roles. If self-perrfection were the ideal then we COULD say, v'hosheiva Tziddikim l'avodsom,. Hassidim leshiram v'zimram and Yesharim lin'veihem. That would be a model of meirotcary based upon self-perfection. Let's get the perfectionsist to run everything. But are prayers are not about perfectinionism but proper role playing.
<br><br>Let's use football as a model. We pray that the blockers block, the passers pass, the receivers receive, the defense tackles, the defensive line pressures the QB and the defensive backs cover the receivers like a glove. It's not about their individual athletic abilities, it's about their roles.
<br><br>And remember while one locust is harmles, a swarm is almost invincible. Torah is about a society.<br> <br> We all give lip servie to AL targyag mitzvos. Do you know ANYONE who has sat down and made a list of which mitzvos pertain to thmselves as a indiviaul [as
e.g. kohen a levi ,or a man or a women etc.]?! I haven't! No one I know makes a personlized book of mitzvos that pertains to themselves. The whole idea of perfection is 248+365 mitzvos is about ALL 613. Yet 613 requires a society and government, a hierarchy etc. it is impossible for any one person to do all 613. Read Shoftim You need a melech, a kohein, a navi, a Levi , a tzeva, a shofeit a shoteir. Unless one is Andy Griffith in Mayberry one doesn't wear all those hats onself.
<br><br>Self perfection is really popular in the Mussar world for about 130 years or so. The idea that all of Torah was about self-perfection would have probably been a head scratcher except maybe for a groups of lamed vavniks in each and every generation.
<br><br>And also most members are Americans imbued with a kind of "rugged indvidualism" this ide never existed in the world unilt the last 200 years or so. In ancient and feudal societies there was no virtually such thing as an individual
<br><br>Kol Tuv / Best Regards,<br><a href="mailto:RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com">RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com</a><br>Please Visit: <br><a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/">http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/</a>