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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">RLL:<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid:4FFA3AF3.5000103@starways.net" type="cite">
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<br>
It's not a form of avodat Hashem? I think it can be. If it
isn't,
maybe that's something to work on.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
You have rephrased what RAM and I are arguing about. I advocate
"multiple hierarchies", i.e., that human life does not have a single
goal, towards which all actions are aimed. RAM (and you) advocate a
single hierarchy, i.e., that there is a common measure which can
(and, ideally, should) subsume all of a person's actions.<br>
<br>
You recall that Epicurus promised his followers that they would
become like gods by following his advice, and the Buddha advised his
followers that they would become greater than the gods (who Hindus
believe are subject to metempsychosis). What they meant is that by
subsuming all of their human instincts and devoting themselves to
not caring about the world they would cease to be human.<br>
<br>
Frankly I suspect that any single hierarchy has the same danger. I
enjoy doing math, and it's a pleasant way to earn a living. But to
the extent that I subvert that enjoyment by by construing it as
devotion to God I deny an important part of myself.<br>
<br>
Admittedly you (and RAM) could cite the Ramak's construal of the
mitzvah of yihud hashem to claim that my analysis is simplistic - -
I could, you might claim, not be subverting my pleasure but simply
be understanding it more deeply. If that were true, however, than
your and RAM's critique is moot; anyone, doing anything, is
necessarily a "<b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>total<span
class="moz-txt-tag">*</span></b> oveid Hashem", and why should
that status be the subject of aspiration?<br>
<br>
David Riceman<br>
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