tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3027817976851056094.post3425186383041727557..comments2023-06-11T05:08:09.273-04:00Comments on Olive Seedlings - שתילי זיתים: Tazria-Metzora - The Message of TzaraasLazerAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10463856909521693296noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3027817976851056094.post-16139266010484298782013-04-15T14:58:13.096-04:002013-04-15T14:58:13.096-04:00Akiba, thank you for your comment.
At some point ...Akiba, thank you for your comment.<br /><br />At some point I would like to work on a post that goes into this concept in greater depth and fleshes out the relevant sources. Unfortunately, this would be a larger scale project than I am currently able to do.<br /><br />One of the difficulties involved is that virtually all the sources that discuss this idea, do so in very veiled terms. (Offhand, the most explicit such discussions are to be found in various chassidic sources.) Nevertheless, in my opinion, this idea is the underlying premise of innumerable sources, including the rishonim. Moreover, in my opinion, once one fully grasps the nature of this idea, it becomes almost self-evident.<br /><br />I suspect that one of the main reasons why this concept is not discussed explicitly is that it can easily be misunderstood to mean that spiritual reality is purely subjective. Similarly, it could also be misunderstood to mean that any subjective "spiritual" feeling is valid, and that that our spiritual goal should be to attain such a subjective sense of "spiritual connection".<br /><br />These ideas are not only false but dangerous, as they can (and often do) lead to heretical beliefs.<br /><br />As should be self-evident, God and His Torah exist entirely independently of our thoughts, and our thoughts have no effect on Him whatsoever. Thus, when we speak of our thoughts creating our spiritual reality, we are not saying that our thoughts change any aspect of the objective spiritual universe, but only that our thoughts have a profound impact on our own status within that universe. <br /><br />Thus, for example, any basic error in our understanding of the nature of God - such as expressed in idolatry or heresy - results in a profoundly negative impact on our status in the spiritual realms. This is true regardless of the subjective feelings of "spirituality" that the idolater or heretic may be experiencing. To imagine that is drawing close to God while denying basic principles of the Torah is actually to separate oneself from God.<br /><br />Thus, as I have written previously, the most basic reason why the mitzvos bring us closer to God is precisely because they are God's commandments and we do them to fulfill God's will. The power of a mitzva to connect us to God isn't inherent in the act itself, but in the fact that we are expressing not only our acceptance of God's authority but also that He has is aware of and interested in our actions. It is this recognition, which can only be expressed through the actual performance of the mitzvos, that brings us closer to God.<br /><br />(This doesn't mean that the mitzvos are simply abirtrary actions that God "randomly" chose for this purpose. It means only that the function of the mitzvos to connect us to God is not dependent on the reasons why God chose to command us to do these specific actions. Thus, every mitzva operates on (at least) two levels, the general function of all mitzvos as described above, and the specific function of each particular mitzvoh (which varies from mitzva to mitzva).)<br /><br />Thus, while physically fulfilling the mitzvos in the correct manner (including proper attention to every apparently "minor" detail) is absolutely necessary to connect to God, the ultimate cause of this connection is not the physical action in of itself, but the expression of submission to God's will implicit in that performance and the effect that the performance has on our perception of God and His relationship with ourselves and the world.<br /><br />This is why, without at least some basic belief in God and the Torah, the performance of a mitzva can have little, if any, spiritual meaning, for in such a circumstance the action is not actually being performed as a mitzva (i.e. commandment) at all.LazerAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10463856909521693296noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3027817976851056094.post-81729634408193429572013-04-15T11:38:54.341-04:002013-04-15T11:38:54.341-04:00Again, thank you for illuminating dibrei Torah. Th...Again, thank you for illuminating dibrei Torah. This fueled wonderful discussion at our shabbat table. Can you recommend additional sources regarding creation of our spiritual reality? Perhaps among the Rishonim?<br /><br />Shalom rav,<br />AkibaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com