1050.00 MAN OF HALACHAH AND THE UNIFIED FORMULATION (pps.160-163)
hard cover page 160
Perhaps, then, for man of Halachah, pain and suffering on earth do carry an implicit reminder to suffering man of the ultimate quest for growth to potential from a base of freedom.592 Man of Halachah is thereby constantly reminded and challenged that major aspects of his fate are indeed in his own hands.
The spiritual message of pain and suffering on post-Temple earth cannot simply be explained as admonitions or tests. Rather, the reverse: Man must be bold, spiritually and otherwise. He must push towards the bounds of the potential of “free man.”593
Man of Halachah probably intuitively feels his mandate to fulfill his spiritual potential. He senses the awesome potential of his spirit. The fact that the attached philosophical formulation has not to our knowledge been previously articulated has not prevented him from intuitively grasping its essence.
Man of Halachah knows that God has not abandoned him, that his ultimate interests are indeed under the aegis of God. Potentially man can reach out to God, and God can potentially reach out to man.
A religion predicated on “free man” naturally shows an emphasis distinct to itself. The sanctification of freedom, as well as a careful delineation of an approach to life for man who is often “on his own,” will be given high priority. The development of spiritual heights will take a clear priority over the obeisance aspects.
Judaism charts a route to these ends through taryag mitzvoth (the 613 precepts of Jewish Law) and a life lived in a prescribed
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592 See Luban, “The Kaddish,” p. 207. “God uses problems to provoke us to reflect on our inadequacies and propel us to develop our potentiality.”
593 See Greenberg, Perspectives: Voluntary Covenant, p. 16. “If the Jews keep the Covenant after the Holocaust, then it can no longer be for the reason that it is commanded or because it is enforced by reward or punishment.”
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