{"id":140,"date":"2006-10-06T00:18:19","date_gmt":"2006-10-06T00:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summametaphysica.com\/ge\/105000-man-of-halachah-and-the-unified-formulation\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T21:03:27","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T21:03:27","slug":"105000-man-of-halachah-and-the-unified-formulation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/105000-man-of-halachah-and-the-unified-formulation\/","title":{"rendered":"1050.00 MAN OF HALACHAH AND THE UNIFIED FORMULATION (pps.160-163)"},"content":{"rendered":"

hard cover page 160<\/p>\n

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<\/sup> Man of Halachah is thereby constantly reminded and challenged that major aspects of his fate are indeed in his own hands.<\/p>\n

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<\/sup><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Judaism charts a route to these ends through taryag mitzvoth<\/em> (the 613 precepts of Jewish Law) and a life lived in a prescribed<\/p>\n

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592 <\/sup>See Luban, “The Kaddish,” p. 207. “God uses problems to provoke us to reflect on our inadequacies and propel us to develop our potentiality.”<\/p>\n

593 <\/sup>See Greenberg, Perspectives: Voluntary Covenant,<\/em> 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.”<\/p>\n

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manner within clearly delineated parameters. By walking within this prescribed path, and by building upon it according to individual needs and strengths, man builds upon his own spiritual potential and constructs a spiritual edifice which transcends the cosmos. Finite man, by spiritual extension, achieves a degree of infinitude.<\/p>\n

If man indeed has such a wide latitude of freedom and choice, why then choose a religious approach, or any approach at all? If potential for spiritual growth is one of the primary motivators of the cosmos, and if a religious commitment is a route to spiritual growth, man has sufficient motivation for choosing a religious approach to life.<\/p>\n

The Garden of Eden is generally considered a discrete event. Man tasted of forbidden “knowledge” and was “punished.” But what if Eden is to be considered a continuing process, and what if the “punishment” came bonded with a gift? Man continues to ascend intellectually and to taste of more and more knowledge. The intellectual demands for freedom, responsibility, privacy, and selfhood continue to mature. As the Shechinah<\/em> continues to contract Its real-time consciousness, negative forces have greater and greater leeway. But man’s potential is at its highest level when his freedom is greatest.<\/p>\n

Redemption must be achieved from a base of freedom, which also implies an environment of ascendant evil. As man’s intellectual base advances, both of these criteria become more manifest. The Hasidic rebbe who consoled his flock, en route to their impending doom in a Nazi camp, by interpreting their travail as a harbinger of the coming of the Messianic age, was not necessarily out of line philosophically. For “redemption” cannot be seized from an environment of either slavery-or bliss. And out of the depths of evil, the potentialities of good can conceivably be snared.<\/p>\n

Free man is obligated to protect his freedom and dignity.594<\/sup> When man-created in the image of God-yields, however slightly, on his dignity, he also yields on the dignity of the God who created him. When man allows himself to be dragged into<\/p>\n

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594 <\/sup>See Soloveitchik. “The Community,” p. 13.<\/p>\n

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slavery-and does not obsessively resist to the utter limits of the plausible\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe also yields on Divine dignity.<\/p>\n

Man, who has been granted the infinitely precious gift of freedom, must guard it with obsessive vigilance. Granted that we are geniuses in retrospect, nevertheless the lessons must be ingrained into the cumulative consciousness. For the Jew, in particular, has learned that, incredible as it might be to conceptualize, the forces of evil will, in one way or another, ultimately coalesce yet again to strike at man’s freedom and dignity.<\/p>\n

A new era of possibility<\/em><\/p>\n

Judaism today is in a position without precedent. Major elements are in place for a bona fide Golden Age of Jewry quite capable of equaling the Golden Age of Spain in creativity, intensity, and scope. The American Jewish community and the State of Israel have each been impressive in their respective spheres. The American Jewish community is at a historical apex, and the State of Israel is at a 2000-year historical apex.<\/p>\n

Each community has built up powerful, diversified, and continually expanding educational infrastructures along with well developed intracommunity communications media. Each community is independently vibrant. An accelerated maturation process is also evident. Increased cross-fertilization between the two major Jewish communities alone, let alone the interaction with the secular world, complete with new and expanded Jewish Studies, Religion, and Bible departments at universities throughout the Western world, present excellent ingredients for achieving a critical mass of intellectual dynamism.595<\/sup><\/p>\n

Yet at the same time (naturally, we would maintain), man stands at the gates of self-annihilation. Should man succeed in destroying himself, and extinguish the possibility of reaching his human potential this time around, will the infinite potential of the primary essence be less infinite? Would the cosmic mandate fold back on itself towards the infinitely minute-only to be boreh<\/em> (“creating”) once again later on through the eons?<\/p>\n

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595 <\/sup>See my article “The Quantification of Jewish Education: A Strategic Error,” Midstream,<\/em> December 1983.<\/p>\n

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Or is the viability of the human race hopefully inherent in the initial actualization of God and the cosmos?<\/p>\n

Will man seize his spiritual potential as his freedom ascends even higher and reaches its greatest level? Or, as man’s knowledge ascends to new peaks, will man be seduced by the forces of evil into employing his newfound superknowledge for selfliquidation?<\/p>\n

Is everything ultimately relatable by a multidimensional equation? Do spiritual umbilical cords ultimately unite us all-mortal and immortal-traversing the cosmos?<\/p>\n

Within a panoply of unknowns, mankind and individual man must, and certainly will, quest after their many and multivaried potentialities. It is the ultimate imperative of man created in the image of God.<\/p>\n

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