Sunday, September 28, 2008

Notes on Shiur 9/28/08 from Carolyn.

Feel free to suggest titles or ask questions or make comments.

Review of Chaburah from Shabbos
  • Jonny’s example of overeating- practical thinking- limited to world of my dalet amos [asopposed to theoretical thinking- focus on phenomenon of food supply of mankind (birkas hamazon- hazan es haolam kulo bituvo)] Cheit shebimidos bimachshava- miscategorization of meaning of food- just measure of woman’s accomplishment allowing animal power to supply principal (place in herd). True significance of food and klal yisrael not operational as governing principal of action in real time.
  • Q/ 2 extremes- 1. Just clarify ideas in learning, wait for implementation in real life to happen completely naturally, on its own. 2. Try to force natural perspective into every dimention of life. What is proper middle ground? A/Seek to remove mitzvah from mitzvas anashim milumada framework, make mitzvah instrument of shem Hashem (ex.- use tool of brachos- focus before say it, reorient sense of good).
  • Q/ How deal with disappointment of not living up to using all mitzvos as tools? A/ Az lo eivosh bihabiti el kol mitzvosechah- a certain amount of bushah is appropriate.

Connection to Ralbag’s Analogy of Building House

  • Clarification of concept of transformational change through use of this eatingexample- miscategorization of eating- not change in physical place, enslavement to Egyptian mentality. Rather- substantial change, food changes into fuel, human energy. Destroy old category, new one created. Geulah from domination by animal principles, immature state.
  • Q/ How bridge gap between true principal and what I care about in real time? A/ Start from general principal, get more particular until find part that’s my chelek,motivational to me. (If true significance is klal yisrael, go from there down to particular part of klal yisrael I care about.)
  • Human use of environment to develop self, organizing thins external to soul to facilitate its development (yishuv).
  • Shem Hashem- chachmas Hashem is not limited physical order, extends to human development. Shem Hashem extends into eating- an area it would not normally be, because we naturally calculate based on totally different, animal principles.

For next week: Connect eating example to Shem Hashem.

Carolyn’s question she didn’t get to ask: Re. answer to question of how to bridge gap between
principal and what I care about- Is this leaning too much to extreme of trying to apply true
principals to all aspects of life, rather than focusing on using mitzvah tools?

4 comments:

Rabbi Joshua Maroof said...

Not to nitpick here, but:

Would it be possible to formulate these ideas in prose form so that outsiders like myself can better grasp the nuances? I can figure out the general ideas but it is difficult to fully fathom the details out of context.

Also, if I understand the text accurately, the correct spelling is "principle". "Principal" means first or primary.

Anonymous said...

Josh,

I write notes during the shiur in a form that they will remind me of the major points. Putting it into prose form would need to be a separate step after the shiur, which could take a significant amount of time. I'm not sure I'm up to committing to that regularly. However, Matt usually writes notes that are closer to verbatim, and the shiur is normally recorded. Would either of these options be useful to you?

Rabbi Joshua Maroof said...

Yes either one would be great! How can I access these resources?

Anonymous said...

You can try contacting Rabbi P. Rosenthal or Yael Sacks about the web link to uload audio files. You can ask Matt to include you on his list of people he e-mails his notes to, or you could ask him/R. Sacks to include his notes on this blog, as well.

Hope this helps!