Tzedaka and system version 2

I was in a rush when I wrote this piece, so I have decided to rewrite it since it is important to the next stage of thought. Some of it is copied from the old post, but the overall presentation is entirely new.

משוך חסדך, ליודעיך; וצדקתך, לישרי לב -תהילים לו,יא

Yakov,

Though I have not directly said so, the last few weeks we have been exploring the issue of tzedaka, "justice". Specifically we have seen justice as " הגעת בעל חוק חוקו" supplying every lawful entity in accordance with its law or principle.

In a Creation context, this "justice" is manifest in the divine action of the ecosystem supplying every species with its particular material needs פותח את ידך ומשבע לכל חי
or " צדיק ה בכל דרכיו" . This phenomenon is also known as Midat hadin or by the name Elokim as you have pointed out nicely in your post about Noach. This centrality of ecosystem is also the intent of Rambam in putting the pasuk from tehillim discussing tzedaka at the beginning of ha-Mada.

Yakov, you ask about the Mitzva of Lulav as an antidote to the actual experience of the circumstance of harvest which leads toward the desire for a celebration of human power and material satisfaction – like Thanksgiving. The key to Torah shebichtav, as you mention in your question, is we must see this principle of "tzedaka" or “Shem Hashem”, not only as it applies to the absolute environment of Shamayim and Aretz as seen depicted in the 7 days of Creation, but as it applies to our Daled Amos, the immediate environment of our action- the farm, the city the home etc. How are we to accomplish this experience of tzedaka in our Daled Amos then, if we are not farmers?

To answer this we must be a little more clear on the distinction between seeing principles in the absolute environment of Shamayim Varetz versus seeing them in the immediate environment of our action. If the only valid experience upon which to base reading would be things that actually occur to me, the enterprise of torah shebichtav would be impossible. Indeed, the whole purpose of writing things down is to maintain testimony of events that cannot occur to me. Only Noach could actually experience the of Avoda of an Ish Adama who just went through the destruction of his world. Only Yotzei Mitzraim actually experienced Mitzraim and only the dor ha-Midbar actually experienced the midbar lifestyle. Chayyev Adam liros es atzmo ki'ilu hu yatza mi-mitzraim. The key word here is ki'ilu -as if. The reason is that the need for experience is related to exemplifying principles in our immediate environment. This immediate environment is both most accessible to my senses as well as most interesting as a source of resources. I know a lot about friends because I see them all the time and I enjoy thinking about how to benefit from better friends as well. It is therefore not necessary that the Torah Shebichtav element be seen as an experience that occurs to me personally in my environment for it to be real as an example to me. It is enough that the element be seen as something that happens to people I can identify with as real. Each Torah story is a particularity (פרט ). However, we can relate to each area via understanding, be it the farmer and Noach or Mitzraim and the Midbar. This understanding involves identifying the common thread, the classic human dimension or principle (כלל) embedded within the particularity of the story (פרט). As you recall this detecting of (כלל) embedded within the particularity of the story (פרט) is the first rule of Ralbag in reading Torah shebichtav. It is this recognizing of the particular as an example, mashal or application of the general that allows us to grow in the Mitzva system through experience that is real, but yet not personal to us.

It is also possible for Mitzvot elements of bichtav to be real in this same way. The Mitzva system contains a set of general principles, that will eternally be the core path, a נימוס of Derech Hashem for man moving from achzariyut (lo tachmod) to tzedaka (anochi Hashem). Ralbag identifies these as the Aseres hadibros, the core transformation from lo tachmod to Anochi. Each and every Mitzva in taryag, be it leket and peah or netilas lulav is therefore an extension of these core principles. But it is the core principles alone that are the eternally relevant path, not the extensions, or instruments of application to various material historical circumstance which may not exist at a specific time and place.

It is in light of this that I answered David regarding the Mitzva of Tzedaka. It is entirely possible that as historical circumstances change, some extensions will be more relevant some less. Leket may fade as an extension of tzedaka needed in agricultural times, but the core of tzedaka as an aspect of derech hashem will eternally remain so long as man has any possessions whatsoever.

The case of Lulav is similar to tzedaka in some respects, but not all. It is certainly true that as man becomes less agricultural, the lekicha dimension of lulav may fade in significance relative to naanuim. However, the core reason we cannot relate to lulav does not lie in our technological age. The essence of the problem lies in our almost complete disconnect from the reality of our dependence upon nature. Our fantasy of divine power in this nuclear / Christian age is perhaps more overwhelming than ever before. The dedication of our education to this arrogant fantasy of practical power rather than to the yirah of theoretical interest is similarly singular. The change needed here is one of massive educational reform. What would it take to rededicate science curricula to yira?

The remoteness of our own Jewish mada from systematic organization is a great contributor to this tzara. As Esav rushes in pursuit of his own power, we wallow in an organization of Mitzvot that obscures any similitude to the systematic study of justice of nature at all. we no longer view our mada as speaking about real things of experience at all, a natural outgrowth from th edepiction of natural justice of torah shebichtav, it is almost exclusively a scholastic enterprize. So absolute is this scholasticism that we hardly even know what it means to utilize torah shebichtav as an instrument of finding natural justice in the environment of action. The torah has become a closed book that we do not know how to read. It is this that Rambam decries:

In our times, severe troubles (צרות יתרות) come one after another, and all are in distress; the wisdom of our Torah scholars has disappeared, and the understanding of our discerning men is hidden.

ואחר שנשלם לי זה העניין, והשתדלתי לעשות הספר ולזכור המצוות כולם זיכרון מוחלט ומספרם בפתיחת הספר, התעוררתי אל השורש שכבר עלה בדעתי זה שנים רבות. והוא במה שמוני המצוות הנה נשתבשו בם רבים בעניינים לא אוכל ספר גודל גנותם.

כי כל מי שהשתדל למנותם, או לחבר ספר בדבר מהכוונה הזאת, נמשכו כולם אחר דברי בעל הלכות גדולות, ולא נטו מכוונתו במספר המצוות כי אם נטייה קטנה. כאילו קפאו הדעות במאמר האיש הזה...

ויודע האל יתברך, ודי בו עדות, כי אני כל מה שהשתכלתי בשיבושם במה שימנו, והיותם מונים מה שנראה בעיון ראשון שאין ראוי למנותו - נמשכו קצתם אחר קצתם בזה, מבלתי עיון - גדל אצלי אסוננו, ונתאמת חיוב ייעודו אשר יעדנו:

"ותהי לכם חזות הכל כדברי הספר החתום,
אשר יתנו אותו אל יודע ספר לאמר קרא נא זה,
ואמר לא אוכל כי חתום הוא" (ישעיהו כט יא