Be Havdala-expansive...not Havdala -narrow.
Havdala consciousness includes the knowledge of the difference between Shabbos and the six days of Creation. A Jew must live through both.
Havdala consciousness includes the knowledge of the difference between the Holy and the Mundane. Diaspora Jews need to be aware that they are disconnected from the Holy Land.
Havdala consciousness includes the knowledge of the difference between not only Jew and non-Jew but Kohen, Levi, Yisrael and the Royal-Messianic Line.
Havdala consciousness includes the knowledge of the difference between human- animal- plant and inert, young and old, male and female and Jew-by-birth and Jew-by-choice.
Havdala consciousness includes the knowledge of the difference between the diverse pathways of Avodah for a Tzadik and a Ba'al Teshuva.
Most of all Havdala consciousness sensitizes the Havdala conscious to grasp the difference between Creator and Creature.
Only a myopic Havdala-narrow Jew would feel nothing but "superiority" Any given Jew/ess of any age, tribe or Gender should be able to feel and live with innate-difference grounded advantages and disadvantages and live their lives accordingly without experiencing cognitive dissonance.Thanks for inspiring my next post.
Qedusha-Havdala...have you had YOURS today??? Hmmm???
15 comments:
Avi Shafran attacks you personally
http://matzav.com/korachblogspotcom
WOW! here come Korakh the Bloggers 15 minutes of fame! have you anything at all to say about THIS post?
I thought the new term 'blogistan' was clever and witty. He should be applauded for his creativity.It seems bloggers have even thinner skins than rabbis...so he said, so what? Is anyone dead, injured, maimed? Bloggers are becoming like the rabbis they criticize, humorless, moralistic, holier than thou...IMO blogging will succeed when bloggers stop thinking of themselves as little rabbis, preaching their own version of daas torah.
well said. reminicinst of the final scene in Animal farm. Did you see the Brouhaha over at the Blog that Banned me over the Shafran piece?
Any comments on THIS post?
It seems that at the Dov Bear jousting festival a good time was had by all. Many good points...one issue that everyone is grappling with is how to criticize the gedolim without bringing down the hierarchical structure of Orthodoxy. The askanim fudge is clearly not the way. I try a little on RHM. My general background idea is that every time one gives a nasty shtuch, the blow- back does more damage than the intended criticism. Bloggers seem more of a threat than ever, all 15 of us, and gedolim seem a bit like bowling pins, you knock them down, up they pop again. It is no easy thing to become autonomous,(whatever that might mean in an Orthodox context,)and it is not accomplished by thinking there is one knockdown shot, such that bang-bang and the opponent is gone. There are no once and for all arguments on any of the topics discussed. At most there is a balance of considerations.
As to your post I have a general comment. Many of your distinctions are accepted without the edifice you are building around them. When you get to something that is not accepted, for whatever reason, your Havdala theology doesn't help, in the sense that it doesn't carry the day. The doubts travel back to the theology, rather than settle the case. One example: I might believe Orthodoxy is the one true way to be religious, and therefore Others will never reach the madreigos of frum Jews. But I can't establish this basic idea as a corollary from the fact that we observe/impose distinctions between kodesh and chol, tamay and tahor. All you can say is this is how we live. It might be more effective to argue for your ideas directly, rather than put them through the havdala catechism.
EJ
please provide me with an example of something "not accepted" so i can better understand your last comment
Well, the exchanges on DB where you invoked Havdala to 'prove' something did not go easily. Other examples are if it is used against aspects of MO or acculturation. No one is going to be deterred by saying it will diminish their havdalah consciousness, true as it may be. If it did, we would all be Satmar. Speaking of myself I started out with "this is not me, that is not me", feeling estranged from many things, for all the elitist reasons. In middle I decided to work at empathy, the ability to see and feel the world from the other point of view, the opposite in a way from havdalah. I still say this is not me etc. but not because it is strange, or dangerous. When I try to convince or make a point I found I have a better chance getting across to another when I have a sense where they are coming from, and when I feel there are commonalities. When you practice empathy, the world is a friendlier place, far less overwhelming, and remarkably the self feels much stronger and confident. As you know even when we deal with the sitra achara we try to go around, offering gifts even on Yom Kipur.
Bray:
Havdalah is a great concept, certainly worthy of the Jewish Nation which was chosen to be Light unto the nations, but you needn't limit your blog to that one thought.
Somehow
OTC I feel that the Blog is floundering because I'm all over the map and have gotten away from my Havdala roots. I must become a monomaniac for HaMavdil to become significant.
EJ-
If it did, we would all be Satmar.
Not at all. Satmar and Khasidim in general emphasize external and IMO often superficial differences that TTBOMK are NOT innate. While not altering לבוש שם ולשון have there place I understand Havdolos that are really mavdil to be more than skin deep.
I try to hew to the teaching of the סידורו של שבת who opines that true havdala and Qedusha is felt in the differences between the externally identical, e.g. do you say אשרי differently on a Shabbos than on a Wednesday.
feeling estranged from many things, for all the elitist reasons. In middle I decided to work at empathy,
the human capacity for empathy is not infinite. While we don't want to become the חידושי הרי"ם 's חסידה an awareness of what/ whom we are NOT is essential to amplify the natural empathy shared by Qerovim. Ideally in the imitatio dei manner of the מרחם על כל מעשיו יתברך a Jew ought to have a Weltschmerz for a suffering Croat or Hutu. But a Jew who feels equal compassion for them as s/he does for a FELLOW JEW has a serious and unhealthy self-awareness deficiency fueled by a lack of sharp Qedusha-Havdala consciousness.
Don’t reduce what I said to something absurd. I am not talking of equal empathy for every human, but of people in one’s life, real and virtual. Havdalah consciousness exercises the wrong sort of muscle as it were, it exaggerates minor differences, sometimes to rally the troops, sometimes to strengthen the self. You end up with a smaller and smaller group, a world where few recognize your value. You end up saying not only the Other is different, but less. I know you feel many Others are less, but a blog is essentially a conversation with different people, some more than you, some less. The trick is to draw people into such a conversation, not to get them to sit quietly for a mussar schmooz.Look at the consequences for Jewish life and especially Orthodoxy, when people try to practise separation from other stripes and groups. Suddenly we now have chassidim not practising real havdalah...where will it end?
In any event all this came about by way of my responding to your request for examples. You are the blogger and I am the guest, and you know your own mind and how you want to go.
NU?
NU what? Am I on your payroll? Because my mouth already reeks of garlic I should masticate more cloves??? I owe you or the world something? Fahr Drei dir Dain Kop
miss you
Bray, I'd love to see a new post from you.
Now is a good time to start posting again. Nidah is almost finished and Brochos is about to begin.
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