The Beauty of דין

Recently in the big corporate company that I work for (that I often snubbed as being a typical example of the voracious, cheap, careless approach of capitalistic consumerism and it's embedded micro-level corruption/irresponsibility which so often finds therein a home a.k.a the בהמה רביעי of דניאל which is אכלה ומדקה ושארא ברליה רפסה) fired a handful of employees (peons and mid level managers alike) for a corruption they were doing in the company. Some of those employees being people I thought nicely of, friends I'd even say, suddenly in one single day gone. I was really happy.

Not because I don't feel the plight of those workers tempted to dip their fingers in a little extra cash that they probably feel makes up for the many injustices in salary that come with the average minimum-wage job.  Not because I ignore the implications of their loss of income and support to their families, community, etc.   But truly because I was so happy to see in life some Order. Justice. Supervision. Accountability. Care. Not simply in this isolated situation per se, but as a part of Creation. There is Justice. There is Right and Wrong and someone/something in Creation will make sure to enforce it. יש דין ויש דיין.

And so the insight that I realized is that what it takes to be someone who is מצדיק עליו את הדין, or a רבי עקיבא saying שמע ישראל as he's being torn apart, is not necessarily a function of a personality bending itself and submitting itself and subordinating itself to a higher power per se but maybe rather it's a function of someone who loves דין, who knows that the present world we live in is too screwed up through-and-through to not require sweeping radical action that will often affect and hurt villains and bystanders alike (in differing measures though, of course. Someone who's willing to pray for the destruction of an organizational מלכות הרשעה, as in  ומלכות הרשעה מהרה תעקר ותשבר וכולי, even while knowing at one and the same time that that may be an organizational structure that he himself is living and depending on!  The Goldman Sachs' Greg Smith's of our time wanting the fall of the systems and structures that provide them their very wealth and life, if but only to see Justice and דין and Goodness in the world, the way we all know deep down existentially it ought to be. THAT is really the beauty of דין and how beautiful and meaningful and lovely it makes our often screwed up, unfair, chaotic world.   ברוך דיין אמת.

נאום דניאל ברוך

שם ומלכות

Recently was involved in an argument culminating in my being accused of wrongdoing in front of about 100 people, not my brightest moment. In any event, it's a funny thing really. At that moment, while you're being yelled at by someone with 100 onlookers bending their ears, you're really helpless. There's no way to defend yourself. There's no way to share the prior sequence of events and informational context with the onlookers, no way to coordinate or convey your set of information with theirs (the accuser himself knew he was distorting events but the onlookers have no way of knowing). In short there is no way to express your Truth. Your שם is completely vulnerable and exposed to manipulation and distortion with nothing that you can do about it.

My insight being this:  שם is the one part of a person that's not immediately within his existential control. You could be truly good, truly Just within yourself and someone can still distort your image and action as that of a monster. Similarly to what I discussed  here. Hence then the ספירה of מלכות, being true emergent expression of existential self, is directly an issue of שם and directly כנגד those sins which most endanger שם i.e. לשון הרע ומוציא שם רע.

Note then the common theme throughout תהלים of לשון הרע and שמירת הלשון.

Hence the לשון מדברת גדולות of תנא דבי ר' ישמעאל in ערכין being equivalent to the ג' חמורות since it's כנגד the רגל רביעי of מלכות.

Note then that חילול השם is unique in it's being a demand on the external resultant image that is produced, not a commandment of one's own inner existential integrity as are all other מצוות. Hence אחד שוגג ואחד מזיד בחילול השם. Hence a better understanding of ר' ישמעאל in the Sifra that while the ג' חמורות בצנעא are יעבור ואל יהרג [because all parties involved know that the act performed is not true to the person's inner רצון], it's דוקא חילול השם ברבים which is יהרג ואל יעבור -- because ultimately in the eyes of the onlookers, Creation's true nature is being betrayed, and that is something that cannot be allowed. See further here.

Hence it's easy to understand how שבועת שקר is more חמור than נדר despite the fact that נדר is of a greater  level (as is the seeming contradiction in the zohar)-- it's specifically the realm of שם שמים which can be so often distorted and betrayed, it then being that much more vulnerable, hence the greater response of עונש in return.

And so then it's in a world of asymmetric information among separate entities (עולם של פירוד) in which such horrific accusations, distortions, and manipulations can be made. Starting from that point of שם, expression, and reputation --- ומשם יפרד והיה לארבעה ראשים. Hence the evolution of שם with negative connotations in english-- Shame.

[ומתוך דברינו מובן "וענשו אותו מאה כסף" דמוציא שם רע בבחינת מ"ה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך ובבחינת מאה אדניה של מלכות]

[ואולי ניתן לומר בתוך מתק לשונו של הרמב"ם ריש הל' יסודי התורה "יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שי"ש ש"ם מצוי ראשון" דהיינו ישות ההויה של יהו' ושם ומלכות של ה' אחרונה, שביחד מהווים יהו"ה]