Comments on: But what is our GOAL? posted by R. Yosef Kanefsky

By: Isaac Shalev

Isaac Shalev — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:53:29 +0000

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a mission statement that belongs in this conversation. The are “dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to lead healthy and productive lives.”

Underpinning that mission is the belief in the value and potential of every human life – because we all are created in God’s image. I believe that Judaism is about helping and guiding individuals and communities toward that vision, and imbuing all are choices and actions with that intention, that kavanah.

By: bernard smith

bernard smith — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 16:06:37 +0000

Tsedek, tsedek tirdof (Justice, justice you should pursue or perhaps better might be “Do the right thing”) would seem to be a clear goal set by the Torah. If then we treat the mitzvot as ends in themselves we will almost certainly fail to use the mitzvot as tools to help us better understand what is this right (the yashar) that we are striving for. Seems to me that the mitzvot are given to help us create a truly just and right-filled world. Seems to me that the mitzvot are to help shape us and make us be menschen when we engage in a world full of pain and anguish and misery. So perhaps there needs to be some kind of balance between a focus on the maintenance of mitzvot as tools in our tool kit and the way we then use those tools on ourselves to help us build a world filled with true righteous justice.- my bisrei zusei, my two cents…

By: neworthodoxobserver

neworthodoxobserver — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:32:33 +0000

Please consider reading R’ Gidon Rothstein’s book “We’re Missing the Point”

By: David Benjamin Kopp

David Benjamin Kopp — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:41:59 +0000

A friend pointed out that my comments could be misconstrued as poking fun. My cookie comment was my attempt at lightening what felt like a very weighty response — it’s just my style.

Regarding the post itself it seems I also miscommunicated what I meant by happiness being the goal.

That Jews should strive to create the conditions allowing for subjective happiness in each individual is certainly not what I meant.

I meant that we are directed that all people be unified in an individual happiness, which is also harmonious happiness, and that the way to achieve this is through pursuit of a universally observed ethical standard.

The reason I mentioned happiness when I could have just mentioned the pursuit of ethical perfection is because the latter is a mechanical description of the perfection and the happiness is the emotional one. I think that for most of us, we respond to emotional stimuli, and the concept of “peace” and “happiness” is one we should keep close to us as a motivator, so long as we do not conflate cooperative happiness (as achieved through being in harmony with the Ethical Standard) with momentary, subjective or selfish happiness.

In the end I think he’s right that happiness should not be considered the goal — even if it is the goal as seen perhaps from God’s perspective, or even if the goal is the natural after effect of the preceding mechanism of ethical perfection — because it’s too easy for people to favor their own (subjective, individual, momentary, hedonistic) happiness with that happiness, which is the dividend coming from the practice of universal ethics.

By: David Benjamin Kopp

David Benjamin Kopp — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 22:27:41 +0000

I just thought of a nice goal, which seems simple as a concept, but is extraordinarily difficult to achieve. Maybe the goal of the Jewish people is to lead the world to a state of total and constant happiness.

The Jews’ relentless pursuit of the goodwill of mankind should lead eventually to commonly practiced ethics, a universal understanding of justice, a prescription for spiritual enlightenment and and ultimately fulfilling system of belief and behavior, where our beliefs are in harmony with truth, and our behavior perpetuates individual and communal goodness.

And maybe if we achieve this a big giant cosmic chocolate chip cookie will descend and we can eat it. Or maybe it’s the reward in itself! Still the cookie would be a nice gesture.