Thursday, August 22, 2013

Nugget #94 – Mitzvot: Unity and love


Commandments are not meant to be a list of rules per se.  Rather they are points at which we can become intimate with the each other and the Creator without sacrificing the individual or compromising the community.  It’s a place to create peace by all participating.  This requires us to take ownership of sin so that it can be collectively corrected and eradicated with love, peace, and harmony between all.   Not with guilt, anger, bitterness, vengeance, and steel trap minds to bring up the past even though all is taken care of.  There is a sense of mutual benefit versus what it in it for me.

We, collectively, should be enthusiastic in correcting all of our ills rather than avoid them or use them as instrument of division.  In such a community, forgiveness is plentiful and practically freely given because sin is viewed as an opportunity for further unity and love for each other and with the Creator.

The Torah sets up rules that will guide us to communal unity from the very hearts of the people.  It should be noted that the Torah is a guide for communal peace not just personal peace.  Yes the principals will help us at a personal level, but the Torah is focused upon the community not the individual.

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