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Simeon the Just was one of the last survivors of the Great Assembly. He used to say: the world stands on three things: on Torah, Divine worship, and acts of loving-kindness. Pirkei Avot I:2 … The importance of this teaching for the modern Jew lies in its call for totality and balance. Too often today we meet the person who trumpets forth the size of his charitable contributions and proclaims; “So long as I give charity and exhibit a generous heart, I can safely ignore the elements of
Torah and
avodah.” We also have the person who maintains that since he goes faithfully to the synagogue every single day, he is absolved from giving to charity. What Simeon the Just would have us remember is that one is required to be a total Jew by making a total commitment to
Torah,
avodah and
g’milath Hasidim. … Judaism, in a sense, resembles a tripod, a structure resting on three legs. Remove any one of the three supports and the structure will collapse. If a person be learned but not observant, if he be charitable but not disposed to worship, then he cannot possibly experience a full religious life. Such defective religiosity is bound to be shaky and is destined to topple. The purpose of
Torah in our daily life is to elevate us to a higher plane. Through Torah study we increase our knowledge, we broaden our mental horizons, we extend the frontiers of our understanding.
Avodah governs our relationship to God. It makes us constantly aware of the presence of the Almighty and of our dependence upon him.
G’milath hasadim regulates our relationship with our fellow man. In this area we are taught the meaning of justice, righteousness and compassion. In this area we learn how to love our neighbor as ourselves. When the Jew engages in all three of these activities, he is, in effect, engaging all levels of his being in the service of God. He is thinking, speaking and doing Judaism. For in Torah, the mind, the intellectual process of thought is primary. In
avodah, speech, expression is the main element. In
g’milath Hasidim, it is the deed, the act, that is important. These three aspects of Judaism were in reality first developed by the three Patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Each, by virtue of his own temperament, individual circumstance, and personal predilection, blazed a distinct path of service to God. Abraham is the great exemplar of Hasidim; he was ever kind, he fed the hungry, and pleaded to save the people of Sodom. Isaac we encounter “meditating in the fields.” [this verse] Indeed, it is Isaac who attains to the highest
avodah by becoming himself the offering brought upon the altar. Jacob, we are told, is the ‘man of tents,”
Genesis 25:27, who studies for many years in the academies of Shem and Eber. [This is how the Midrash understands the Bible’s description, “dwelling in tents”;
e.g. Tanhuma Buber, Tol’doth 2 and Vayyishlah 9. He is the student of ancient traditions, the student of Torah. Combine the insights of the Patriarchs: fuse the concepts of God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Bring together the particular way of each, and you have a balanced Judaism; you have total Judaism: Torah,
avodah, and
g’milath hasadim. It is precisely in this notion of balance that Judaism is distinguished from the other world religions. These other systems of belief seem to have concentrated on only one of the three basic concepts out of all proportion to the others. Christianity, with its emphasis of self-abnegating love, seems, in a certain sense, to have adopted
g’milath hasadim. Islam, with its emphasis on frequent prayer, seems to have adopted
avodah. And then Buddhism seems to suffer from over-emphasis upon man’s mystical relationship with the all-embracing One to the point of losing his own individuality. Only in Judaism is the total man engaged and enveloped in a realistic, comprehensive and balanced program. SINAI1 38-40
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