Yet Another Letter That Will Go Unanswered
There is such a striking (seeming) disconnect between religious mystical expression, often in erotic terms, and law- based piety or kashrut. I would go as far as to say it represents a paradox. Perhaps this paradox is necessary. Piety taken to excess is darkness and sterilility and only leads away from Hashem. On the other hand, using sin as a means of closeness to Hashem (Mitzvah ha-ba'ah ba-Averah) is also extremely problematic. My argument against piety is that it leads to fruits which, on the whole, are more evil and insidious than the fruits of misguided over-indulence. Over-indulgence leads rather quickly directly to either repentance or physical death (in AA we say we have to "grow up or die"). When you eat too much ice cream you get a belly ache. Piety, however, often leads to spiritual death or paralysis. Piety is conducive to the worst sins of the religious: judgement of others, self-righteousness, unkindness, shunning, hypocrisy, persecution, extremism, suprem...
