This post is dedicated to the elevation of the soul of Dalya Davida bas Yisroel.
The story so far:
We need a radical reconsideration of “self.” A healthy relationship with objective truth, finite form, definition, shape, system, rules, and rational ideas must start from the fundamental position that we engage these things by choice because self, axiomatically, is beyond them. This healthy relationship opens up new possible worldviews. Rather than re-enchantment by external manipulation, we seek inner emancipation; there is never a need to flee objectivity because objectivity is a parochial matter to the self, a game we are playing.
The only solid objection to this is moral: Others objectively exist and suffer. In today’s post, I will explain how the “self-centeredness” of placing one’s subjectivity above any objectivity is, counterintuitively, the key to true self-sacrifice and duty. Why is this counterintuitive? Because we would naturally assume that the subjective self is the primary barrier to living for the other. Self-centeredness is the opposite of other-centeredness, isn’t it?
It’s not so simple. In fact, it is only by turning inward that we are genuinely able to devote ourselves to others. It is only in the utter apartness of our own self that we can set the self aside. It is only in holiness that we find unity.
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