When to Initiate Hastening the Process and When Not
Ayn Aya Shabbat v, 47
When to Initiate Hastening the Process & When to Leave God to Decide? (Ayn Aya Shabbat v, 47))
How do we know when to work with God & initiate speeding up the process of redemption for example, and when to let Him do everything? Rav Kook connects this with the sin of Reuven and suggests an innovative explanation to one of the midrashim.
“I loaned someone money, and I did not hassle him for payment when he told me that things were tough. Recently, I contacted him to ask if he is in any position to pay back. He replied that he was forced into bankruptcy and thereby absolved all his debts. Does he, indeed, no longer owe me for the loan?
Can performing a mitzvah become a liability? What does it mean that I am doing something "bli neder?" "When I attended a Gemara shiur on Nedarim, I got the impression that performing hataras nedarim requires having a talmid chacham deliberate over the specific neder, until he concludes that there are grounds to release the neder. This seems to have no relationship to what we do on Erev Rosh Hashanah." "My friend Billy Nader says bli neder on almost everything. Is this being too frum?"