Somebody asked me recently to list my goals with this blog. I listed three:
1) To build a community of TIDE practitioners.
2) To put some TIDE ideas into the public space.
3) To reinforce the derech in my own mind.
So 1) is the ideal and 3) the sort of reserve goal/bonus. 2) Sits in between. But as life generally goes, we don't have control over others, only ourselves. And it turns out that 3) is the main benefit for me, at least, the thing that goes on every day. I can't say that I have seen any substantive community develop here, and who knows what effect these posts have on the world at large/if they are getting out there. But I can tell you that my own attachment to Torah Im Derech Eretz, to the German Jewish community, and to the great Sages of TIDE such as Rav Hirsch, Rav Breuer (father and son), and Rav Schwab, as well as other such as Dayan Grunfeld, are strengthened every day.
I guess that Rabbi Soloveitchik would call this a covenental community, a meeting of generations.
And I say to this blog's readers, you might also find that by making posts, your own connection to this beautiful derech of Torah becomes stronger. The world certainly tries to confuse us and we must be very active not to be taken in by it. I recall an expression that says something like - 'at first I worked to change the world, then I came to work so that it wouldn't change me.'
So it goes here and with anything we believe in. By trying to build something, we build ourselves.
One wonderful thing about blogs like this is that you never know when a person will come across it and find exactly what they need. I have talked to many people in the frum world who would very much benefit from the TIDE approach and/or German Orthodoxy but have little to no idea that it exists. So thank you for putting your blog out there!
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