What if, indulgence could sometimes become a tool for avodas Hashem rather than a threat to it?
Much has been written recently about the culture of indulgence within frum society. We speak about rising standards, expanding comforts, and the pressure to live larger and more luxuriously than ever before. Those concerns are real and deserve attention.
Yet perhaps it is worthwhile to consider this from another angle. What if, under the right conditions, indulgence could sometimes become a tool for avodas Hashem rather than a threat to it?
To develop this idea, it is helpful to consider a profound principle articulated by Rav Eliyahu Dessler, in his essay on Yom HaKippurim.
The Torah’s description of the se’ir l’Azazel on Yom Kippur is, at first glance, difficult to understand. The pesukim seem to suggest that we send a goat off a cliff and that it somehow “carries” the sins of Klal Yisrael away. Clearly, sin cannot be literally transferred to an animal. The avodah must therefore be understood on a deeper level.
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