Pleasing God

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This is a battle I have no chance of winning, but I feel it must be fought all the same. I am talking about the ongoing Jewish habit of anthropomorphizing God, a recent example of which can be found in this passage written by RYA.

While I have little use for water with a hechsher, I would guess that HKBH loves the dedication of the individual consumer who insists on what he or she believes are hidurim in kashrus. I am staking a lot on a conviction that He also appreciates those with a dogged commitment to the bottom line in Shulchan Aruch that does not demand those hidurim as a matter of law, and to the approach of many sugyos in Chulin where Chazal permitted entire classes of foodstuffs – without supervion [sic] at all – because they considered any objections to be not of real halachic concern.

Nearly 1000 years ago the Rambam went to war against the philosophical errors and logical fallacies contained within this brief passage - and lost the argument. Still I'm compelled to respond to this piece of writing with some points of my own

I would guess that HKBH loves the dedication of the individual consumer who insists on what he or she believes are hidurim in kashrus

You can't say that God "loves" anything; in fact you can't say use any positive terminology to describe or refer to God at all. All we can do is say what God isn't. This is because human beings can not describe or define something as large or as complex as the Divine. Any attempted description will, ultimately, be false and should be avoided. Also why would God love "dedication?" Dedication, like sincerity, is not necessarily something positive, as both dedication and sincerity can be put to the service of something evil. (Hitler was both dedicated and sincere)

I am staking a lot on a conviction that He also appreciates those with a dogged commitment to the bottom line in Shulchan Aruch
You're not staking anything. The goal of religion isn't to please God (who can't, by definition, be pleased. If you are capable of pleasing Him, you're saying He can change.) The goal of religion is to produce behavior that changes people and societies for the better. Anyone who performs commandments for the sole purpose of receiving a gold star on his heavenly report card is an infant operating under a delusion.

Here's the Midrash disagreeing with RYA: What difference does it make to God whether one slaughters from the front of the neck or the back of the neck? Rather the mitzvot were given in order to  refine men (letzaref bahem et habriyot)

I have something else to say about how we anthropomorphize God, but that will have to wait until the next post.

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