Re'a:  The Sect

לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֔וּן כְּ֠כֹל אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֲנַ֧חְנוּ עֹשִׂ֛ים פֹּ֖ה הַיּ֑וֹם אִ֖ישׁ כָּל־הַיָּשָׁ֥ר בְּעֵינָֽיו׃You shall not act at all as we now act here, every man as he pleases,. In the exile, in the desert, every person did as he understood, worshiped Gd , within limits, as she saw fit. There were limits , both explicit and social, but within those limits, it appears that life in the desert was (more) free.  The major commentators ( Rashi, Ramban, Ibn Ezra) relate this sentence to its context: the sacrificial rite ( which, in this parsha, is mixed up and differentiated from eating meat in general) Once they entered the promised land, the ritual would be defined, it would be high church,  a spectacle of rigid participation,It is hard to hear this message of conformity. But the conformity simplifies.  It reduces error, it helps  achieve,  The ritual strengthens the hierarchy,  ensconces the priesthood,  It unifies the people, it becomes a heritage, it identifies those who are in and excludes those who are out. The orthopraxy assures substance, a set of rules with the imprimatur of tradition,  This is what Gd has always liked,I live in the country that celebrates diversity.  When George Washington welcomed the Jews to  the US,  he quoted   the prophet Micha:
But every man shall sit Under his grapevine or fig tree With no one to disturb him. a statement of universal tolerance,  Everyone can think as she pleases. even the Jew.  This tolerance for diversity has allowed the Jews to survive and thrive in America and, as the ethos of tolerance spread, around much of the world, throughout the tolerant world. The call for invariance  echoes our modern enemies; the Taliban, Isis, etc,  We are horrified as they enforce, with murder and violence, their definition of The Uniformity, Allah's demands.  The adherence to Chasidic custom shares this quality: our group does it this way,  The Rebbe's nuance ( perhaps his error)  becomes the only proper way for the chasidim.There is room for variation. Evolution  is based upon variation creating a range over which survival selects.  We have evolved  I pray for the evolution of our enemies ,,, and friends.