Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Sections
- Chemdat Yamim
- Ein Ayah
Ein Ayah:There is intellectual beauty and beauty that is beheld by the senses. Intellectual beauty, such as kindness and straightness, good deeds and fine attributes, must be the dominant concern. However, even the less critical physical beauty is to be used, as we derive from "This is my Lord and I will adorn Him" (Shemot 15:2) that one is supposed to spend up to an extra third in price in order to fulfill a mitzva in a way that is pleasing to the eye (Bava Kama 9b). Indeed, the pasuk says: "Glory and beauty is before Him, strength and grandeur are in His sanctuary" (Tehillim 96:6).
In the negative direction as well, the main things from which a person should distance himself are internally, intellectually unseemly things. However, there is also a value in distancing oneself from externally unseemly things alongside the internally unseemly. Therefore, we can derive the prohibition of spitting in Har Habayit in a way that it relates to keeping away from internally unseemly things. However, the gemara continues, there is also a value from the external perspective. It teaches us that in general, external beauty has a place in our value system if we give it an appropriate place. "Charm is a lie and beauty is vanity" (Mishlei 31:30) is said only when one takes matters out of proportion and out of the context of true intellectuality and justice and concentrates only on the external side, as superficial people do. However, when done with the right balance, there is a great value to beauty, as the pasuk says: "And they will find charm and goodly wisdom in the eyes of Hashem and man" (Mishlei 3:4).
Various Rabbis
Various Rabbis including those of of Yeshivat Bet El, such as Rabbi Chaim Katz, Rabbi Binyamin Bamberger and Rabbi Yitzchak Greenblat and others.
Moreshet Shaul Moreshet Shaul: A Crown and its Scepter – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 294-5
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
