Lawyer-Wearing-Yarmulka
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Esrogim
The other night I went esrog shopping. My family has been buying from this one guy for 30 years, the quality is great. Each esrog more beautiful then the next. Naturally, the prices match the quality.
As I was picking out my esrog, I remembered what my Rosh Yeshiva once said:
"Imagine if lulav and esrog was a mitzvah that you did in your basement and not in shul. Can you imagine the kind of of esrogim people would buy? Tiny, brown, dried up shriveled esrogim..."
Just a thought when you're admiring your esrog in shul this Yom Tov.
As I was picking out my esrog, I remembered what my Rosh Yeshiva once said:
"Imagine if lulav and esrog was a mitzvah that you did in your basement and not in shul. Can you imagine the kind of of esrogim people would buy? Tiny, brown, dried up shriveled esrogim..."
Just a thought when you're admiring your esrog in shul this Yom Tov.
posted by LWY, 11:04 AM
3 Comments:
probably true...
I was thinking about this some more.. I think it is not specific to esrog, but is true about most things we do.. things we do in public are done differently than those done in private.. it is a question on our motives..
then again the gemara questions even the motives of our forefathers.. had reuven known he would be written up in the Torah the way he was, he would have acted differently...
then again the gemara questions even the motives of our forefathers.. had reuven known he would be written up in the Torah the way he was, he would have acted differently...
I can see two ways to interprete this comment:
1) We only work buy the superb esrog that we know we should buy because we know other people will see us and secretly we'd rather be stingy.
2) There's no reason to waste so much money on expensive esrogim. The mitzva requires a kosher esrong, not beautiful esrog. People spend the extra money only to impress others.
I suspect the rabbi was referring to option 1, but there's also some truth to 2.
1) We only work buy the superb esrog that we know we should buy because we know other people will see us and secretly we'd rather be stingy.
2) There's no reason to waste so much money on expensive esrogim. The mitzva requires a kosher esrong, not beautiful esrog. People spend the extra money only to impress others.
I suspect the rabbi was referring to option 1, but there's also some truth to 2.
