[Avodah] priorities in halacha

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 08:35:09PM +0200, Eli Turkel wrote:
: Why not say this about every "zeh keli veanvehu". Instead of buying a more
: mehudaer etrog give money to tzedaka and similarly for all sorts of other
: mitzvot

People don't spend every penny they could on mitzvos. Someone who is
motivated to fly to the rebbe might not be sufficiently motivated to
take that same money and give it to tzedaqah. (And even less motivated
without that inspiring encounter with the rebbe!)

In general you do find this argument made by someone or another about
every hiddur mitzvah. Except perhaps for esrog which has its own pasuq
promoting hiddur, and even there I'm not sure. That said, if someone
has a real desire for a beautiful megillah case, better the money go
for that than other things a person could want.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "As long as the candle is still burning,
micha at aishdas.org        it is still possible to accomplish and to
http://www.aishdas.org   mend."
Fax: (270) 514-1507          - Unknown shoemaker to R' Yisrael Salanter