[Avodah] Yeshivishe Peyos

[mkopinsky at gmail.com]

On 6/15/07, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
> But I just noticed this diyuq in a post sent on Sun, June 10, 2007
> 1:58am, by R Danny Schoemann:
> : The phrase "lo siga bo yad" seems to have been coined by the Beis
> : Yosef - and there he clearly means as you say it does - not to narrow
> : the width of the Payes.
>
> He didn't coin the phrase, the BY *borrowed* it. From ma'amad har Sinai.
>
> Is it intentional that the BY is implicitly comparing peiyos to har
> Sinai during the revelation? If so... that's serious chibuv mitzvah
> for our lav.

I have heard the idea expressed (I don't remember where) that the reason
for preventative chumras (s'yagim lis'yagim) is that while any mitzvah
allows us to demonstrate ahavas Hashem either by the maaseh itself or by
hiddurim in its performance, the only way to actively demonstrate (or
develop, maybe?) yir'as Hashem (or at least, yiras Cheit) is by actively
distancing oneself from a safeik aveira.

The hagbalos of har Sinai (perhaps like the hagbalos of Har Habayis, to
combine yet another thread) are a demonstration/fulfillment of mora.
Just like we have to keep a physical, and thus emotional, distance from
har Sinai, we have to keep a physical, and thus emotional, distance from
doing that which G-d wants us not to do.  Thus, the relevant chumra by
peiyos would be "lo siga bo yad" - not to touch the peiyos and risk
cutting them where we shouldn't - rather than hiddur a.k.a. chibuv a.k.a.
zeh keili v'anveihu.

KT,
Michael