[Avodah] An-im Zemiros

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:41:55 -0400 (EDT)
"Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> On Wed, October 24, 2007 2:47 pm, R Zev Sero wrote:
> : Al pi nigleh the reason not to look at the Cohanim, or at anything
> : else, is so as not to be distracted from hearing the bracha....
> 
> I thought it was so as not to be mevayesh the kehunah by pointing out
> the lack of hashra'as haShechinah. Whereas in the days of bayis
> rishon, "lo yir'ani adam vachai" like processes prevented the eye to
> withstand the light of the Shechinah.
> 
> The kavod issue is implied in Chagiga 16a, which puts it together with
> staring at the nasi or at a rainbow as being bad (but not terminally
> so!) for eyesight.

Additionally, the Gemara immediately prior to that explains the
Mishnah, which states "ve'kol she'lo has al kevod kono ra'sui lo she'lo
ba le'olam, to be referring, inter alia, to a gazer at the kohanim.

The Magen Avraham (128:35) explicitly mentions that the reason for the
prohibition against looking while the BHMK stood is kavod ha'shechinah,
and that there is now a prohibition against gazing as a zecher to that.

> SheTir'u baTov!
> -micha

Yitzhak
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