[Avodah] Laughing at one who does a mitzvah

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Sep 01, 2009 at 3:03:39AM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: This evening I was reminded of a halacha in Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (15:5)
: that one should not answer Kaddish too loudly, because people might laugh
: at him for this, and he'd thereby be causing them to sin. (Mishne Brurah
: 56:5 says the same thing.)

: I soon found myself recalling other examples which support or go
: against this idea: One may wear shoes on Tisha B'Av, if one walks among
: non-Jews who would laugh at us. (Rama 554:17 and Mishne Brurah 554:34)

: But in contrast, the very first Rama in Orach Chaim 1:1 tells us, "Don't
: be embarrassed by people who laugh at someone for his Avodas Hashem."

On Tue, Sep 01, 2009 at 07:22:10PM +0000, Dov Kaiser wrote:
: See Perek 20, Mesilas Yeshorim, where Ramchal explains that although
: must one perform mitzvos, ie strict obligations, even though people will
: laugh at him, this does not apply to chumros. In the case of chumros,
: making oneself an object of mockery involves lifnei iver vis-a-vis
: the mockers. Therefore, it is sometimes inappropriate to go beyond the
: letter of the law in public.

Shoes on 8 beAv is a derabbanan, not a chumrah. So even without the
issues of lifnei iveir and nachriim, I don't think we can invoke the
Ramchal in that case.

I think there is something specific about these two mitzvos. Not unique
to them, but still, putting them in a subclass.

Answering Qaddish loudly is, I presume, a kavanah tool. If he's going to
be laughed at and self-conscious, not only is there a lifnei iveir issue,
I'm not sure the overall effect would help his kavanah.

Going without shoes is a qiyum of aveilus. Does getting laughed at
qualify as aveilus, or as a distraction from aveilus? If the latter,
it could well be that there is no qiyum in going barefood (or in one's
pool shoes to work).

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When memories exceed dreams,
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