[Avodah] beautifying the mitzvas.....priorities in spending??

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 07:42:14PM -0400, Rich, Joel wrote:
:> But (and this is how I understood the original question) should we be
:> working on reprioritizing our relative love of various mitzvos? *Ought*
:> hiddur mitzvah be more important to me than the mitzvah itself of
:> tzedaqah?

: This would imply-even in your narrowed definition-that there would
: never be any spending on hiddur mitzvah. But I'll go you one better-why
: spend money on being a baal nefesh rather than giving it to tzedaks.

According to R' Shimon Shkop, and it's plausibly what Hillel tells the
prospective geir, we're hear in order to be good to others. I'm preparing
to do a series of blog posts on RSS's haqdamah as an exposition on the
meaning and purpose of life. So a question I am working on is where mitzvos
bein adam laMaqom fits in this.

One piece:

Self-help and management gurus, eg Stephen Covey's "7 Habits" talk about
balancing production and maintaining one's capacity to produce. You can't
kill the goose that lays the golden eggs; you'll end up with fewer eggs
overall. If you only give to tzedaqah and never spend money on hiddur
mitzvah or being a baal nefesh, one will not develop or maximize one's
capacity to continue bestowing Hashem's Good.

RSS has no problems with luxury and comforts -- as long as one rests
for the purpose of being able to further give without burning out.

This is taking from the beginning of the haqdamah.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

PS: I would also like to maximize distribution of a set of essays on
what I believe is nothing less than the point of life -- according to
one paneh laTorah. So, if you're interested, or you know of another Jew
(of any level of commitment or observance) who might be, feel free to
have them contact me about getting on an email list.

Hopefully I'll be ready to begin in a few weeks, maybe Elul. (Which also
gives you an idea as to how long I have to finish developing my answer
to this question...)

-- 
Micha Berger             You cannot propel yourself forward
micha at aishdas.org        by patting yourself on the back.
http://www.aishdas.org                   -Anonymous
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