[Avodah] hidur

Micha Berger via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Mon Apr 20 14:52:41 PDT 2015


On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 09:46:52PM +0300, Eli Turkel via Avodah wrote:
:> It's like if one is forced to choose between an esrog which is definitely
:> kosher but only barely so, vs. one which is beautiful but *might* be pasul.
:> To me, it's a no-brainer that one would choose the barely kosher one.) >> -
...
: There is a famois R Chaim that if one can use both etgrogim then one should
: first use the beautiful but *might* be pasul since if one uses  the
: minimally kosher one then one has accomplished the mitzvah and there is no
: reason to choose a second one.

This presumes you can afford both, or have access to a friend who will
give you a matanah al menas lehachzir of whichever you aren't buying. The
post you're replying to is "if one is forced to choose".

My own dilemma. Say I earmark $X (Y NIS, in your case) to spend on
my esrog. And say the price of a definitely kosher (or at least, just
as sure to be kosher) but not very hadar esrog is half that or less.
Should I buy myself a mehudar, or should I buy two esrogim and give the
other to someone hitting on hard times? Shouldn't the asei (tzedaqah,
dei machsero) trump a "mere" hidur mitzvah (esrog)? And yet, we know
many great rabbanim who didn't follow this calculus. What am I missing?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 16th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        2 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Gevurah sheb'Tifferes: What type of discipline
Fax: (270) 514-1507                             does harmony promote?



More information about the Avodah mailing list