[Avodah] explanation

[Sholom Simon via Avodah]

I commend you for having such guests at your table! 

> the torah's
law on who may do the actual avodah [ ie mum-free] is not PC by today's
standards, and in fact was a source of consternation for some shabbos
guests last week [ not to mention the column of a heterodox clergylady
in the local paper, who says she can't even read those passages] . i
didn't have an answer other than to say [ other than the chok aspect]
that the RBSO was looking from the perspective of the kahal and their
kovod, and how they would react or be distracted by a baal mum. can
someone supply a better take ?

This is, indeed, a difficult passage.


R Jonathan Sacks has a good take on it -- which is generally along the
lines of what you suggested, but a slightly different (and more
big-picture) take, and, of course articulated extremely well. 

An
excerpt: 

> Kugel also writes, "Most people, when they see someone
ravaged by chemotherapy, just tend to keep their distance." He quotes
Psalm 38:12, "My friends and companions stand back at the sight of my
affliction; even those closest to me keep their distance." Although the
physical reactions to chemotherapy are quite different from a skin
disease or a bodily abnormality, they tend to generate the same feeling
in others, part of which has to do with the thought "This could happen
to me." They remind us of the "thousand natural shocks that flesh is
heir to." 
> 
> This is the logic - if logic is the right word - of
Tumah. It has nothing to do with rationality and everything to do with
emotion (Recall Pascal's remark that "the heart has its reasons of which
reason knows nothing"). Tumah does not mean defilement. It means that
which distracts from eternity and infinity by making us forcibly aware
of mortality, of the fact that we are physical beings in a physical
world.

If the above interests you at all, I encourage you to read the
whole thing: http://www.aish.com/tp/i/sacks/149811775.html [1] 

--
Sholom 

 

Links:
------
[1]
http://www.aish.com/tp/i/sacks/149811775.html
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