[Avodah] Shinana

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 12:57:52PM -0400, Sholom Simon forwarded a friend's
thought:
: It is the nick name given to R Yehuda because he had big teeth. But it
: also is translated as wise or keen scholar. Apparently that is because
: Yehuda's arguments were so incisive (think incisors).

: This got me thinking. If teeth is a metaphor for sharp thinking (or perhaps
: persuasive thinking) then this gives a new meaning for the "blunt the
: teeth" command to the rasha [in the hagada]...

Much better known source your friend could have used, "veshinantam
levanekha".

I would think it's definitely sharp thinking. When you go from sharp
to persuaive, the metaphor of teeth fails. But who ever heard of a Jew
being encouraged not to think so much?



In WYT, I repeat a thought from R Cary Friedman (I might have used his
halachic name)... In rabbinic idiom, shein is a kind of nezeq; it's
where A's animal damages B's property in the pursuit of its own desires.
Like eating B's grain. So to them, "shein" is about how the side effect
eaching can overshadow the desire for food.

This son is cynical about the idea of finding holiness in eating a bite of
schwarma. (Think about it -- spit roasted lamb, seasoned with spicy lettus
atop a hastily made flatbread.) "Mah ha'avodah hazos lakhem -- how is
this worship for you?" So he doesn't get why Hashem gave him teeth. That
along the way in satisfying your stomach, you can accomplish other things.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Live as if you were living already for the
micha at aishdas.org        second time and as if you had acted the first
http://www.aishdas.org   time as wrongly as you are about to act now!
Fax: (270) 514-1507            - Victor Frankl, Man's search for Meaning