<html>
<body>
<font size=3>At 08:02 PM 12/10/2008, Joshua Meisner wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Wouldn't R' Shteinman's actions
be consonant with the ruling in Avos 3:9<br>
regarding not interrupting one's learning to comment on natural
beauty?<br>
Granted, if my simple reading of the mishnah is correct, I'm not sure
why<br>
the ability to make a bracha would change things.<br><br>
Joshua Meisner</font></blockquote><br>
<font size=3>The following is from the new translation of RSRH's
commentary on the Chumash, Bereishis 28:10<br><br>
</font><font size=4><b>10 </font><font size=3><i>Ya’akov left Be’er Sheva
and set out for Charan. <br><br>
</b>Ya’akov goes forth in order to establish a Jewish home, and to
achieve<br>
this he needs only the resources inherent in his own personality.
</i>Thus<br>
begins the story of Ya’akov, for everything that follows revolves
around<br>
the <i>establishment of that home</i>. Ya’akov was the first to give
expression<br>
to the idea that <i>God is to be sought within the home</i>. He was the
first<br>
to articulate the profound idea of <i>beis elokim</i> (below, v. 17),
<i>Beis El </i>(below,<br>
v. 19 and 35:15), “the house of God,” which essentially means:
<i>The<br>
sphere in which man blossoms and thrives, the place to which he
brings<br>
all that he acquires and in which he acts and builds his life that
sphere<br>
is the greatest and nearest place for the revelation of God.<br><br>
</i>Ya’akov fulfilled in his life what Noach had envisioned at the
new<br>
beginning of human history: Whereas the culture of Yefes ennobles<br>
men’s souls through the sense of beauty, the mission of Shem is “to<br>
pitch tents in which the Shechinah may dwell.”<br><br>
The Sages of Israel have expressed an idea that contains within it a<br>
complete worldview: <i>Ikir Shechinah b'tachtonim</i>, “the principal
place of the Shechinah<br>
is on earth” (<i>Bereshis Rabbah </i>19:7); or: “The angels laugh at<br>
those who raise their eyes toward heaven, imagining they have to
seek<br>
God up above” (<i>Sefer Chassidim</i>, 18, end); or: “He who is walking
out of<br>
doors while studying, and interrupts his study and says: ‘How
beautiful<br>
is that tree!’ or ‘How beautiful is that field!’ (thus revealing that,
for<br>
him, the study of human life and its beauty when lived in accordance<br>
with God’s Will does not overshadow the beauty of nature) is
regarded<br>
as though he has forfeited his own soul” (<i>Avos </i>3:9).<br><br>
These and similar statements are a legacy to us from the spirit of<br>
Ya’akov. Under the influence of the culture of Yefes, man flees from<br>
ordinary, “prosaic” life and takes refuge in the beautiful “poetry”
of<br>
nature. The heirs of Ya’akov find God and His Shechinah first and<br>
foremost in the <i>home</i> . Herein lies the difference between the
spirit of<br>
Judaism and non-Jewish culture. <br><br>
BTW, to see what R. Steinman missed go to <br><br>
<a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/477583/niagara_falls/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/477583/niagara_falls/</a><br><br>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS8HiWtRQ3E" eudora="autourl">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS8HiWtRQ3E<br><br>
<br>
</a><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Yitzchok Levine</font></body>
</html>