Mastery of self is one of life’s greatest accomplishments
Our Yamim Tovim have passed. The spiritual bubble that enveloped us has dissipated, and we must reenter the day-to-day dramas and distractions of our everyday lives. There’s no doubt that the material world threatens to challenge our spirituality — but are we meant to eschew it entirely?
In his Lekach V’halibuv, Rav Avraham Schorr shlita shares with us how we can take the lessons of the Yamim Noraim to gird ourselves for this challenge.
Rav Yishmael ben Elisha said, “From the day the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, we legislate periodic prohibitions upon ourselves from eating meat or drinking wine. But we only impost a prohibition that the majority of the congregation can uphold [and this is not a permanent prohibition]” (Bava Basra 60).
With this, the Talmud validates the natural human craving for the pleasures of This World; this tendency is not one that can be easily or cavalierly disregarded when making decisions in halachah. Meshech Chochmah bolsters this point by noting that there is but one Torah-mandated fast day when we must deprive ourselves of food — Yom Kippur (parshas Noach 8:17).
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