Oh yes, another thing; a lad stopped me yesterday on the street(!) asking about the Mishna in Avot "יהודה בן תימא אומר הוי עז כנמר וכו וכו". I answered him in a very simplistic way, but after walking on I came to realize how little I understand that statement; what does it mean one should be "brazen", "light", "quick" and "strong" in G-dly service? It really shouldn't be over-simplified. Also: the end of his statement is "עז פנים לגהינם ובוש פנים לגן עדן" (but he just said "הוי עז כנמר")?
אלא שדבר זה נצרך לעיון
Here's something from Rav Menahem Mendel Schneerson I found discussing this (for the meantime).
4 comments:
isn't it referring to the mitzvah of zrizus? to do a mitzvah right away and not delay. Like when your mother asks you to do something you should say "I'll do it right away". There's a song about this, I forgot.
o, and it connects with "Im lo achshav aimasai"
Thanks for commenting, but, like I said, fulfilling the mitzvot with alacrity is obviously the main gist of the statement, but the animal/attribute comparison is obviously very specific. Like I said, it would be an injustice to oversimplify. For example; 'why only these specific animals?' 'What exactly about these traits should be mimicked by us and how?', etc..
I mean these quotes in Avot were these rabbis' worldviews, being that they're the only thing we know quoted from them. All the statements that comprise of 'Avot' should be looked at beyond face value...just gotta check out the commentaries...(this was too wordy).
Your welcome, interesting that you say that, because just today, in my Jewish class my prof said that the written torah we darshen each word. But the oral Torah, it's not exact words, so we don't have to look so into it, and that there are many arguments among the Rabbi's in it, but yet each opinion is valued.
Anyways, right, so what animals is that again? a deer? isn't it just for the characteristic of it's speed? like shevet naftali is a deer too I think.
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