The Forbidden Slippers
May 29th, 2011 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week
The Right Slipper?
The architect hastens to renovate the apartment of his client. The colors of each room are carefully calculated. Each object has a rigorously determined place. The doorbells chime in tune to musical themes from Wagner and Beethoven. The client is initially thrilled: whether turning a knob, reclining in an armchair, or treading on a rug, he is living in Art.
One day, the architect visits the master of the house and chides him for wearing inappropriate slippers. The host reminds his visitor that the embroidered slippers were custom-made according to the architect’s own design.
“I know that!” thunders the architect. “But they are for the bedroom!”
The client soon commits new blunders by accepting gifts. “You no longer need anything,” the architect sternly tells the poor rich man. “You are complete!”
The poor rich man was reduced to being a spectator of his own clotted and shriveled life.
This week’s portion, Nasso, describes a similar “Poor Rich Man,” the Nazir. At first glance, his vow to become a Nazirite seems holy. He is consumed with a desire to live in sanctity. However, he must bring a sin offering when his vow ends. He chose to wear only the perfect slippers in their proper place. He, too, desired to be complete, and to focus only on the perfection of his world.
This world is our home, and it is filled with the most magnificent art. The Art in our home is not limited to externals; the real Art is in the living and how we use the Art all around us. The complete person lives the Art of Life, he does not live in Art. The complete person honors the Architect of life by vibrantly living in every room, every aspect of life. He finds his completeness in making choices, in sometimes wearing the wrong slippers of clashing colors.
A “Shaleim,” or complete person, is never a spectator, but the most important aspect in each area of his life. It is he, who chooses the colors, design and style. The Nazir chose to be a spectator. It is for that reason that he must bring a sin offering.
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Dateline: Motza’ei Shavuot in Tsfat
CHaZ”L tell us that the Nazir episode comes hard on the heels of the Sota episode in our Torah portion of Naso, for a reason.(quoted in RaSHI)
They indicate the person was driven to take the Nazir vow because they saw the Sota in all her non-glory.(swearing off wine products that contribute to loose morals).
There seems to be a strong message here about “sh’meerat ha’einayim”,literally guarding one’s eyes.When we are interacting with the world where is our focus? G-d has put so much beauty in the world; why should we steer our gaze
to dark corners?!!
It’s not about walking around with blinders or staring at the ground while walking up the street. In fact, the Talmud (Sota 22b)refers to the ‘Paroosh Keeza’i’ in uncomplimentary terms -the ‘very holy person’ who closes his eyes to avoid seeing women while walking down the street and ends up walking into walls injuring himself.
When Avram and Sarai went down to Egypt in the face of the famine in C’na’an, he implores her to tell the Egyptians he is her brother as ‘now I know you are a beautiful woman’(B’reishit 12;11).The commentaries pick up on this and inquire- they’d been married a while-Avram didn’t know she was a beautiful woman util now? Different technical answers are offered, e.g. they had to cross the water and Sarai lifted up her knickers. I’d like to suggest something different-of course, Avram wasn’t clueless about Sarai’s beauty; it just wasn’t a focus of his.
Fast forward 3500 years to the Holy Seer of Lublin. A few weeks before Pesakh one year, the Seer calls over his gabbai (aide-de-camp) and says to him “the Rebbetzin tells me she needs a new outfit for Pesakh, can you please go to the fabric store and purchase material?” The gabbai asks the Seer “Rebbe, how much material is needed?”The Seer responds that he doesn’t know. The gabbai respectfully asks:”But, surely Rebbe, you’ve been married so long, surely you have an approximation?” To which the Seer (who could see from one end of the world to the other)replied: “What the eyes have to see-they see; what they don’t have to see-they don’t”.
The eyes are windows of the soul.
The question is: In which direction?