Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Ash's avatar

I think this medrash is rather damning to Modern Orthodoxy, which plays in the tannery and associates with secular society in most aspects.

Expand full comment
Dan Klein's avatar

Interesting discussion, but I wonder about the idea that "Perhaps this is why Avraham needed to leave his homeland... because his ability to spread knowledge of Hashem and His avodah to the world would be compromised if people associated him with the barbaric, immoral citizens of Ur Kasdim." Really, were the citizens of Canaan any better? Worse, if anything, because Avraham insisted on finding a wife for Yitzchak davka back in the old "cemetery." The perfume analogy actually may work better as a metaphor for the exile of the Jews in general -- it allowed the Torah to be disseminated among the nations of the world (a concept expressed by Shadal among others).

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts