Are these gadol stories true?

imasoftov

Sun, Oct 29 2017, 2:08 am

Seas wrote:

Sports is an unfortunate byproduct of us being in galus amongst the [gentiles], and, if not an explicit aveirah, is certainly not in line with ratzon Hashem.

I'm curious which explicit aveirah you think it might be.

Bump

octopus

Sun, Oct 29 2017, 9:28 am

Seas wrote:

Yet Rashi writes that Avrohom wasn't even aware of Sarah's beauty until he noticed it by accident as a very old man on the way to Mitzrayim.

For them having children was done purely l'shem shamayim, no different than fasting on YK or taking the lulav on Sukkos.

How do you know that you understood that rashi in the way it is supposed to be understood. You took it so literally. There are meforshim on rashi and many times rashi can be understood on multiple levels. Avraham knew Sarah was beautiful. My goodness, her name was yiska, which means everyone talked about her beauty (hakol Sachsa b'yofya). We always learned that rashi as a shevach for Sarah and her tznius. Not a shevach for avraham. Anyway, when we are often surrounded by the same people, we often love them for who they are and their inner beauty. Rarely, when we take a step back, we see how others view our family members. I would like to think that avraham saw Sarah's inner beauty but when he realized that they would be going through hostile territory, he saw Sarah as others saw her. Physically beautiful. Which he knew all along, but did not see that on a daily basis, because he was so overcome by her spiritual beauty.

amother

Lemon

Sun, Oct 29 2017, 9:54 am

Seas wrote:

First of all, Rashi himself, after quoting the Midrash with the pshat you gave, also offers another explanation. Secondly, according to Rav Hirsch, Avraham used the words "Hinei na yadati..."- I do know that you are a beautiful woman" because the word "na" implies a preceding conversation on the subject. As in, I have long known and said that you are a beautiful woman... now we need to see what to do about it before we get to Mitzrayim."

If anything, the Torah shows us how NOT to idolize humans by presenting the avos as normal people, who had flaws and made mistakes, yet worked hard to overcome their natures and attain greatness.