There is a famous saying (among so many others) from our sages: "beautify yourself, and then beautify others" (Talmud, Bava Metzia 107:B).<\/p>\n
The simplest explanation of this saying is that in order for a person to help another, they must first prepare themselves. This applies to both the material and spiritual aspects of life.<\/p>\n
In order for a teacher to teach his students, he must first study himself; in order for a doctor to cure a patient, he must first know medicine; in order for a person to lend money (without interest!) to another, he must first have money himself, etc.<\/p>\n
However, when one delves deeper into this saying, one can find other implications that elevate its meaning and leave us with practical and fundamental teachings of the Jewish vision of community life.<\/p>\n
1) The saying of our wise men is not simply good advice, as if to say that, in the eventual case that one is faced with the need to teach or influence another person in some way, one should first prepare oneself, but our wise men are giving us an order, so to speak, composed of two parts: 1) prepare yourself, 2) help others.<\/p>\n
In other words, while studying Torah is a very important mitzvah, our sages are saying: use it to teach others!, not just for your own enrichment.<\/p>\n
2) Our sages do not mention levels. That is, the level the giver must have to influence the receiver is never a problem. Thus, giving becomes a commandment even when the person is not an expert or does not possess the same abilities as another. In simpler terms, not being the absolute Master of a subject cannot be an excuse for not teaching about it, as the Rebbe used to say, if one knows the letter Aleph, one can teach another person who doesn't even know what an Aleph is...<\/p>\n
3) Our sages say "beautify others," in the plural. A person should never be content with having helped one individual; they should always seek opportunities to help more.<\/p>\n
In another context, it would be the idea that one should not serve God with the attitude of "what is my obligation and will I fulfill it?", as if looking for a way to "finish" serving God in order to dedicate oneself to something else, but rather the attitude should be to "pursue" the fulfillment of Mitzvot.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hay un dicho famoso (entre tantos otros) de nuestros sabios: \"embell\u00e9cete a ti mismo, y luego embellece a otros\" (Talmud, Bava Metzia 107:B). La explicaci\u00f3n m\u00e1s sencilla de este dicho es que para que una persona pueda ayudar a otra, debe primero prepararse a s\u00ed misma. Esto se aplica tanto en los aspectos materiales de… Read More \u00bbBeautify yourself<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[950,956,945,943,1026,942],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editoriales","tag-di-s","tag-estudio","tag-mitzva","tag-rebe","tag-talmud-2","tag-tora"],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/avatar1400.jpeg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"castbox":{"key":"castbox","url":"","label":"CastBox","class":"castbox","icon":"castbox.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/rabino-tuvia-serber","embedCode":"Embell\u00e9cete<\/a><\/blockquote>