What Does the Torah Really Say About Beauty?

There's a very interesting phenomenon that repeats itself in the Torah quite often that has always disturbed me and we are coming today to solve this query that has been very uh perturbing and that is that when you go through many of the paras that are in front of us now you will find over and over again the reference to the fact of external beauty. Of course, we know that the imal Senu with all her spiritual and highos level she was known as one of the four prettiest women that ever were on the planets that even Araminu didn't realize. The Gmoroy actually says Desar is like who was one of the four also of the most prettiest women that were on the planet and Sara were comparable with their absolute beauty that they contained. Of course, we found in Parus Kay Sara also the reference to Rifka when Eleazar found her is her being a Yafa and a Yus Maria in her whopping three years old. I guess she didn't have too many pimples or something. And we also find by rael in paras vets in the para in front of us now in this time period also that raalain was also referred to as a yafar and mara very pretty and nice beautiful woman. Of course her child yadik is also referred to with the same description in parv of also being a yafetra and yus maria. So we see this incredible idea that external beauty seems to play a place even in massive sadikim and we find just like we said s was compared to was compared to in his absolute beauty and this only says dareni because when we're speaking about sitkus we usually understand that we're referring to high spiritual levels and why do we give a hoot and a nanny about how good-looking they are? I don't think they're going to be performing in the next cinema movie. So why does it bother us? That's a b we find another per another interesting phenomenon in par that we know as we know came and he had there was a massive rock which took a number of people to take off and he came like one of the Harlem globe trers spinned it on his finger the nail the the uh the ball on the thing with he chucked it over flew around put it back and had absolutely uh incredible coach and Rashi brings the brace Robin see in par that says from here we see the incredible strength of even though that should ask everyone everyone should ask such a question the garra says that we that we know that the we always know that the are known as being a little bit weaker they're even referred to sometimes as as being not always in top health because the Torah weakens a person because he's so busy being shaka involved in his learning and at the same time on the contrast we find Yakov Ainu was incredibly strong we find David Hamelik of course the great David Hamelik and Alf refer is referred to a number of time as killing golia the the the lion he killed a bear in the earlier time period someone in his army binyahu ben yo yada who is not as famous was a very big saddic and he was known as a gib I don't have to speak to you, of course, about Shimshan. That one we all know. And just remember that Chimchan, yes, he was also a big he was a he had a long beard besides his long hair. And you should know he was a big sadic also as the Gumar refers to him. And still we know his herculean, incredible and miraculous strength which all these people seem to have. And the question is for us, what is the purpose of having so much beauty and so much strength? It almost sounds like a book of mythology of Greek mythology. What what what's the whole purpose of this whole thing? A whopper question. No, it's a very good question. Let's continue. Mosher Rabenu of course we know as the Gomorrah says in Bkaral was 10 tall. He was humongous. knew that I would I would have thought maybe you should be a little shorter like many of the were not necessarily very tall and not only that we know the tells us that he put up and put down the Mishkan singlehandedly we're talking about humongous beams which would have required cranes in our time to be able to carry them and Mosher Rabenu himself was able to swing them around and do what was necessary also a big some people don't realize what a big saddic he was. It says he was also he was the tallest amongst the whole entire nation when David tried to put on his armor to fight and even though David Melik was he was already 28 he wasn't a youngster it said he was dripping inside the clothes it was much bigger than him he couldn't fit himself at all or even close to the clothes as Gomorrah says in so we see from here an interesting phenomenon of greatness that comes Not only in the spiritual worlds but apparently in the physical and what's the how can that be it doesn't seem that in our day and age it is consistent maybe with some people I'm not trying to speak about anyone but more or less we don't see any connection says and now I am going to expand on the words of he speaks very in one paragraph when to answer this question so let me just be extend it with the dat and the derm the great words of the ramal that say an incredible uh an important idea which is a basis of Judaism and that is of course we know that we are made of what we call a goof and a shama a physical body and a spirit of course we know we have these two facets but the question is why do we need to have the two interconnected this thing that we say we always say the wondrous thing about us is that your body and your spirit are connected. They have a connection, a relationship with each other. How do they connect to each other? You want to have a battle. You want to have free choice. Okay. So, have something that's the like they have in the movies. You have the little cupid over here and you have the little guy with the with the devil things on the side and the two guys are fighting each other on top of you in your head. And that's that's what it is. Who says that the body has to be completely sustained by the nama? They have to be interconnected one to the other which we say is that's what we mean when we say the words. We speak about this incredible idea that something spiritual is contained inside of something physical the nama inside of the goof the spirit inside of the body. So this wondrous idea what's the reason why does the goof require it so badly? So the answer is because the nama is here on a mission. He is Mr. perfect, but he's not here to make himself perfect. He's here to make your physical body perfect. When you make those right decisions, when you do the things you're supposed to be doing, then the nama encompasses itself and and it goes and clings on to the goof and it actually is it purifies it. It takes the goof which is really physical what we call gas thick and a little bit and you know very dense and it goes ahead and it purifies it in the most purification type of way. It slowly but surely does it. Now let's be honest I understand with all of us that we are simpleton we try our best but our body still has a lot of charge. It is still very much not completely in control but it does tell us what to do. But you should know that this is our objective and it happened with many people. First of all before he sinned was from the end of the world to the next. What does that mean? That means that his physical body was spiritual. His physical his physical body of is what our nama our spirit is around right now. You followish nishama was a step above his body was what we know as our spirit is our nishama. You understand what I'm saying? So, Adam Marishan was so pure that his body and his nama his spirit were in sync. They were so connected. When you saw a man and yes, he was a man, he was close to a malik. He was on such a high spiritual level that it wasn't until the big day that he sinned. And when he sinned, that body became very gas, very thick, very corroded. It became blackened. And now it's much harder to be able to penetrate that body to be able to witness the nama to be able to see the spirit that lies behind the person. Of course, it's there and we all have it and we know we do because here we are alive. When a person dies the body looks the same, but the spirit is dissipated. That's what gives a person his says the of course there were a number of people that reached this level. Mosher Rabenu had a Karen or a pun. He had a beaconing of light that was shooting through his face and he had to put on a mask even though it wasn't corona in order to be able to prevent people from seeing his nishama. His body turned into a piece of glass. It was completely crystallized and you were able to see the nama penetrating through the purified body of an incredible man that we call Mosh Rabenu. And I emphasize a man. He was not a malik. He's still a person. But he was able to take the body, which is the purpose of all of creation, and purify it to a perfect scenario. Of course, we know never died because they reached also a status of purifying their body. The Gomorrah says about Jacob Ainu also lit different interpretations what it means that he did not die but the idea behind it is similar to what we're saying now and that is that he reached a status of the fact that his body was in such perfection that his spirit was totally in control and therefore his body was so purified that that's where it is. So you see that your body and your nishama are interconnected. Did you ever look at someone's face and you could read right between the lines? You look at the creases in head. You look at the expressions on his face or should I say your spouse's and you're able to understand exactly what's going on. You can even sometimes read a person's palm and see the future. It's a real thing about reading palms. I had a shear on it once. It's something real because the nama is connected. It has an affiliation with the goof with the body. And it's all a matter of being able to see through the body with your X-ray vision into the naman to be able to see the connection between the two. Okay? Just like we know when the when we know the three angels that came to Araminu's tent, we all understand, oh, they were angels. Yeah. Yeah. So how they come? Well, they dress themselves up zip in a physical body and that's it. Then like Rashi says they pretended to eat it was dary carrots even though they weren't really eating. So these spiritual people were on such a high level that they got to the stage where their body was completely uh but was like the shadow. It was like the shadow of their n of their spirit within them. It'll happen to you if it doesn't happen in this world. That's what happens in we spoke about this in the afterlife shum that inatim this is exactly what will occur that your body will come and be so purified that your body will be whatever your nishama is right now there will be a perfect scenario of two sides of the same coin right now there's a paradox there's a contrast between the goof and the nishama the body and the spirit there's definitely differences and there's an adversity between the two. But don't worry in they're going to work together. And this is what our sadikim were able to do. You understand what I'm getting at? You see what's happening over here? When we're speaking about such spiritual people, the physical body becomes just a reflection of the nishama. So when we refer to the beauty of Sara or Rifka or Rael or Ysef at Sadi, when we speak about the greatness of the strengths of Shiman or Yakovu or David or this or the or the greatness of Shaamelik, we are showing that their spirit was so powerful that it actually penetrated through the gof and was actually able to influence the way their physical body worked. Yes, in this day and age it doesn't happen. Yes, the Gumar says that when a person learns he becomes weak because by us they don't stood there together. They don't work out together. The body and the spirit in our day and age are not working out together. If you get there, don't worry. It's going to work by you also. But we're not holding there. So therefore, for us, yes, learning makes us a little bit weaker. It takes us out of the boxing ring. It puts us in a place where I'm not as there. RLish was not able to be the bandit that he was before. He became weaker and by it's okay. That's where we are and that's where we're holding. But at least we can now get an understanding a conception of what type of people we are discussing that their body and their soul were so interconnected that the beauty was beckoning through their skin. Incredible type of idea. With this I'm going to answer and finish with one more idea which again should be bothering all of us on a consistent basis when we reaches the paras. This is a very important shar because it has the fundamentals of Judaism and everything I'm saying also in paras we are introduced to an idea that Jacobu sees veskov he goes ahead and gives her a kiss. We spoke about in the previous sh we gave a sh just previous about the power of a kiss and that there was a lot of meaning behind such a kiss and when someone gives a kiss there's a lot of kak and shea and influence that comes down that there was a lot of meaning behind it as the mafar say over here the midra says that people are wondering how could yakov do such a thing but we find this phenomenon over and over again things that are illegal for us to do things that we can't do and we find great sometimes. Yes. Doing it. Yakov Ainu gives a kiss to Rael before he's married to her. As we know later on the same Yakovu says an expression which even Rashi says wow what does he mean by that? He says bring me my wife after he finished working for her because my days I've worked and I shall come and we will be together so I can have relations with her. Excuse me. What? What? What exactly are you saying? So how could he do such a thing? You know who answers this question? No other than the Zohar. The Zor answers in par when tells Elazzar, "Put your hand underneath my thigh to make a oath itself as how could he do such a thing that brings a hearer. It's dangerous that's illegal." And he answers the late we are not speaking about human beings. We're speaking about human beings but ones who are on a different level of of a malik and therefore they don't require. This is the zor. He says this that they are in such a level that they have no within them. I will tell you what he means. Just now we finished saying how pure their bodies were that their nishama and body were in the same place. A but B you have to realize that when they did an action which was a mitzvah that we enjoy or mitzvah that we might not enjoy for them it was all in the same boats when they ate or drink or had relations with their spouse it was no difference than when they put on fillin or they were David on kipper it was all in the same boat they were shaking a lulv and a chauffear and at the same time they were busy enjoying uh their Friday meal. It was all the same thing. There was no of individuals there because they all saw the same thing as a as an action that is to you understand the Rambam writes in when he speaks about he says they were they were so connected to every action they did was they were always there with he says When he says that we are always li no matter where they were even sleeping they were always connected they were always up there always having that affiliation that's why we say we say the word on each one because they were extension almost of they're one of the legs of the co everything they did It was a so when we all understand when Jacob said you should bring me my wife so I can have relations we all know what Rashi told us I don't even need Rashi to tell us that it means that I have to have 12 this is the woman who's going to have the future that's why he gave her the previous kiss because he saw the sitting and resting aside this incredible woman he saw the woman that's going to be standing on the pet of Israel and going to be crying for her children and she's going to be the reason why we're going to come back from the exile from the thing he saw and that's why he cried. That's why he cried at the time when he saw her. There were tremendous and different things that these people were way above us that they were able to do. And that's why all these actions are not strange. They're well to be understood. And let me tell you something, most people understand what I'm saying. I think some people are going to hear this and go, "That sounds like a bunch of answers." Those people that think that what I'm saying is just a bunch of excuses or answers or just trying to get around the problems, I have to say, and I don't mean to be too critical, but it probably means that you are very involved in haz because when people have such a gas thick skinned body, meaning they're a little bit over involved in overindulgence, so it's very hard for them to understand the concepts that I am discussing right Now until the extent where they won't even believe it because when they see if I could say an act of relations they see only one thing what America taught us. They see what the western world's description of it is. When they see the idea of beauty, then go back to Rome and the Greeks and go ahead and enjoy what they appreciated, which is the human body for all the lusts and desires and ty that they're chasing, for all the hedonistic and over overindulgence of chasing every little bit of the ane of the me that I can get my hands on. And therefore, everything I'm saying is totally not understood. It's confusing. It doesn't make sense. It sounds too esoteric. And I think you're just making it up. It's a fact. Work on yourself a little bit. Change the differences and suddenly you'll see that there's a lot of emit to what we are saying right now because there are people even in our day and age haven't reached these levels. No one's in this age obviously, but have gotten to the stage of so purification that they have gone above the level of the body. They purify the body so well that they're able to go ahead and connect to everything that I'm saying now. Even the gumar brings the gumar brings a couple accounts of such a thing of amayim that we're holding on such a on such a level. This is the this is the idea behind the expressions that sometimes we see whether it's in the or whether in the about the physical body or the actions that they might do of these great people. We're not there but we know where we're aiming. The idea behind everything we're saying is just to know where we're driving to, to appreciate the religion that's behind us, the forefathers that we come from, and to appreciate that yes, a physical body is a beautiful thing. It's not a damn thing at all. We are not Christian. We believe the body is one of beauty. It's a f it's fantastic thing. And we're there to purify it, to work on it, to realize that the bedroom is kadeshim. It is the most inner sanctuary that is in the beta mikdash and is the most purified place that that there is to be. The beauty that we see in a person is meant to be appreciated and of course penetrate to realize that sometimes we say but when it's with she has then he that woman who has the who has the yi heal the connection to everything we spoke about we must conclude with kaneka because the whole idea of the Greeks and the kaneka battle that we were that we were experienced has to do with the idea of beauty. beauty of elegance of the power of the pretty and that is all the focused on the external beauties that exist. Of course, we weren't battling against that. We do believe in beautifification of the world and if you think about it, all our mit have to do with beautifification. We are interested in always buying a beautiful lul or metro. We always try to make our shag to make it as pretty as possible. There's a there's an idea of Hindor mitzvah. When we buy a safer Torah to buy one as nice as possible and it's no coincidence that the holiday of holidays that has to do with what with Mahad Mahadran the idea of doing all the mahadrans to do all the extras to make it as pretty as possible is on purpose on to express the fact that yes we believe in beauty. We believe in the power of look of the looking aesthetic and looking ornamental and and pretty. But the difference is it's in a mitzvah. It's with some panmas behind it. We take a mitzvah and we make it as pretty and impressive looking as possible because when the when the external is cons is consistent with the internal together with that together. So then it makes for what we call the idea of the bahadrin of the mahadrin. And that is why this mida is h the whole idea of the of has to do with the mid of the eight of the spheres number eight on purpose of the spheres because h like the hood the carne hood of mosh raenu was from inside and out to be able to see him in the expression that's what it was all about and that's the idea also that we were mentioning about this idea of the beautifulness of expressing oneself and being able seeing themselves from outside as long as it comes together from the inside. Also, when we're focusing on beauty and y and and charisma, it's not real. If it's for itself, if it's only for the external, but if but if you have the woman who has if within her she has she has the insides and the all in the right place that woman is the one to be praised also with and also with the she gets the whole entire shebang together because that's what we care about putting the whole entire thing that's mad and that is the battle that we have on the fight for being able to understand that the external world is a means. It's not here just for itself, but it's there because of the pmius that lies behind it because of the nama that lies behind the goof. And when they work together as one bond, when they work together as a pair, there's nothing better. We have accomplished our purpose. We have reached the goal. We've gone to the finish line. And then the are able to overcome and succeed. this and ever.