Thursday, June 7, 2012

Pleasure is highly dependent on Seeing - Yoma 74b

Yoma(74b):Who fed you Manna in the wilderness in order to afflict you?(Devarim 8:16). There was a dispute between Rav Ammi and Rav Assi regarding what affliction the Jews suffererd from the Manna? One said [it was because of its transient nature] as we know that one can not compare one who has bread in his basked with one who has none [and is worried where he will get more - Rashi]. The other said [it was because what they ate didn’t look like what they tasted] because there is no comparison between one who sees what he eats and one who doesn’t see [and the Manna tasted like all types of food and yet they only saw the Manna – Rashi]. Rav Yosef said, this alludes to the fact that blind people eat but are not satiated. Abaye replied from this we can conclude that who has a meal should only eat it during the day. R’ Zera asked where this idea is alluded to in the Bible? It is Koheles (6:9), Better is the seeing of the eyes then the wandering of the desire. Reish Lakish concluded from this verse that better is the pleasure of looking at a woman than the act itself[- and therefore it needs to be greatly avoided – Semag].

1 comment:

  1. >Abaye replied from this we can conclude that who has a meal should only eat it during the day.<

    I guess that part is not part of the analogy!

    ReplyDelete

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