Machshava:

Ethics 

Collections: Rabbi Weinberger: Tanya

Description

P. 24 (perek 8 in the text of the Tanya). What happens when a person, unknowingly, and with all the right intentions, eats forbidden food (e.g., the Monsey case)? When the chachamim (sages) declare that something is assur (forbidden), it is metaphysically transformed inot a forbidden object. How is it possible that a Jew has a desire for something has been declared assur, i.e., foreign to his nature? Hashem placed something, a yetzer harah (evil inclination) in this world which seduces us ot "leave" our world of the permitted. Overindulgence in the permitted is decadence; even though it tastes great, why does a person need to continue eating when he is no longer hungry? [of course, because it tastes good!] Conversations which are not for the purpose of Torah (this can be d'varim beteilim (non-Torah conversations) or leitzanus (silliness)). The difference between those two kinds of conversations.