it is forbidden

[devohoneybee]

from my Facebook feed this morning:

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz
December 16 at 3:46pm ·


Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was staying at the home of a wealthy man and all the guests noticed that in his ritual hand wash before bread he only used a very minimal amount of water (exactly a reviis ha-log). The guests inquired why Reb Yisrael wasn't following the Shulchan Aruch's ruling (OH 155:10) that one should wash very plentifully. He responded: "I have seen that the maid brings the water from afar, from a well in the valley. Your house is situated high on the hill, and the maid almost collapses under the weight of her burden when she brings up the pail of water on her shoulders. And it is forbidden for a person to be overly religious at the expense of others."

Comments

[lannamichaels]

ooooh, I like this. (I generally do not like gadol stories, since they're often of the kind of "I went to someone's house for friday night dinner and slowly realized that each of the children was refusing one of the courses so it could be fed to me, the guest" and I have a huge horror recoil of literally taking food out of child's mouth just so you can do the mitzvah of having guests for shabbos. I feel the wrong lesson is being taught there. And in the one about the gadol, as a child, not having gotten a fork in his place setting, so just sitting there and not eating until his mother asks why, and he says "because you didn't give me a fork, ima", but he didn't say anything because he didn't want to embarrass her -- thus leading to publicly embarrasing her. Hey, little gadol, go get your own fork.) (um, anyway. This is a good story!)

[devohoneybee]

those stories sound AWEFUL, kind of... smarmy. but the one today, yeah, i liked that message. thanks for the context!