יום ג Date: 7 Elul, 5774 (9/2/14) – MoedKatan#22 {Eliezer}

Body for Soul

[22a bottom] Gemarah: By most cases we try to bury the deceased as quickly as possible. Rashi: This speed is praiseworthy. R’ Rosner: This is contrary to most other nations of the world who are very involved in the beautification of the physical body. We understand that the soul is the primary focus and we must purify (in a Mikvah) and return the physical shell back to the ground because it now is lacking almost everything it had before.

E’s Lesson: We must always remember both in passing and especially in life, that our focus must not be on our physical bodies. We have spiritual souls that only use the physical body to produce actions and do Mitzvos with [of course we need our machines running in top shape to enable our journeys, but we should never let that become our primary focus]. Whenever we feel a “physical” urge from our Yetzer Haras, we should take a moment and reflect if this is really to our ultimate spiritual advantage or not and redirect our efforts appropriately.