Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Privacy

The Torah praises the Children of Israel for keeping private things private. In counter distinction to modern western culture where all dirty laundry is washed in public, the Torah attitude is that not everything is for the public eye. Some things are meant to remain known only within the community or the family, or between husband and wife. When everything intimate is public knowledge, it violates the goodness of the tents of Yaakov. Additionally, we see that the nation of Israel voluntarily situated their tents such that they should not violate the privacy of their neighbors. That means that they were not interested in their neighbor's business. They possessed the emotional refinement to prefer not to know "interesting" things about the people around them. This is a trait which requires cultivation and maturity.

(Rabbi Chaim Dovid Green)

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