GEN1593 Do not turn up your nose at the mention of someone’s name.   … Although not the literal meaning of the verse, the thought has been expressed that besides meaning “in their anger,” b’apom can also be defined as “with their nose.”   Quite often, by just turning up one’s nose, one can greatly harm another person.  If that person is present, he will feel belittled and humiliated.   Even when someone is not present, turning up one’s nose at the mention of his name implies derogatory tributes and can cause someone to lose job or marriage prospects.   (Heard from Rabbi Chayim Mordechai Katz, z.t.l., Rosh Hayeshiva of Telshe).  PLYN 126

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1592 As much as possible, avoid associating with people who do not control their tempers, even if they are close relatives.  … Jacob was speaking of his own ill-tempered sons when he said, “Into their company let me not come” [this verse]. Certainly, when you enter into a relationship with someone, observe their disposition.   If you choose to marry a temperamental person, this is the environment in which you will spend your life and in which your children will be raised.   TELVOL 1:255

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1594 See [[GEN121]] Genesis 1:27 image SPERO 162-3

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1595 The reference to maiming oxen illustrates the extent to which enraged people commit acts of gratuitous violence.  Rage separates people’s minds and hearts from God, and inhibits moral constraints.   … Most of us have occasionally responded to bad behavior with disproportionate rage, which is why we all need to learn how to control ourselves when we are consumed with anger. … As the Talmud explains, “When one becomes rageful, God becomes of no consequence to him” [and] “It is certain that the sins of the angry man outweigh his merits” Nedarim 22b.   TELVOL 1:248-9

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1596 See [[GEN1420]] Genesis 34:25 slew AMJV 275-6

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1597 In an interesting example of inter-biblical dialogue, Genesis 49:5-7 alludes critically to the story of the rape of Dinah Genesis 34 and implicitly to the tale’s ideology of tricksterism. This difficult-to-date-and-place piece of tradition Claus Westermann; Genesis. A Commentary, Minneaplis MN: Augsburg 1986:221 is part of the so-called “Blessings of Jacob,” a final testament of the aging patriarch who is pictured to address each of his sons. Simeon and Levi’s slaying of men in anger and willful hamstringing of oxen Genesis 49:6 is decried as unfair and inappropriate: “Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce/ their overflowing rage, for it is relentless.” The interest of the writer who placed this saying in its biblical context is probably less in the ethics of war than explaining aspects of the tribes’ status in Israel, especially Levi’s lack of the tribal holding. Nevertheless, Genesis 49:5-7 provides a fascinating ideological counterpoint to Genesis 34, a view of warring behavior more in tune with the bardic code than with the marginal’s tricksterism. NIDITCH 137-8

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1599 Smile to your fellow man. Before he died, Yaakov blessed the tribe of Yehuda that their land would be so fertile that the vineyards would produce an abundance of wine and the sheep grazing on the land would produce an abundance of milk. (Rashi).   The Talmud Ketubot 111b states that [this verse] can be read (in the Hebrew) as “When one shows his teeth (in a smile) to his fellow man, it is better than giving him milk to drink.”   How highly we would consider a man who gave drinks of milk to passersby everyday.   When a benefactor of mankind!   A drink of milk provides essential nourishment and becomes part of all that the recipient does thereafter.   Yet this man does less than one who smiles at his fellow man.   The smile enters the recipient’s mind and body, and stimulates all the glands to produce their secretions in the most beneficial proportions.  Every one of the thousands of intricate processes of physical function is optimally motivated (Rabbi Avigdor Miller in Sing, You Righteous, p. 294). PLYN 126-7

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1598 R. Yochanan said: “It is better to ‘whiten’ [expose in a smile] one’s teeth to one’s friend than to give him milk to drink, as it is written: ‘ULVN shinayim mechalav’ – do not read it ‘Uleven shinaym’ [‘and his teeth will be white’], but ‘Ulevon shinayim’ [‘and he shall whiten his teeth’]” Ketubot 111b  TEMIMAH-GEN 191

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1600 The Mishnah Ethics of the Fathers 1:15 states: “Welcome every person with a pleasing countenance.”  What is the essence of this message? It teaches that if one presents even the most precious gift to someone while maintaining an unpleasant facial expression, it is considered as if he gave nothing.   Conversely, if one merely welcomes another person with a pleasing countenance, it is considered as if he gave him the most precious gift in the world, even if he did not give him anything” (Avos deRabbi Nasan 13:12).   Rambam [Maimonides] comments that one who welcomes another person in a joyful manner fulfills the Mishnah’s rule to an even greater extent, since this type of reception will make him feel truly at ease.  … People receive numerous signals, both explicit and implicit, that gauge the degree of affection with which other regard them.   The most revealing of these signals is facial expressions.   One who is not consciously aware of his facial expressions may be guilty of transmitting wrong signals; if his affection for another person is not sufficiently reflected by his facial expression, he is liable to lose that relationship.   The other person will consciously or subconsciously pick up unfriendly signals, which will in turn cause him to withdraw from the relationship.   The idea tool for expressing affection is the face.  One who masters the art of pleasant facial expressions will benefit himself and others, while one who continues to allow his facial expression to involuntarily betray his emotions will cause untold damage to himself and his acquaintances.   WAGS 26-7

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN1601 Joseph, as the Talmud imagines, might have been seduced by Potiphar’s wife, but for the appearance at the crucial moment of his dead parents’ image at the window.   Why, then, does Joseph’s chastity remain his own? Because it was he who chose to heed the message that he and he alone could see encoded in his mother’s eyes and hear articulated from his father’s lips.  According to the midrash B. Sotah 36b, Jacob appealed to Joseph’s sense of history and destiny; immediately, “his bow abode in strength” [this verse], that is, his lust abated.  But even in this ancient homily Joseph was cautioned, not unmanned.   What the apparition offered him was a choice – inscription of his name on the ephod of the High Priests of its erasure from the stone reserved for it, his virtue blotted out by his dissoluteness, his memory preserved only as a whoremaster Proverbs 29:3.   The cautionary vision clarified Joseph’s choice against a backdrop larger than history – but it did not make his choice for him.   JHRHV 20-1

SHOW FULL EXCERPT