Q&A: Reducing Pleasure
Reducing Pleasure
Question
After first offering greetings of peace to the honored Rabbi,
Is there any value in reducing pleasure in this world? For example, when making an omelet, to burn it a little so the taste is spoiled, and to try not to buy tasty foods, and the like?
With great respect, Amram
Answer
In principle, there is no value at all in diminishing joy in the world. On the contrary, the world was created so that we may enjoy it. But in practice, it seems that the Sages say in several places that it is proper to reduce joy and enjoyment from this world, as a memorial and mourning for the destruction of the Temple.
And even so, it seems to me that there should be healthy proportions in this matter. Most of the world does not practice this at all (aside from leaving a cubit by a cubit unfinished in a new house, or mourning during the Three Weeks and on fast days). And of course, each person according to his own level.
Burning an omelet sounds to me, on the face of it, a bit exaggerated. But if you can handle it, and it really sharpens your sense of mourning and your longing for redemption, and it does not negatively affect your regular life, then it seems to me entirely appropriate.
Rabbi Hezekiah said, Rabbi Cohen in the name of Rav: In the future, a person will have to give an account for everything his eye saw and he did not eat. Rabbi Eleazar took this teaching seriously, and he would save up small coins and eat one item from each kind once a year.