mentalblog.com comments:
Don't forget terumos and maasros.
"Don't forget terumos and maasros." Could someone give me instructions on what to do "for dummies please."
Beautiful pic and idea.
The Tower of Babel was built with bricks and not stones (because there were no stones in Shinar for it is a valley).
The Rebbe explains that in making a dira b'tachteinim there are bricks and stones. Stones are materiala that, although they are part of eilem hazeh hagashmi, they lend themselves naturally as building materials. Bricks are mud and shmutz that need to be fired in order to make them into something with which you can build.
So, apropos to your post, I would venture to say that when something is natural, like stones, its irregularity is beautiful. But when man must impose a sense of purpose onto that which is chaotic, then it must be bricks, that is, uniform.
Dear Tzemach,
Thank you for the beautiful pictures of the beautiful city!
I agree that Paris is a beautiful city also, and much of what makes it so, we owe to Baron Haussmann, but also to his patron, Napoleon III. Because of his ignominious end, we often tend to forget that Napoleon III was quite a capable man, and the beautiful boulevards, open places, and monuments of Paris are the result of his vision and determination.
I think, however, that it should also be noted that it is possible, in a "totalitarian" building plan to end up with a city that is hideously ugly.
I like what Tony Montana has to say about the bricks and bitumen of Babel as being man-made, as opposed to the stones. There is an interpretation that the fired bricks and bitumen mortar were selected by the builders of the Tower because they were waterproof, hence they were mocking the reality of the flood both by building something that would outreach the waters, and by using materials that would be impervious to watery degradation.
They were confounded, as we know, not by flood and not by fire, but by a multiplicity of languages.
How interesting!
Chag Sameach.
about maaser.. some israeli told me once u can scoop of a bit and put in the trash
Not so. I don't remember the exact procedure anymore, but it's more complicated than just throwing a bit in the trash. Speak to someone knowledgeable there.
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