Ramifications of a search
In my search for the sources for the various issurim and heterim of music I got sidetracked and started to read about tznius… Which then lead to my wondering about the halachos of tznius for men… Which then lead to my just sitting reading Rambam. I haven’t been keeping up with my reading of the father of all sages, but just today’s reading has reawakened my respect for the man and his torah.
I have endeavored, over the last month, to get back into the best shape of my life. Each month since the end of high school I have become flabbier and weaker. I used to eat vegetarian and watch my fat/simple sugar intake… But then I became religious. First to go was exercising, which might have been ok, except arguing with people about not eating meat killed my vegetarianism too; then the final nail in the health coffin dropped, yeshiva: I sit 12 hours a day, eat mediocre food and sleep less than I probably should. But here comes Rambam to tell me what to do:
Hilchos De'ot 4:4-15
The day and night [together] are twenty-four hours long. It is sufficient to sleep for a third of this, i.e. eight hours, which should be at the end of the night, so that there will be eight hours from when one goes to sleep to sunrise. One should get up before sunrise… Anyone who does not exercise, or holds back from relieving himself, or who has hard bowels, will have a painful life and his strength will weaken, even if he eats good foods and looks after himself medicinally. Overeating is like poison to the body, and is the cause of many illnesses. Most illnesses are cause by bad foods and overeating, even if one over-eats good foods. Solomon said in his wisdom, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles", that is to say that one should guard one's mouth from eating either bad foods or unnecessarily, and one's tongue from speaking except when necessary.
So I’ve been eating my veggies, cutting out the carbs, doing cardio and weight training every day for about an hour. I’m most of the way there, I’ve dropped 10 pounds and can do more pushups that I could a month ago. I’ll never look like Brad Pitt, but I’ll try to be yotzei shitas Rambam on exercising and living well.
But here’s what got me on the Rambam kick first:
H.D. 5:9
The clothing of a learned sage should be pleasant and clean, and it is forbidden for him to [be able to] find a stain or fattiness. He should not wear the clothing of royalty, such as gold or purple [colors], and similar things, for the reason that everyone looks at them, and nor should he dress like a poor person, for the reason that this disgraces his dress, but he should wear clothes of an average fineness. One's flesh should not be visible through or seen from under one's clothing, as is possible with the clothes of very thin linen made in Egypt, and nor should one's clothes trail on the ground like the clothes of those with haughty airs, but one's clothes should reach one's ankles, and one's sleeves should reach one's knuckles. One should not let down one's cloak for the reason that this would appear haughty, but one may do so on the Sabbath if one does not have a change of cloak. One should not put on patched shoes which have patches on top of patches in the summer, but in the winter one may if one is a poor person. One should not go to the market wearing perfume, and nor with perfumed clothes. One should not put spices in one's hair, but it is permitted to rub spices into one's skin as a method of cleaning. Similarly, one should not go out alone at night unless one had a fixed time at which one goes out to one's students. All of these matters are a precaution against suspicion.
The question I have is this:
Are we all talmudei chachamim? Even if not, the Rambam seems to be pointing out aspects of male tznius, that men are also supposed to be pleasant and attractive, but not attracting of attention. I have heard, numerous times, that written somewhere is an injunction against men wearing sleeves shorter than halfway down their upper arm; but I haven’t found it. So if you’ve got any ideas, write me a comment.
Whatever I find out in relation to my tznius studies, when I start my own sect of Chassidim we’ll dress in regency style. While I realize that the frocks worn by Chassidim probably have little to do with polish noblewear I think that a sect that wore riding jackets and waistcoats (all very clean and well taken care of) would be awesome.
PS, I stole the translation of Mishneh Torah from here, because I'm lazy and they did a better job than what I had started writing.
