Subject: In Memory of Baruch Yitzchak ben Yirmiyahu (Barry Pessin)
From: Heath Berkin <heath.berkin@gmail.com>
Date: 12/2/2016, 5:19 AM
To: Heath Berkin <heath.berkin@gmail.com>
BCC: menachem@alonsystems.com
The Mishna in Avos says " don't look at the vessel, rather what is in the vessel, there are new vessels filled with old and old vessels filled with new".
The Mishna is telling us (and is most probably the source, for) the famous saying "don't judge a book by it's cover". From a young age all of us were always told to make sure not to judge people or things we see by the external appearance but to look into the "content" of everything we see and evaluate based on the "content" not appearance.
Although this is very difficult because we are naturally programmed to judge on the appearance, we must all try look past the appearance and focus on the internal beauty.
The Midrash Shmuel expands this idea to include the way a person looks and relates to himself. Most of our lives we are focusing and running after our external appearances, desires and wants that are driven by our bodies without focusing on our inner desires, those that belong to our soul. Our lives shouldn't be driven and focused on our physical body our "vessel" but on our spiritual soul, that which fills the vessel.