{
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Iggeret HaGra",
    "versionSource": "https://www.sefaria.org",
    "versionTitle": "Sefaria Community Translation",
    "actualLanguage": "en",
    "languageFamilyName": "english",
    "isBaseText": false,
    "isSource": false,
    "direction": "ltr",
    "heTitle": "אגרת הגר\"א",
    "categories": [
        "Musar",
        "Acharonim"
    ],
    "text": [
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        "Concerning the fence of solitude, the ideal is to never leave home. Even your visit to the synagogue should be very short. In fact, it is better to pray at home, for it is impossible to be spared from jealousy or from hearing idle talk or lashon hara in the synagogue. And one receives punishment for this, as we find (Shabbat 33a), \"Also one who hears and is silent....\" This is even the more so on Shabbat and Yom Tov when they gather to talk - it would be better not to pray at all... It is also advisable that your daughter not go to the synagogue, because she'll see beautiful clothes there, become jealous and talk about it at home. This will lead to lashon hara and all the rest. She should rather cling to Mussar and not become jealous of anything in this world, where everything is vanity and illusions, appearing and disappearing overnight (Yonah 4:10). \"Though he grows as high as the sky, his head reaching the clouds, he perishes forever...\" (Job 20:6,7). \"For property does not last forever, or a crown for all generations\" (Proverbs 27:24). And even while it exists it is worthless, loathsome and disdained by any sensible person. Woe to him who is impressed by it. Envy only the fear of Hashem (ib. 23:17). One should not say, \"How can I earn a share in the World-to-Come? - I can't do it!\" For we have learned (Berachot 17a): \"Whether one does much or little doesn't matter, provided one directs one's heart to heaven.\""
    ],
    "sectionNames": [
        "Paragraph"
    ]
}