Chagigah 4: To Be Seen by God

A halakhic discussion and an aggadic discussion. First, a study of why those who are excluded from the mitzvah of Re'eiah, even when the exclusions are rather self-evident (women, tumtum, androgynous, plus a slave who has not been freed). Second, one who is blind and can't see, even in one eye, is exempt from appearing, or from the obligation to be seen - which introduces a large measure of anthropomorphism... And highlights the distance between God and the Jewish people, in the era of the sages, as compared to the biblical Temple relationship. To wit, the verses that made the sages cry.