With all due respect to Rashi, without whom we could never learn Torah properly,the fact that HE infers from Avraham’s words that he never before noticed that Sora was beautiful, does not mean that a) Avraham never noitced his wife was beautiful or even b) that we have to take that interpretation literally. Avraham could have meant any NUMBER of things by that statement, one idea being that he had taken her beauty so for granted (as SO MANY HUSBANDS often do), that it was not until he looked at her through the eyes of strangers, that he realized just HOW beautiful she was. Or he might have meant that looking at her objectively, he realized that there is a potential problem when deaaling with a corrupt society which objectifies its women. which could result in danger to him. I do not really feel that it is likely that Avraham Avinu never looked at his wife. Ha-Shem did not create us to be like that. We are supposed to enjoy the beauty of this world, that HE created, not abstain from it. The mitzvos are meant to enhance our pleasure of this world, while reminding us that the Borei Olam also wants us to follow His Torah. But we say V’chai Bahem, when referring to those mitzvos. There are entire brachos that we are supposed to say when we see the beauty of this world, a great ocean, a beautiful scene of nature… Tzniusdig behavior is meant to prevent us from abusing that pleasure, not to refrain from it altogether. Those who do that are called ascetics, and that is not a compliments to them. Remember the nazir may be holy, but it is because he is incapable of controlling himself that he has to become a nazir in the first place.
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