Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back, my dear friends, to day number 49. We're on page 296 in the Orchos Tzaddikim, Ways of the Upright, sorry, Ways of the Righteous and of the Pious, and we're in the Treasure for Life edition, ve'od ha'mid ha'azoz b'nafsho, shel odom lahasig nekameh b'oivav. He says the trait of a man, the nature of man, is that we want to make it even with, we want to take revenge of our enemies, as it states, and he will not be merciful on his day of revenge. Right, this is, we know from King Solomon in Proverbs when you're taking revenge, that's not exactly when mercy pops out. He says what does it mean Meaning to say that where there is revenge, there is no mercy, but rather only cruelty? So we see, the verse states in Leviticus Do not take revenge and do not bear a grudge. Our sensitivity is that even to bear a grudge. What does it mean to bear a grudge? What does it mean don't take revenge?

01:17
The Torah tells us, taking revenge means that if you go to your friend and you ask him to borrow his hammer and he says no, I'm not lending you my hammer. So next week he comes to your house he says can I borrow your hammer? So nekama, revenge would be saying no, you didn't lend me, I'm not going to lend you. That's revenge and that's a prohibition in the Torah, leviticus 19, verse 18. What is bearing a grudge is now your friend comes and asks you for that hammer and you say to him I'm not going to be like you. You see, when I asked you last week to borrow a hammer, you said no, but I'm better, going to be like you. You see, when I asked you last week to borrow a hammer, you said no, but I'm better than that and therefore I'm going to lend it to you. That's bearing a grudge, and the Torah says don't either do that, don't either do that. That's the sensitivity the Torah teaches us. Even don't make him feel bad. What do you mean, the guy? Well, an eye for an eye. No, that's in the world of bearing a grudge, that's in the world of cruelty. But we're achmanim, we're a people, a nation. That is embedded and instilled within our DNA. Mercy Kol shekein, shelo la'asos ma'aseh biyodayim la'akos ezer chavera.

02:47
Even more so, a person has to be so careful to never raise a hand on another person, to hit another person, even if your enemy fell without you causing him to fall. He fell on his own. Oh, he deserved it. He deserved it. You see, you started me. I didn't even have to hit you back. God hit you for me. You're not supposed to smile and be happy about that. You're not supposed to smile and be happy about that.

03:19
King Solomon tells us in Proverbs 24, when your enemy falls, do not rejoice, and when he stumbles, let your heart not be glad. See the sensitivity that we see here. It's unbelievable. This Torah is teaching us how to conduct ourselves properly. V'hanokim v'hanoter, eino maver al middosa, v'ino mocha l'chaveru, aposhim olaf.

03:44
He says this person who's taking revenge or bears a grudge is not someone who's forgiving. They're not forgiving, okay, your friend hurt you, okay, so forgive them. Fine, they hurt you, move on. No, he can't. He's holding that grudge. And this you know what this does? This leads to a trail of conflict, to hatred, to fights, and we already know how important and how precious the trait of peace is. So this all comes because I can't forgive and because I can't forgive oh, you didn't invite me to your child's wedding, so I'm not going to invite you to mine. It goes and it's endless. I can't even tell you how many times I've had people sitting right here who've had situations where, after class, they said you know what I think I should reach out to my sibling I haven't spoken to, or my sister-in-law I haven't spoken to, or a child I haven't spoken to. It's so important. You know what. Okay, so they're right and you're wrong. What's going to be now? What's going to be if they're right and you're wrong? So admit, be a bigger person. I was wrong and I'm sorry and I beg your forgiveness. I was wrong. The problem is that our arrogance gets so high and so uplifted that we're like me, me, apologize, I don't apologize, I don't apologize. That's not a way of the Torah, definitely not a way of the Torah. That's not a way of the Torah, definitely not a way of the Torah.

05:29
U'bichlal ha'achzorios, included in the category of cruelty. Ha'gozel chaver um'um ha'mishalo u'b'zeh mitzair oso is someone who steals anything which belongs to your friend, thereby causing him pain, any pain. Ve'onezh godol yesh legozol ani. And. There is a great punishment in stealing from the poor person. Ve'chayav malei ha-misa, even warranting the death penalty, as it is written. Do not steal from a poor man because he is poor. Al tigzol dal kidal hu. He's poor, poor guy. He's already impoverished enough. With humility, with humiliation, you have to steal from him now more.

06:12
And what does it mean to steal? To steal his dignity, to steal his pride, not necessarily to steal their money. To steal their money, for Hashem will fight their battle, the verse says, and spoil the souls of the spoilers. And even though there are sins and transgressions that are far greater than theft, the punishment for theft is extremely severe. As it states, with the generation of the flood, remember by Noach, with the flood and the ark, and it remained 40 days and 40 nights. For what, what did they do? And the ark? And it remained 40 days and 40 nights. For what, what did they do? Kei t'skol baser balafonai. The end of the portion of Genesis, of Bereshit, the first portion of the Torah that says this verse Kei t'skol baser balafonai ki malo haaretz chamas mipnehem. The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with robbery through them.

07:28
Now, robbery doesn't only mean stealing from someone's wallet, slipping the Rolex off their hand or breaking into their car or cheating people in a business deal. That's not the only type of theft. You can steal in many, many other ways. You can steal people's time. You can steal in many, many other ways. You can steal people's time. You can steal people's attention. Someone is about to get an honor and you make a whole commotion to distract everybody. That's stealing someone's honor. You can steal someone's intention. There's geneva's das.

08:04
You know that if you walk in in israel, this is very, very common, unfortunately. You walk into, you say it's very, very hot in israel, just like it is here in texas, and sometimes it's like so unbearably hot. You're waiting for a bus, you're waiting for a cab, you're waiting for your uber to come, and what are you gonna do? So you see a local store, you see a store right there and you like decide, okay, I'm gonna walk into the store because it's air conditioned and I'll look around. Of course I'm not intending to buy anything. I walk into the store just to benefit from the air conditioning. You're stealing the intention of the store owner. They think you walked in, oh, I have a sale coming. They get excited like, oh, they came in just for the AC.

08:53
Unless a person comes in and says is it okay that I just browse or look around? Stay in the cool while I'm waiting for a bus. Maybe I'll buy something, maybe not? And they say, sure, go right ahead. That's not stealing their intention, you're not stealing their intellect. That's a different type of stealing.

09:23
If you have our sages, tell us that, if you have a basket filled with sins, none of them are as incriminating as that of theft. And anyone who causes pain or anguish to an orphan or to a widow by stealing from them, or by stealing from them or by shaming them or in any other way, such a person is warranting a penalty of death from heaven. That means you don't take them to a court and they throw him off a roof. No, that doesn't happen. But in the heavens there's a strike of death against this person. What does that mean? How do we understand that?

10:17
So think of it like this you know, if someone is you know loses their brakes in their car, and now the heavenly courts are saying should we save this guy or not save him? Should we save him or not save him? We can have the car swerve into the brush and he'll be saved, or go into oncoming traffic and he's done well. Do we have that strike against us or do we have that mercy from heaven? The mercy from heaven is where God says it's a merciful person, it's a good person, we'll save him. Let's get the car swerved out into the brush.

11:04
Or, god forbid, they can say look, this guy had no mercy on the orphan, had no mercy on the widow. For what are we keeping this person around? Heaven forbid, we should never, ever be in such a situation. But we understand the severity of this sin of causing pain or anguish to an orphan, to a widow or to a convert. Mishchayiv misi bidei shemayim v'chein ha'dayonim shebi yodom la'atsilam yad oksheyhem v'ein donen din yosef ha'amono b'nei mavesheim.

11:37
So too, judges who are in a position to rescue them from their oppressors and do not judge in favor of the orphan and the widow, they incur the penalty of death. Those, the judges why, as it is written, do not afflict any widow or orphan. So listen to these words. Okay, it's all in duplicitous term, not extra, but everything is doubled. If afflict, you will afflict and cry. They shall cry. Listen, I will listen to their cry, they shall cry. Listen, I will listen to their cry, meaning you go out of your way to afflict them. They cry more severely because you've afflicted them. I'm going to listen more intently to their cries, the result being what's going to be the result. K'siv v'chora api v'arakdi eschem b'cherev v'hoyu nishechem almonos uvnechem yisayimim, being what's going to be the result? God forbid. The Torah tells us that the result will be that my wrath will burn and I will kill you by the sword and your wives will be widows and your children will be orphans. That's how careful we need to be.

13:06
There's a story I had recently where someone was in a dispute with a widow. They asked me what should I do? I said don't mess with the widow, they have special powers on their side. And then I met somebody who told me the most incredible story. He said this is in New York. Somebody who told me the most incredible story. He said this is in New York and he said that they drew up plans to renovate their home to make it really a big, beautiful. You know, the way they do in New York is that if you keep the framework of the old house, you don't have to pay for the new house tax and all of that. It's just like an expansion. It was going to be a mega expansion on their old little shack of a house, but someone brought it to their attention that their neighbor, the woman next door, was a widow and she is very, very finicky and very, very testy with her neighbors, as they knew and that she would be very difficult and she would have a very difficult time with their construction. So the guy doesn't know what to do. He already paid the architect. He already paid all of that stuff. They use the stuff before they start the construction and they get all the. I think they already submitted the plans to the city. It's a very expensive ordeal.

14:28
Already all that he called his rabbi. He says to his rabbi what do I do? The rabbi says you don't mess with a widow, you don't cause pain to a widow and orphans Don't do it. But there's such an enormous expense that he's going to lose. He says you're not going to lose anything by doing the right thing to the widow. And the orphan Comes home and him and his wife decide they're tearing up the plans and they're doing the will of Hashem, they're fulfilling this verse not to cause pain to a widow. And you could say, hey, by law, there's no problem, you have a problem, it's your problem. No, hey, by law, there's no problem, you have a problem, it's your problem, right? No, no, that's not the way the Torah operates. You're right, but you're wrong. Listen to this, he said.

15:18
A few days later someone comes over to him and says you know, there's a house that's almost going on the market. There's someone who just built a brand new, beautiful home A few blocks away from them and the person for whatever? He loved that house. He loved every detail of the house. He, like, went out of his way and made everything so perfect. But he had a big, big challenge in his business and now he has to move. He's moving to a different state and he just wants to get rid of the house. He said they moved into that house, they bought that house, they moved into that house. It's the biggest blessing, he said they couldn't have dreamt for such a gift from Hashem. It's a nicer neighborhood, nicer area, nicer block. It's a bigger house than they would have. It costed them less.

16:13
Don't mess with the widow and the amount of blessing you bring into your life. This is what we see here. The Torah is all about mercy. The Torah is all about mercy. The Torah is not about cruelty, not about causing pain and affliction and harm. There's an act for an act, a measure for measure. Your wives will become widows because you pained a widow. Your children will become orphans because you pained an orphan. Measure for measure, we see that if it's in a negative, it's definitely in a positive. If you cause joy to a widow, the reward for that. If you cause joy to an orphan, the reward for that. And in any case, the Torah says You're not allowed to cause pain to any Jew.

17:21
Do you know that if you walk over to someone and you're just a random person, you say you know, that's an ugly tie, that is a really nasty outfit. You caused them pain. You just violated a biblical prohibition. The Torah says you cannot cause pain to another Jew, any pain. We're not talking about punching them. Any pain, it's a biblical prohibition. Any pain, it's a biblical prohibition. V'zeh lo sonu be'onah z'dvarim. Omor V'omor rabbi seynu z'chona la rocha kol ha-sha'orim nin olim chutz misharei onah. He says what does it say about lo sonu? Lo sonu means with insult. You shouldn't hurt another Jew with insult, with words. But we know that that's the bottom of it, that's the least of it. Causing actual pain to another Jew is even more severe. Lo chein yizor kol odom. Shlo yitzar es chaveiru b'shum davar. Therefore, a person has to be so careful and so meticulous to not cause pain to another person. Lo be'maseh lo be'dvarim. Not in action and definitely not in words. My dear friends, this concludes day number 49. I look forward to continuing day 50 tomorrow.