In this week’s parshah, we are told to step in and support someone struggling before he collapses entirely: “If your brother becomes destitute and his hand falters beside you, you shall support him...” The Imrei Yosef discusses the Baal Shem Tov’s interpretation of this passuk, which focuses on the understanding that the person “struggling” is having a hard time with a certain aveirah. Why would we even notice someone doing something wrong, the Baal Shem Tov asks? After all, we don’t notice everything everyone does. He explains that whenever we do see a defect in someone, it’s a prompt to examine our own deeds.
The Baal Shem Tov recounted an incident in his own life when he saw someone being mechallel Shabbos. Upon reflection, he realized that he only noticed it because he had recently witnessed someone disparaging a talmid chacham (who we are taught is compared to Shabbos) and hadn’t protested the slight to the Torah.
It seems that the link is not always direct or easy to detect. It’s not as simple as, “I also have this issue and therefore I see it in others,” although that could also be true. It also doesn’t mean that we are to blame if someone else is acting wrongly. But sometimes, it could be something as subtle as our response to someone else’s actions and behaviors that needs to be corrected, which is why we have to be alerted to the issue.
When we invest genuine effort in figuring out why our relationships are faltering, we can merit siyatta diShmaya to see what needs fixing.
