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At the end of the sedrah, we read about two Israelites who because of their poverty are forced to sell themselves into slavery – one who sells himself to a Jew and the second who sells himself to a gentile. And now, when the Yovel comes, the pessukim describe how they are both going to finally go free again.
And yet we note a significant difference between the two. By the first, the one that was enslaved to a Jew, it says, בָנָיו עִמּ וֹ א ו הו וְיָצָא מֵעִמָּך – He shall go out from you, he and his children with him, וְ שׁ ָ ב אֶ ל מִ שׁ ְ פּ ַ חְ ת – and he shall return to his family... (Vayikra 25:41).
But the Israelite who goes free from a gentile, it’s missing those last words: The Torah says וְ יָ צָ א ו ֹ בֵ ל ִ שׁ ְ נ ַ ת הַ י ב – And he goes out in the Yovel year, א הו בָ נָ י ו עִ מּ וֹ ו – he and his children with him (ibid. 54). Full stop. It doesn’t say anything about him going back to his family, to his brothers and cousins and uncles.
Now we know that actually he does go back to his family. Nothing is stopping him from returning to his ancestral village, to his life the way he lived before he sold himself. He’s a free man now.
Family Friction
But the Torah here is teaching us something very important. He has the full right to return to his family, of course. But his family, they have to beware! Because of his years of sojourning with gentiles to whom he had voluntarily sold himself, Hashem urges his family, his acquaintances, to beware of seeking his company.
Certainly he should be redeemed and should become free to return to all of his ancestral privileges. But Hashem warns us here: This man’s ideals and attitudes were influenced by his gentile master, and he should not be permitted now to affect the family.
It’s a very important lesson the Torah is teaching us here, about how careful the Jew must be to avoid gentile influence. Even a frum Jew, because he lived among the gentiles you have to beware of his influence. You have to beware of what he might do to you, what damage he might cause you or your family.
Now, such a thing seems too extreme to us. After all, this man didn’t sell himself for no reason. He was impoverished. He needed to feed himself, to feed his family, that’s all. And he’s a relative and a fellow Jew. And he’s Orthodox too. It’s not talking about someone who doesn’t believe in Hashem, who doesn’t believe in Torah min haShomayim. There was no such thing in those days. Every Jew was frum. Some more, some less, but every Jew was a maamin. And so how could it be that the Torah gives such a psak – to beware of this person who has acquired some of the gentile influences by living among them?
Value of the Mind
But the truth is that we don’t understand it only because we don’t know what it means to have a good mind – how valuable the mind is, how sensitive it is, and most importantly the results of having a good mind.
So we’ll listen to someone who did know. In Mishlei (4:23) Shlomo Hamelech gives us a good piece of advice: ָ ל מִשְׁמָר נְצֹר לִב מִכ – More than anything that you guard, you should watch your heart, ִים וֹצְאוֹת חַי תִי מִמֶּנּו כ – because from it come all the results of life.
Now, Shlomo uses the word lev in that possuk but we already said here many times, we proved so, that in the entire Tanach wherever the word lev is mentioned, it refers to the mind, to the thoughts and the attitudes. It’s not emotions alone like we think today when we say ‘heart’. ‘Heart’ in Tanach means understanding, intelligence, mind. And therefore Shlomo is saying as follows: ָ ל מִ שׁ ְ מָ ר מִ כ – More than anything you guard, ָ ך נְצֹר לִב – guard your mind.
Guarding Everything
Now, we understand that the Torah requires us to guard very many things. Al pi Torah, you must guard your safety, your life. You have to lock all your doors all the time. There are crazy people, people who belong in prison or in the electric chair, walking the streets day and night. So guard your life! See to it that your doors should have good locks on them. Windows too; windows should be secured all the time. Especially when children are around. Don’t be careless about windows that are open when children are playing.
But not only your life in general you have to guard; in details too. You have to guard your teeth. A person has to see to it that all his teeth remain with him as long as possible. You have to brush your teeth every night before going to bed. Otherwise, they’ll rot and fall out. You have to guard everything that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives you in the body. It’s a chiyuv.
Outside the body too. You have to guard your property, your possessions. It’s a Torah obligation. You cannot waste or let your property go to ruin. Nothing comes into your possession by accident. Everything we possess is given to us as a charge, a trust by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He elected you to be His treasurer.
And so a frum Jew is a careful Jew. There’s no such thing as a careless Jew. There are just too many things he has to guard, so many areas of life where he has to be on guard, so many valuable things that he must stand guard over.
Guarding the Important Thing
But all of those things pale in significance when compared to the most important thing we have to guard. ָ ל מִ שׁ ְ מָ ר מִ כ – More than anything that you guard, ָ ך נְצֹר לִב – guard your mind. Shlomo is telling us here that more than you guard your money, and more than you guard your health, you have to guard your mind. Your mind is more precious than anything else.
And he goes and explains: ִים וֹצְאוֹת חַי תִי מִמֶּנּו כ – Because from your mind, from the kind of mind you have, is going to come all the results of life. But not only life in this world. ‘Chaim’ means life in this world and in the Next World; the kind of mind you have, that’s the kind of life you’re going to have forever. All your eternal happiness forever and ever in the World to Come depends on the kind of mind you acquire in this world.
Three Precious Pounds
We are in this world primarily to gain a mind; to take our three pounds of brains and make it a Torah brain. And therefore mikol mishmar, more than you guard your money, more than you guard your life and your children’s lives, netzor libecha, guard your mind. Because as important as everything else might be, there’s nothing more precious in the world than what’s in between your two ears.
Suppose you were carrying up here in your head not three pounds of brains but you were carrying three pounds of diamonds. And let’s say anybody who would catch you on a dark street could chas veshalom split open your head and get rich – so you wouldn’t walk alone even in the daytime. You’d have to walk with armed guards.
And therefore you have to know we need armed guards now too. You see when they’re delivering money at a bank, two guards jump out. One is carrying a bag of money. The other one is pulling out a gun and watching. That’s a lesson for us. Next time, you should stop and watch that. It’s a mashal for you. At your ears you have to put an armed policeman. Every ear has to have a policeman to watch. And in front of your eyes. And you have to guard it more than those guards who protect the delivery of money because there’s nothing more precious in the world than your mind.
You’re Extremely Sensitive
Now, there’s a second reason why we must guard our minds more than anything else. And that’s because besides for the mind being the most valuable thing you’ll ever have, it’s also the most sensitive. That’s a very important point you’re hearing now – there is nothing in the whole universe as sensitive as a man’s mind. Your mind is subject to influence from outside more than the most sensitive mechanism.
I’ll explain that. Let’s say you are full of Torah. You’re loaded with Torah up to your nose. And in addition to Torah, you're l’havdil loaded with all secular knowledge. You know everything. You can answer every apikores. You read all their books. You know what to say. And so you’re full of knowledge up to the gunwales. Your mind is some kind of mind! It’s very impressive!
The Effect of Empty Words
And now you’re walking down the street and coming towards you is a ragged, down-and-out tramp. The fellow, you’re certain, can barely read. Write? It’s a very big question. He probably doesn’t have a nickel in his pocket and you’re sure he has the kind of pockets that couldn’t keep a nickel anyhow. From head to toe he’s a failure. And this flop of a person, as he passes you by, he calls you a ‘Dirty Jew.’
Now you just came out of the bath while this fellow has forgotten the day when he was last in a bath. He smells like a horse’s stable on a bad day. And so you know by logic that this remark has no place. It’s nothing at all. And yet it’s discouraging.
Don’t say it’s not so. There’s no man who doesn't feel a little bit discouraged. It doesn't mean that you're going to change your Judaism. But a word, even from the lowest person, directed even to the most intelligent and most successful, finds a mark.
And that’s because the mind of a human being is the most sensitive of all instruments. If something goes in, it makes an effect. And not a passing effect. It’ll rankle in your mind. This most precious of all possessions, the possession that is your life in both worlds, is also the most sensitive, the most vulnerable, thing in the world.
