Ultra-Orthodox Leitzim
Now according to this definition of a leitz – someone who scoffs at important things, at things that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says is important – so a man with a big beard and peyos, a shtreimel, a long kapote, he can also be a leitz.
Of course, the not-observant people, the people who don't wear any yarmulkes at all, these people are the biggest leitzim because the whole avodas Hashem they're mevatel; to them it’s all not important and that's the worst kind of a leitz. But we're not addressing our words to them tonight; we're speaking to ourselves.
We’re the better people and yet even we are leitzim to a certain extent. It could be that the same person who’s reading this week’s sedrah and studying how the Sages describe Amalek – he’s shaking his head, “Such a leitz, that Amalek!” – he himself can be the biggest leitz.
Underestimating Prices
How is that? Because it’s not only regarding this one thing, the aristocracy of the Am Yisroel – a leitz can be very many things.
I’ll give a mashal; we’ll grasp it better because it’s about money – money is close to the heart and so we’ll understand it. Imagine you have a house, real estate, that you have to sell. And you know it’s worth a million dollars at least, probably more. That’s the market value.
So someone approaches you and he makes an offer. He says, “I’ll pay you $250,000. That’s how much I think it’s worth.”
“You leitz! What are you thinking? You’re making a joke? Go away from my face.”
You know he’s an unserious person. It could be he’s serious about some things but when it comes to appreciating the value of houses, he’s a leitz, a scoffer.
Underestimating Ideals
And that's why I said before that a picture of a very frum Jew could be a leitz too. Of course a non-frum Jew is a thousand times more of a leitz, but everybody must know that he himself underestimates the great ideals and attitudes that a Jew must live with.
I’ll give a few examples. Remember however, that they’re only examples. The road to idealism is as big as the Torah is big — there’s no end to the road that we have to travel towards Torah idealism. But at least we should hear a few examples.
When it comes to mitzvos, what’s a frum leitz? He puts on tefillin every day of course. And he wears tzitzis, absolutely. He keeps Shabbos and kashrus. Everything he does. But he never learned to appreciate what it means a mitzvah, what it means to be a metzuvah ve’oseh, someone who fulfills what his Creator commanded him.
The Commander-in-Chief
That word alone is enough: V’tzivanu! I’m doing something now that the Creator of the universe commanded me to do. That’s enough to transform your entire attitude towards mitzvos: “I’m doing what You, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, commanded me!”
And therefore we shouldn’t be like sleepwalkers in this world. A mitzvah should be approached b’hadras kodesh; with a sense of awe, of respect. And it’s a vital sense to acquire because if you don’t think about that before you do a mitzvah so that’s already leitzanus. You’re belittling the mitzvah because if you would understand it properly, if you have a sharpened sense, then every mitzvah becomes magnified.
And so let’s say you’re putting on tefillin in the morning, or tzitzis, or a different mitzvah, whatever it is; every time you should think, How happy I am that He commanded me. Such a delightful word – v’tzivanu! It’s a taanug as it rolls off the tongue.
And even mitzvos that don’t need a brachah. Some mitzvos don’t require a blessing beforehand for technical reasons – when you give tzedakah or you’re bentching or a lady who is putting on a sheitel or her snood; other mitzvos – but still you should be thinking the same thing: V’tzivanu! Ahh!
Acquired Holiness
And even though you’re doing the mitzvos every day, you don’t allow it to wear off; you don’t allow leitzanus to creep in just because it’s the thousandth time you’re doing it. Actually, it should become greater and greater in your eyes each time because the more you do it the more kedushah you’re gaining. Because it’s not only v’tzivanu – it’s kideshanu too!
Every time you do a mitzvah you become more kadosh. An old Jew is more kadosh than a young Jew; he did more mitzvos. And it adds up; the kedushah that you gain each time adds up. It’s not lost.
You should think about that before you do a mitzvah: “How fortunate I am that I can do a mitzvah. Boruch atah – I thank You, Hashem! I’m full of gratitude to You, asher kideshanu bemitzvosav – that You made me holy by means of commanding me.”
But the frum leitz doesn’t appreciate that. He wears tzitzis but it becomes mitzvas anashim melumadah; tzitzis are hanging out and that's all. He davens and gives tzedakah and eats only the best hechsher but he’s lost his sense of what's important; his senses are dulled.
Magnifying Aveiros
Same thing with aveiros. It's not enough to know what is an aveirah; you have to know the chomer ha’aveirah, the seriousness of a sin. If a person speaks against his fellow Jew, he has to know it’s not only a cheit of lashon hara. You have to know how big the cheit is – it’s a rebellion against Hakadosh Baruch Hu! A very important limud!
Otherwise he's a leitz when it comes to lashon hara. “I spoke lashon hara,” he says. “Al cheit shechatasi. It wasn’t right what I did.”
It wasn’t right?! That’s all? That’s the viduy of a leitz. A viduy is dependent on how much he understands what he did, how much he appreciates what it means to do a mitzvah or the opposite chas v’shalom. It’s not a sin; it’s a smash up. It’s a big car accident, a big tragedy.
Excited About Sinning
That’s what it says – get excited, and don’t sin. Why say ‘get excited’? Because it's not enough for a person to be cold, to be stoic. “Yes,” he says, “I’ll do what's correct, but what’s to be excited about?”
No, says Dovid Hamelech, that’s not living; that’s leitzanus. Be excited about what's important; be excited about good things, and then you won't sin.
But suppose a person is not excited about it? He does the good things only correctly without emotion? Then he's in great danger; not only because he’ll fall into cheit more easily but even if he doesn’t, he’s not living life.
The Authentic Kosher Dining Experience
What does it mean when you sit at a Jewish table and you eat kosher food? It’s one of the greatest honors we could imagine! And yet we do it every day – some people many times a day – like sleepwalkers.
Eating only kosher food means that we are princes and therefore what the common multitudes eat is not our diet. It means that every time you eat kosher food, every time you check for a hechsher, it’s a demonstration of your greatness; a reminder of your elevated status.
And therefore we have to be impressed with the dietary laws. Some Jews ridicule, they say “The Orthodox are only ‘kishkeh Jews’, only intestinal Jews. All they worry about is food, kosher food.” Now, those people are absolutely leitzim, but we also; if we don’t think about that every time we eat, so we’re also failing in that. It’s not a small thing. It’s important; very important, very, very important. What you eat, that’s a mark of royalty; it’s the sign of distinction from the nations of the world. And so, the Jew who’s not a leitz eats his kosher food with reverence. Eating food becomes a very important subject.
Mesichta Beitzah at Breakfast
And it’s a bigger subject than you imagined. Because here’s a frum yeshiva man who’s not impressed with the egg that he eats for breakfast. You know when you sit down to eat an egg you’re expected to study it first. Look at the egg; it’s a testimony to a Creator. Why does the egg have a shell around it? It could have been born without a shell and it would have been squashed at birth. Why not? It could have been squashed at birth.
Or if it had a shell, why was the shell just strong enough to resist the stress of birth? Why don’t the shells crack? Eggs have to be squeezed out of the chicken and in the process of squeezing out, they should be crushed.
The answer is the eggshell is planned, it’s so engineered, that it’s just strong enough to withstand the birth process. But not too strong; if the eggshell would have been a little stronger, there never would have been any chickens. You know how chickens come? Chicks pick their way out of the eggshell. But to pick at the shell, you need a pick. And so a few days before it’s ready to come out, the little chick grows a projection on the edge of its beak, an egg-tooth. And even though the beak itself is not so strong yet, this egg tooth is stronger than the beak; just strong enough and sharp enough to break the shell.
Testimonials of an Egg
I’ll tell you something else. You’ll be surprised when you hear this. The eggshell was actually too strong, too thick, for the chick to crack through. Only that what happened? A few days before its time to hatch, the chick begins to absorb calcium; by means of its thin blood vessels still attached to the inside of the shell, it absorbs calcium from the shell. And this calcium, besides for going into the bones of the chick making it stronger, the loss of calcium makes the shell just a little bit thinner and the chick just a little bit stronger, exactly in the right proportion.
If you would give this little chick a stronger eggshell, he’d pick and pick and pick and pick and he would remain trapped. It’s just thick enough to resist being broken when it’s born and it’s just thin enough to let that little chick pick his way out. And then once it hatches, the egg-tooth falls off. Its job is finished. A remarkable process!
