FACEBUKER SHABBOS TABLE TALK
Continuing the Legacy of Rabbi Dovid Winiarz of blessed memory
Rabbi Label Lam once asked Rabbi Ezriel Tauber z”l: “The Torah says, “Do not go as a talebearer among your people, and do not stand (idly) upon your brother’s blood, I am Hashem.” [This is one source of the prohibition of gossip/Lashon Hara, and the second piece means that if you have a chance to save someone’s life you must do so.] He continued, “Why does the Torah present the saving of a life as a prohibition not to ignore someone in peril instead of simply saying, ‘You shall save your friend’s life’?”
Rabbi Tauber responded instantly. “One is required to give up everything he has not to transgress a negative commandment, but to fulfill a positive commandment one need only go so far. Therefore the Torah tells us that one must give up everything to save another Jew’s life.”
What a powerful lesson about how we should view others vis-à-vis our own lives. They are really a part of us and if so, how could we speak ill of them? The posuk ends, “I am Hashem.” Perhaps this reminds us that we are all creations of Hashem and not in competition with each other since He will give reward to those who deserve it and no one else can interfere with that.
Seeking the welfare of others will ultimately be a source of success for each of us.
One of the most famous verses in the Torah, “V’ahavta l’rayacha kamocha,” You shall love your fellow man like yourself, is in this week’s parsha. Many people know that Rabbi Akiva said this was a “great principle of the Torah.” What is not as well-known is the beginning of that verse: Do not take revenge, and do not [even] bear a grudge, [and you shall love your fellow man like yourself.]
So, the person I am commanded to love is NOT just someone whom I admire, nor even someone with whom I have very little to do. The person I am to love is the very person who has wronged me in the past and I have reason to dislike!
While Jews do not “turn the other cheek” and forgive any wrongs against them unilaterally, and the Torah requires recompense, when the other person wishes to move forward, even if they haven’t apologized as fully as we might like (or at all) we are supposed to move forward with them. But how?!
By loving them the way we love ourselves. When we do things wrong, make mistakes, act selfishly, or hurt others, we understand that we are inherently good people who were under specific circumstances that made us act that way. If we understand the same about others, we will be able to forgive them for succumbing to the moment (or decade) and acting less than perfectly.
