כלל ישראל in חסד
מאת ר' ש. קאפלין שליט"א
community amount of צדקה that is given, כלל ישראל have a gevaldiga מידה of חסד, and the שורש of that מידה is from אברהם אבינו.
On the other hand, we do see חסד by the אומות העולם as well. If we just think about how
around
the
world,
the
חסד in כלל ישראל
We spoke last week about the השקפה we should have in relation to the war in ארץ ישראל, I would like to continue and add a different point in השקפת התורה to what is going on and what we are supposed to learn from this למעשה.
In these סדרות - לך לך, וירא, חז"ל ,חיי שרה in many places tell us how אברהם אבינו was the עמוד החסד, we hear about the gevaldiga חסד he did, not just within his own family, but the חסד he did with the entire world, he did tremendous הכנסת אורחים, but not only that, he also had a big ביקוש – he was seeking to do הכנסת אורחים. And we know this מידה went down to his children, and up until today we find this great מידה of חסד present in כלל ישראל, the many גמחי"ם in today’s day and age, hundreds of גמחי"ם which take no personal gain, the amount of money
with humanitarian aid which are waiting to get into Gaza, there are thousands of trucks there, and these trucks are being paid for by all different countries from around the world. I didn’t realise that it’s not just because of the war, but every single day for years there have been dozens of trucks entering Gaza loaded with aid which has been paid for by other countries. We see מידת החסד by the אומות העולם as well.
The פסוק tells us, "חסד לאומים חטאת", Kindness by the nations is חטאת – it’s a sin. I would like to explain where the שורש of their חסד is coming from and
many
trucks
loaded
that
is
lent
within
every
what we need to learn from this, because often our חסד as well is not so perfect and to a certain degree there is an element of "חטאת" within our חסד, we must know what level of חסד is expected from כלל .ישראל
The ants and the grain
There is a פסוק in משלי )פרק ו'( which tells us, "לך אל נמלה עצל ראה דרכיה וחכם", Go and look at the little ant and see what you can learn from it. The גמרא in עירובין (ק:) tells us, "אילמלא לא ניתנה תרה היינו למדין גזל מנמלה", if the תורה wouldn’t have been given and we wouldn’t have been told the לאו of "לא תגזול" – the איסור of stealing, we would learn the איסור of stealing from the ant.
The מדרש in משלי explains, "ראה שבורחת מן הגזל" – look how an ant distances itself from stealing, "אמר רבי שמעון בן חלפתא, " מעשה בנמלה אחת שהפילה חטה אחת , there was a story about an ant which was carrying a single "חטה" – a חטה which would sustain an ant for an entire season, and as it was carrying the חטה it dropped it. "והיו כולן באות ומריחות בה", There were hundreds of ants going in the same direction, they came and they smelt the piece of grain. ולא היתה אחת מהן נוטלת" " אותה, not one ants came and took the grain. Nobody touched it until the ant eventually realised it dropped it and came back to fetch it, באה אותה שהיתה " .שלה ונטלה" רבי שמעון בן חלפתא said over this story about the ant which dropped its piece of grain. The גמרא is teaching us, had the תורה not told us about גזילה we would have learnt it from the ant.
And the big question is: Where did the ant get this grain from? The ants don’t plant! The ants don’t plough a field! They don’t sow! They don’t water the fields! The grain is coming from the farmer! A farmer worked hard in his field and the ant comes and steals that grain! All the ants are stealing the grain, so much so, the farmers nowadays spray their grain to keep away the insects. The ant has stolen the grain and yet the גמרא is telling us we could have learnt the איסור of גזילה from the ants?!
Let me share with you a gevaldiga פשט from הרב אליהו פאלק זצ"ל which he based on a נתיבות. The ants will not steal from each other, they are worried about their own kind – their own community, they don’t care about a different community or stealing from humans.
The גמרא is telling us: The תורה is teaching us much more than we could learn from the ants and that’s why we need the תורה because without the תורה we wouldn’t be מקיים לא תגזול properly, the תורה is teaching us: not just to not steal from each other and our own community, the תורה is teaching us more: not to steal at all. The תורה is teaching us: חסד is not just within our own people, חסד is with everyone. אברהם אבינו hosted guests, it didn’t matter which nation they came from or if he knew them.
In the civilised world, all their moral rules and laws are there to protect their own society, to protect their people, that is why they make all their rules, they are trying to look after their own interests, they are made to protect their own society, because without this live would be unbearable.
חסד True
"אמר teaches, בבא בתרא (י:) in גמרא The להן רבן יוחנן בן זכאי לתלמידיו, בני! מהו שנאמר – what "צדקה תרומם גוי וחסד לאומים חטאת" "חסד לאומים חטאת" of פסוק does the mean?”
אליעזר
רבי
lifts צדקה – "צדקה תרומם גוי" explained,
תנא
ר'
אליעזר
the
,נענה
up a nation, that is כלל ישראל which are called גוי, as it says in the "ומי כעמך ,פסוק ישראל גוי אחד בארץ" , when the אידן do צדקה it lifts them up, it gives them merits, it’s special.
However, "חסד לאומים חטאת" – the חסד of the כל צדקה וחסד שאומות עובדי ,גוים " כוככבים עושין חטא הוא להן" – it’s a גמרא, all the חסד they do is a חטא – not a מצוה, "שאינם עושים אלא להתגדל בהן" – they only do it for their own benefit.
The חסד of אברהם אבינו and the חסד which the תורה tells us to do is for the benefit of the different, it’s a different level, a different dimension.
I went to a שבעה last week for a חשוב'ער איד from Golders green called R’ Meir Lev זצ"ל, a true צדיק. I want to say over just one of the many stories I heard by the שבעה from his son R’ Yitzchok Lev, the מנהל of Pardes house school. R’ Meir learnt as a בחור in Gateshead ישיבה גדולה. When he left ישיבה, as a פרנסה he became a חזן. About a year and a half after he became a חזן he became very not well. The מנהל ר' אליעזר קאהן זצ"ל of Gateshead ישיבה went out of his way to visit R’ Meir who lived in Birmingham, to visit his former תלמיד, he was מבקר חולה.
other
person,
it’s
completely
Once he left the room, he said to his father, “Your son is working now, he’s making a פרנסה, the ישיבה is struggling, perhaps you should be משפיע on your son to send some of his מעשר to Gateshead .”ישיבה
They did not realise that R’ Meir had overheard the conversation.
In his weak state, he called them back in and he told them, “I give all my מעשר to Gateshead ישיבה גדולה…”
The מנהל responded, “but we have never received money from you…”
Said R’ Meir, “I didn’t really want to tell you, but it says "והייתם נקיים", I don’t want you to think badly of me, but my name is Meir Lev, every month I send money to ישיבה and I write on the envelope, “From Mariano Levito…” That was the name he put on the letter – an Italian name because he didn’t want the ישיבה to know where it’s coming from.
When the מנהל ר' אליעזר קאהן זצ"ל heard this he said, “Yes… we always had money coming from an Italian name… we never knew who he was…”
There are thousands of these stories in כלל ישראל, where we see how אידן give money without the recipient knowing who it comes from. This is true חסד, taking no personal gain or benefit from the חסד, it’s חסד only for the other person. The dimension of חסד and צדקה we do is completely different from the .העולם
One of the biggest מצוות is the מצוה of "והלכת בדרכיו" – the מצוה to follow in the ways of הקב"ה.
הקב"ה is הקב"ה ,רחמיו על כל מעשיו has mercy on all creatures, and we must follow that.
That is not the חסד of the אומות העולם, they have their own agendas. The famous Secretary of state of the US called Henry Kissinger, one of the famous actually a איד, and he once said a very powerful line, one of his famous sayings once he retired was, “America has no friends, only interests!” That is a powerful line, there are no friends, only interests, and every country is the same, they have interests, they have reasons why they are doing it. When we see them doing חסד, we have to know that they have their own reasons why they are doing this, they don’t want to be left out from the countries which are providing the humanitarian aid, they
אומות
American
figures,
he
was
advertise all over the place how much they are all giving its for their image, it’s not coming from the שורש of חסד which אברהם אבינו and כלל ישראל do. חסד לאומים חטאת, we shouldn’t be נתפעל, this is not the real חסד.
הקב"ה does חסד with everybody, אברהם אבינו did חסד with everybody.
We mustn’t think ח"ו when we do חסד, “What do I gain out of this?” Often subconsciously, this passes our minds when doing a חסד, “What will I gain? Is it worth doing this favour? Will people hear about it? Will people respect me for it?”
We must learn from this what real חסד is, real חסד is when I have no self-interests, if we are going to learn חסד from the ants, it’s only going to be a חסד with self-interests to protect the functioning society, it’s not the same level of חסד which the תורה requires which we find by אברהם אבינו. Not only is חסד supposed to be done without our own self-interests which is the קיום of "והלכת בדרכיו", but with הקב"ה He does חסד even to people who don’t do what הקב"ה wants.
Even when he is not listening
We mentioned last week what ר' שך זצ"ל said about the raid on Entebbe, “It may have been successful but that is not a proof that is what the right thing to do…”
Even if it was the wrong thing to do there was still a tremendous השגחה פרטית and so many miracles which took place during that raid because הקב"ה is מרחם and עושה חסד even when things are not being done the way He wants them to be done, that is the חסד of הקב"ה.
Reb Moishe Lopian שליט''א shared with me the הפלאה which writes about what we say in "קרוב ה' לכל קוראיו לכל ,אשרי " הקב"ה – אשר יקראו באמת is close to all those that call Him, "רצון יראיו יעשה ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם", He fulfils the רצון of those who fear Him.
The הפלאה asks: The פסוקים seem to be repeating itself, קרוב ה' לכל קוראיו לכל אשר יקראו באמת, and then, רצון יראיו יעשה ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם, what are the two parts, the "קרוב ה' לכל קוראיו" and the ?"ישמע ויושיעם"
Explains the הקב"ה :הפלאה does what’s good for us, things which are good for us הקב"ה often gives to us even before we daven for it, that is the קרוב ה' לכל קוראיו, but continues the הפלאה, the "רצון יראיו יעשה" – when people ask for things which הקב''ה knows are not good for them because it will bring to them bad,
"ואת שועתם" – they cry for it so much,
,"ישמע" הקב"ה "ויושיעם" and He will stop the bad from happening which was going to come out from what they were asking for.
He explains: A person has so much אגמת נפש when he wants something badly, it’s causing him so much heartache, הקב"ה wants to relive that heartache, הקב"ה will still listen to him and stop all the pain he is going through.
We mentioned last week about the ground invasion which על פי השקפת התורה is probably wrong, they are busy working for the future, but it makes no difference, הקב"ה has no shortages of rods, He doesn’t need Hamas to attack כלל ישראל. But if they do make a ground invasion, although it may not be the רצון השם, but we must daven and shout ואת שועתם, and daven hard that everyone there should be safe, even if they are not doing the right thing because even so הקב"ה ,"ישמע ויושיעם" will still listen if we daven properly.
We made clear two points today: What our חסד should look like, it shouldn’t look like the חסד of the אומות העולם, we often struggle with this, we make חשבונות
will
answer
them,
for this and that, when the גוים do חסד to the אידן it’s not because they like us, when Biden is on our side, it’s not because he likes the אידן and wants to help the אידן but because לב שרים ומלכים ביד ה', he doesn’t realise that הקב''ה was involved, thinking about Iran and Russia etc… he thinks he made the decision, his חשבונות are much greater than simply helping us, there are politics involved, there are many חשבונות which made him reach these decisions, and it is all self-interest.
Henry Kissinger was many years in the major America, and he said, “America have no friend it only has interests!”, and that is the חסד of the אומות העולם, that is the חסד of the ants, but when we learn the פרשיות of אברהם אבינו we must know that this was real חסד ,חסד to people he had never seen before, he doesn’t know where they came from and he doesn’t know if he will see them again, he did חסד to everyone.
And then we spoke about this second point, the ענין of חסד even if a person is not doing what you want him to do, although he doesn’t listen, but give him חסד, help him out, הקב"ה does חסד even
part
of
the
government
of
when we don’t listen to Him, that is also a dimension of חסד which the תורה expects from us.
Written by Avrohom Dov Kohn – אברהם דוב הכהן כהן
