By Daniel Keren
Rabbi Yisroel Reisman
One of the featured speakers at the recent Thanksgiving Day Yarchei Kallah Event sponsored by Hakhel at the Agudath Israel of Madison in Flatbush was Rabbi Yisroel Reisman. Hakhel is a Flatbush-based organization dedicated to promoting Torah-true values to Jews in the New York Metropolitan region. In recent legal day Hakhel Yarchei events, Rabbi Reisman, mora d’asra of the host shul has been giving shiurim, lectures on Sefer Micha that is part of Sefer Trei Asar (the Book of Twelve Minor Prophets).
The focus of his Thanksgiving Day lecture was on Perek Beis (Chapter 2). It begins with the Navi (Prophet Micha) talking about those who plan their acts of premeditated evil because of their jealousy of other people’s fields and homes and their dishonest schemes to find ways to acquire them illegally.
Woe to those who plot iniquity and work evil in their beds; when the morning becomes light they perform it, for their hand has the power. And they covet fields, and they rob; and houses, and they take; and they oppress a man and his house, and a man and his heritage. Therefore, so said, the L-rd: Behold! I plot evil against this family, from which you shall not remove your necks, nor shall you walk erect, for it is a time of evil (Micha 2:1-3)
G-d Has His Plans to Punish the Wicked
Rabbi Reisman pointed out that the Navi promises that those wicked may make their plans, but G-d will make His plans to punish them.
Who is worse, those who instinctively steal from others when the opportunity arises or those who specifically make plans to take from others? The answer according to the Prophet Micha is that those who plan and think in their heart how to steal from others are worse.
The person who steals on impulse is guilty of one aveira, sin; whereas the one who lusts for the property of another and plots how to get that item from his fellow Jew is guilty of three sins – (1) lusting, (2) planning to acquire and (3) actually stealing the other person’s property.
When Desiring Something is Not a Sin
The Steipler (Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky, 1899-1985) writes that the aveira is wanting the possession that your neighbor has. If he has a delicious pastry and you also would like to have a similar pastry, that is not a sin.
The challenge in life, Rabbi Reisman said, is to realize that not everything that someone else has is something that you should desire to possess. This is an attitude of gaiva, arrogance that everything [that exists] is something that you deserve to have. Hashem wants you to overcome and eliminate this desire from your heart. The Prophet Micha speaks harshly of those who plan to rob from others. Their punishment is that others will steal from them and they will be perplexed.
The Chavos Yair (a 17th century German posek – Rabbi Yair Chaim Bacharach, 1639-1702) was once asked a Sheilah (halachic question) from a group of Jews who were in the same business. They had made an agreement with each other that if any dispute should arise among the group, they would go to a rav to arbitrate.
The only problem is that when you do so, it is customary to pay a fee to the rav for his services. Someone advised the group that all they have to do is just agree amongst themselves that they should just agree to be dishonest with each other and thereby eliminate the costly need to pay a rav for every dispute. However, Rav Pam replied that such a solution is worse than the actual sin that one would commit if doing the same action on impulse. How can one knowingly do things that we know are dishonest?
Overcoming One’s Desire to Eat Chazer
The Rambam says that Chazal, our Sages of blessed memory teach us that those prohibitions that are chukim (decrees without any seeming logical explanations) such as not eating chazer (pig meat), one should say to oneself, “I would love to eat it, but what can I do since Hashem has prohibited it."
But those things that are clearly understood to be forbidden (i.e., the prohibition against killing or stealing from others) should not even be a desire for one to say, “I would like to do it, but what can I do since Hashem has prohibited it.”
The biggest challenge for many in our community today is to avoid living a luxurious lifestyle and flaunt it before others. This often forces others who view such a lifestyle to unfortunately contemplate doing financial deeds that are clearly dishonest in order to obtain the money to enjoy that same type of non-necessary luxuries that unfortunately many now think are necessities.
Placing a Dangerous Stumbling Block Before One’s Children
Rabbi Reisman said that this is not to say that those who are wealthy cannot enjoy a lifestyle that they can pay for with honest money. However, such people should contemplate just what kind of obstacles that they are placing before their own children who might not be able to afford such an extravagant lifestyle and therefore, G-d forbid be tempted to scheme illicit ways to obtain the money required for a lifestyle they became addicted to while growing up in their parent’s homes.
The Navi Micha prophesizes that Hakodesh Baruch Hu is going to take away from those people who think that they can justify their act of taking illicitly those things which they erroneously believe they need and are entitled to, and this will destroy their improper gaiva.