I would like to return to the topic of כֶּסֶף תַּ לְוֶה אֶת עַ מִּ י אִ ם – If you lend money to My people. We said that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted us to visualize ourselves as if we are also poor when we give the loan to the poor. Rabbi Yosef Albo writes in Sefer HaIkkarim (3:33), we find that the Torah promises reward for giving charity with joy. This blessing is contingent on לוֹ בְּ תִ תְּ ך וְלֹא־יֵרַ ע לְבָבְ ך – and let your heart not hurt when you give him, and not on נָתו ֹן תִּ תֵּ ן לו ֹ –you shall surely give him. Meaning, it is not about the amount of charity you give to the poor, but about the willingness of your heart when you give him the charity. Do you give him the charity with a smile and a joyful heart? Do you see the poor person as someone coming to extort you, or rather as someone coming to grant you a Mitzvah? This is the great principle Chazal come to teach us here. All Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants is for you to feel the pain of the other! Connect with him! Therefore, the Torah does not write in the language of obligation, but "If you lend money to My people" – because if it were written in the language of obligation, a person would feel it as a burden, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted you to give not because you are obligated, but to give wholeheartedly – with joy, as one who performs a Mitzvah!
One of the questions we will be asked after 120 years will be: Did you understand one thing from another? What does this mean? The Torah says at the end of Parshat Yitro:
וְלֹא־תַעֲלֶה בְמַעֲלֹת עַל־מִ זְבְּחִי אֲשׁ ֶר לֹא־תִ גָּלֶה עֶרְ וָתְ ך עָלָיו׃
Do not go up to My altar with steps, so that your nakedness not be revealed on it.
Rashi says, by ascending steps, you need to widen your steps, and even though it is not actual exposure of nakedness, nevertheless, the widening of the steps is close to exposure of nakedness, and you are treating them with disrespect. Rashi adds, the following statement follows logically à fortiori (kal vachomer): In the case of stones, which have no feeling to be particular about any disrespect shown to them, since they serve a useful purpose, you should not treat them in a manner that implies disrespect! Therefore, in the case of your fellow man, who is made in the image of G-d, and who is particular about any disrespect shown to him, all the more so you should not treat him disrespectfully!
If Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells you that when you give charity to the poor, think that you are exactly like him, then understand one thing from another, this is not a Mitzvah said only for one thing but for the entire Torah – that your heart should be with the other, feel him – both in pain and in joy; be with him in his sorrow, and be with him in his joy!
Another question we asked was, why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu request to make a memorial of the clay and place a brick at the Kiseh HaKavod? If there is no forgetfulness before Him, why the need for reminders?! Based on what we said, the answer is very simple. He did not do it for Himself, but to give us a lesson – so that we would know to feel the pain of others!
The story is well-known about the great Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky – a genius of geniuses, leader of the Agudath Ysrael’s Va’ad HaYeshivot and first chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei Torah. It is said that he once went to collect money for a widow who did not have money to heat her home. He went to one of the homes of the wealthy people of the city at a time when the temperature outside was twenty degrees below zero! He stood in front of the door of a wealthy man's house, with boots and a coat, and knocked on the door. The wealthy man opened the door, dressed in a thin robe, and saw that the one standing at the door was none other than Rav Chaim Ozer – "Honored Rabbi, please come inside, it is an honor and a pleasure for me!" Rav Chaim Ozer said to him: "I’m all muddy and it would be a shame to dirty your carpets. Give me two minutes here and I'll finish." The homeowner obliged. Rav Chaim Ozer began to tell him insights on the Parsha as the wealthy man stood outside in his thin robe and slowly began to move away from the door and into the warm house. Eventually he pleaded, "R~a~b~b~i, i~t'~s c~o~l~d!" Rabbi Chaim Ozer said to him: "A few more minutes and I'll be done. Please bear with me." The wealthy man had another thought though, "Maybe the Rav will come inside and tell me what he wants – it's just t~o~o c~o~l~d for me out here!" Rav Chaim Ozer said to him: "I just wanted to show you what a widow feels when she doesn't have money for heating; it is for her that I came, so that you would help her."
What did Rav Chaim Ozer do here?! Had he entered the home and talked about a freezing widow with no money to a person sitting comfortably next to his fireplace – the wealthy man would not have felt what it was like to be in her place. But now, when he was outside and shivering, he could feel what the widow felt and truly open his wallet.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells us: אֶת־הֶעָנִי עִמָּך – The poor with you! Feel what he feels! If Hakadosh Baruch Hu placed a whole factory at the foot of the Kiseh HaKavod – shovels, buckets, and bricks – then you should remember the one who suffers and enter the heart of the distressed! And not just in this matter of lending money. Understand one thing from another – understand this principle for all matters in life!
