The Gemara (Bava Metzia 85a) relates a story about Rebbe HaKadosh: ‘One time they were leading a calf to slaughter. It went and hung its head in the folds of Rebbe’s garment, and cried, as if to say, “Save me”. Rebbe told it, “Go, for this you were created.” In Heaven they prosecuted Rebbe because he did not show mercy on the calf, and they decreed suffering upon him. Rabeinu HaKadosh suffered great pain for many years until one day he saw the maidservant sweeping the house, and she saw mice [per the Gemara – baby weasels] in a corner of the house and she wanted to kill them. Rebbe told her, “Leave them be, it is written (Tehillim 145:9) 'ורחמיו על כל מעשיו' – ‘and His mercy is upon all His creations’.” When Heaven saw Rebbe’s mercy on small mice [weasels], they sweetened his judgment and stopped his suffering.’
The Torah tells us that if a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, 'חמשה בקר ישלם תחת השור וארבע צאן תחת השה' – ‘he shall pay five cattle in place of the ox, and four sheep in place of the sheep’ (21:37). Rashi quotes the Gemara (Bava Kamma 79b): ‘Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai said, “The Omnipresent had pity on people’s dignity, for an ox which walks on its own feet, and through which the thief was not humiliated by having to carry it on his shoulders, he pays five. But for a sheep which he carries on his shoulders, he pays four since he was humiliated through it.”’ That is, that thief who came in stealth and stole a sheep, had to carry it on his shoulder -of course, it was not because he had pity on the sheep, rather it was to steal it and run away faster. Still, the act that he did – to carry the sheep on his shoulders, caused him humiliation, and so the Torah has mercy on him and lightens his punishment a little!
There is boundary to the mercy of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But the Torah teaches that we must also have mercy, even for a lowly thief, and certainly to one who is not like this, and even more so our family. The Torah teaches us how to think about the pain of another, to try to understand what he is feeling, to join in his pain and to think about it. This has to be set as something basic in the identity and essence of the person, this is one of the characteristics of the Jewish people: being humble, having mercy, and doing acts of kindness. A Jew must always dig deep to understand another and conduct himself with compassion. Chazal promise us (Shabbos 151b), ‘Anyone who has compassion for G-d’s creations will receive compassion from Heaven’, and who does not want to receive compassion from Heaven?!
-Tiv HaTorah - Mishpatim
