Any person who is not strong like iron is not going to become a wise person. A person has to be strong and know which boundaries cannot be violated. With regards to relationships, we sometimes, Rabbi Yedid said, have to be soft. When we have boundaries, our homes will be secure and protected.
The fourth speaker at the Flatbush Labor Day Hakhel Event was Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, rav of the Agudath Israel Bais Binyomin who offered insights on the topic of “Hashem’s Recent Moving Messages to Us: What We Need to Change.”
He began with a story about two childhood friends from the Kelm Talmud Torah. One day one of the friends runs into the Beis Medrash and tells the other friend about the story that had just occurred in the town’s market place. A Jew had asked a non-Jewish lumber merchant to deliver a load of lumber to his home and he would pay him upon receiving the wood. The non-Jew said he had to be paid in advance before he would bring over the lumber. The Jew was insulted and the two were about to get into a fight until another non-Jew ran up to the lumber merchant and told him – “This is the month of Elul before their holiday of Rosh Hashana. No Jew will do anything dishonest at this time. You can confidently deliver the lumber to this Jew confident that you will be paid promptly.”
