Anyone who learns Torah must excel in showing love for other people, even non-Jews. A student of Torah must show honor and respect to all other human beings.
As religious Jews, we all have the obligation to live up to this standard. And the more a person is perceived by others as having studied and absorbed the Torah, the greater is his obligation to be a model of proper interactions with other people.
I was once in a kosher supermarket in Minneapolis, where I watched as a yarmulke-wearing customer was greeted by a worker behind the counter who spoke a broken English.
In response to her question of “What can I do for you?” the person snapped, “You could learn how to speak English!”
I was deeply perturbed. “My friend,” I wanted to rebuke him, “you should take off your yarmulke! I don’t care if you go to seder on time or that you wear tzitzis; people need to see that you are kind and patient.”
Reproduced from A Life Worth Living by Rabbi Shraga Freedman with permission of the copyright holders, ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications, Ltd.
