By Rabbi Paysach Krohn
R’ Dovid Leibowitz once described a Friday night scene: A family returns from shul and gathers around a beautifully set Shabbos table. As the father takes his seat, he notices the challos are missing from under the challah cover. Irritated, he snaps, “Who forgot the challos?”
His wife reddens in embarrassment, the children look down in shame, and guests shift uncomfortably. What the father misses is the lesson lying right before him. The challah is covered, explains the Mishnah Berurah, to spare it embarrassment when Kiddush takes precedence. Challah has no feelings — yet we must treat it with symbolic sensitivity.
How much more must we be careful not to hurt the feelings of the people around our table! In shaming his family over a minor mistake, the father ignores the very message the challah cover is meant to teach. The yahrzeit of R’ Dovid Leibowitz zt”l is 15 Kislev. May his merit protect us. (The Maggid Speaks)
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayishlach 5786 email of The Weekly Vort.
