And that’s what Hillel said to this ger! “You have to realize the chomer hamitzvos. Do you understand what you’re coming into? You’re coming into a new world, a world where you have to be aware of your fellow man in a way that you never were before — his person, his money, his property, his feelings. Everything you have to be careful with.”
He should know beforehand it’s not easy to be a Jew. The goy might think, “Kashrus, oh it’s very hard to keep.” Or Shabbos. He thinks maybe that Shabbos is hard. No! That’s nothing! Those are all easy things to do. You have to get up in the morning and go to the beis haknesses to daven. You have to put on tefillin every day. You have to be careful what kind of married life you live. You need many things. All that’s not the difficulty; it’s easy. You should know, kol haTorah is „≈בֲﬠַּ ̇ ‡ָל¿ךָר¿בַח¿ל י≈נ¿ס¿ךָלֲﬠַּ„. That’s the difficulty of being a Jew. You have to deal with your fellow man properly. And that’s not easy. Like Reb Yisroel said, “You have to learn and learn in order to know how to be yotzei with your fellow man.”
That’s what Hillel was telling him! הָרֹוּ ַ̇ה לָּכ ‡יƒה ֹזוּהָּלֻּכ – Bein adam l’chaveiro is everything. You might think as a Jew you’ll come into the synagogue and you’ll just be by yourself, you’ll have no business with anybody, you’ll do mitzvos and just commune with Hakadosh Boruch Hu like a monk in his cell. Oh no! That’s not Judaism! Yehadus means living with everybody else! And it means living with everyone properly! You have to react to people! You have to take in visitors, wayfarers! You have to pay money, tzedakah! You have to do chessed! You have to say kindly words always! You have to be careful what you say! When you pass somebody in the street you have to greet them! You have to always keep in mind the other person’s desires and wishes!
That’s how severe it is to be a Jew. Not only for a ger. That’s everyone’s introduction to Torah. It’s a big responsibility! Like you say, “Siz shver tzu zein a Yid.” It’s a severe responsibility because a man was created for the purpose of serving Hashem by means of his fellow Jews. And that’s going to be your most constant test because people are everywhere. All types of people! And they have feelings and bodies and property. And so it’s rov haTorah; most of your opportunities for greatness will be with other people.
