Compassion through Judgment - Tisha B'Av (7:05) Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller

[Music] so I want to tell you a story about rabari LaVine who's one of my great Heroes so he appointed himself the the chaplain of the prisons in the 20s and 30s now this wasn't a real job it isn't like the British hired him to be a chaplain he appointed himself as chaplain so his job at first was a job in which his congregation were real criminals they weren't um yeah know they weren't good people who failed they were like rapists murderers you like the works and then later when you get towards the late 30s early 40s the the neighborhood changed okay instead of having criminals they had people who were arrested by the British for opposing the British rule in Israel so they tended to be like very idealistic young men very different than his original congregation so a man murdered his wife wife Aram Kipper M Shay was over a ridiculous quarrel he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the British the prison population rejected him they didn't want anything to do with him they put him in sort of a room so the British didn't he stopped eating cuz he was depressed I mean it would be depressed to have a life sentence and people are treating you like an Outcast that's depressing so um the British didn't want him to die in prison because it would make them look bad so they brought RB AR into the picture what did RB arier say to this person he didn't say oh you must have been like so upset that you didn't realize what you were doing there that would have Justified murder and that would have put it that that's like saying to someone from you I expect nothing better which is that's not loving the person that's patronizing it's snobbish it's like he didn't go there he said you did something unspeakably evil Hashem put you in prison he gave you the opportunity to do chuva when you do real chuva you'll be as holy as the highest sad and that took him out of his depression so I'm going to give you a relatively contemporary version of the same story there was a girl in the vag who looked terribly depressed and out of it and I saw this but I didn't know what to do you can't go over to somebody and say like you look out of it like you look like you're you know you're orbiting what's the story so um you know I was just like watching her and one day she came over to me after a class on Chua and in the class in chuva reading the rambam I said a person could do Chua on anything those are the words of ramb so she said I did something that nobody could do Chu on what's the stupidest thing I could say come on let's hear what okay so she told you know she told me she had had an affair with her brother-in-law and her sister found out okay now am I supposed to say so I so she said I can't do trua for this so I didn't know what to tell her so I said I have to think more I went to one of the ranam at n without identifying the girl in any way and I said what they tell her so she he said take her to raim do any of you know who ra simman was yes oh such a remarkable person so I didn't know much about him he would come as a guest speaker to n every so often so I remember the first time I saw him he looked like Santa Claus when he was old I didn't know what he looked like when he was young he was small and round and Whitebeard and he came with like notes like this he didn't even begin reading them which I haven't either actually but he began to cry he said you girls are so beautiful you're so wonderful who okay got this it's very emotional and he was completely sincere so this is who the N told me to take this girl too and it sounded like a good idea especially since I didn't have any other ideas so he lived on I still remember this day and as I got off the bus like here's rovin deep in the Bible Belt I'm thinking this is a mistake he's not going to be able to relate to her so but I'm there already I went down he lived down stairs knocked on the door there's his wife who does she look like Mrs Santa Claus okay you know she a little around an apron okay little tile big she yells we have guests some girls from the Seminary came I thought this girl was going to faint okay so we go into his study okay he smiles and he says and what could I do for you girls today is she going to say anything nope so I realized I have to talk and I didn't want to like I didn't want to say what well you know this is a girl and she goes to assembly for BOS Chua and you think sometimes happened in the past and um well this happen see her sister got married what's the worst thing that he could say now M prier session by you okay okay and I said no I said no and um the bre was like a very attractive man he got as soon as I said that he got the whole story was short he was short he had a little ladder that he used to get the books on the high shelves takes down the Ramba and he's he to the laws concerning murder so what the person do if they murder someone what should they do they can't bring the person back so they have to dedicate their their lives to making a parallel contribution to the world if they took a life they should save lives okay clear so he said you did a terrible act an act that's defiling and impure again no patronizing here you have to devote your life to doing something pure he said one day you'll marry and when you marry you should get a job and when you have a job this isn't just for your family you should put aside money to help build a mikah and you know what she did but I want to tell you what made the story mean something to me cuz I didn't know that that would happen then this was the closest I have ever seen toas he revived the dead so what I mean by that is she was emotionally and spiritually gone and he revived her so this is what happens again when you see people who are wrong and you could feel compassion towards them last