KLM: Word for the Shabbos Table and Mitzvah for Life: A Surprising Path for Spiritual Growth

[Music] like to welcome back the viewers of Torah anytime and Y to the mitos foundation for our ongoing series a word for your shabas table and a mitzvah for the rest of your life and then some like to thank the S soski family for hosting us the word for the table is very important it's in and it's in b 22 uh 22:20 I'm just going to read it in English right now it says like this you shall not wrong or oppress a a gar a stranger For You Were Strangers in erit mitan okay the Commandments saying warning us Jewish people um be sure not to speak negatively or hurt the feelings of someone who is a g a convert or or an immigrant or a stranger and it tells us why the reason is you were Gars don't don't put them down because you were also and if you read it simply it sounds like it's telling us we should be empathetic you know if we went um if we went through such a situation we should have extra sensitivity towards those who are in now in that situation very nice explanation I think the Ron ban and the sporno they say it's it's it's like um pointing out you should be empathetic to other people beautiful Rashi takes a tougher stance listen to Rashi says why is it that we should not um verbally oppress AAR because if you put him down he'll put he could put you back he could put you down you he it's almost sounds like Tit for Tat don't impress him because he could impress you back and and he goes on to say if you have a certain shortcoming flaw something low na not nice uh don't don't mention if you see that in someone else don't mention it so why is Rashi taking this stance that uh the the seemingly the reason you shouldn't do it is cuz he could do it back to you you this is let's say what in the outside world is called pragmatic the reason is this of course the right reason to not put someone down is because we're able to see them as a Sal Mo as someone else and especially if we went through something we should be extra sensitive for sure that's ideal but sometimes we get upset or sometimes we feel like we need to build ourselves up and one of the ways it's not a good way but it's highly recommended by the aara is put someone else down right so it's pragmatic it's very practical that you more important than doing the right thing for the right reason is doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing let me give you a story that made this so I I was actually doing research on this several years ago on this on Mitzvah of not hurting people with words and I was in a uh what called a pitus psim store here in Israel where they sell all these treats you get for shabas and nuts and sweets so I'm in the store and I walk in and and listen what happens the the store owner he like an older man not too old he he he's like lashing into his employee who was a teen teenager and he was why are always late you're always late so he's like laying into the teenage boy and the after he kind of like said his piece the teenage kid looks at the guy and goes well at least I'm not 40 years old and still working in a pelem store I'm I guarantee you that if you interviewed that store you know he he'd say would you like to do that whole thing again he would for sure say no he would say I I I'll let go of putting him down rather than not hear that that was boom right so th this is a good illustration Hashem wants you he want he cares about success for us right and we have to realize that one of the things that makes us do the wrong thing is it's called we a rational lie we rationalize and and and especially with people we're close to and we're around and we rationalize that it's right to let them have it so Hasen says be careful right it's teaching us take advantage of the of your fear of having your own feelings hurt use that to O to do the right thing and speak properly okay that's the word for your table you might want to tell that story too because that story gets across the point it can really happen that you will regret saying that okay and that's how Shem motivates us sometime he he puts people in positions to uh uh wake us up all right so now let's go to the mitzvah for Life what Mitzvah are we talking about how do you fulfill the Mitzvah to not oppress someone it's not just the convert okay the in in pares Bahar it's says a person should not oppress put down speak negatively hurt the feelings of some one of his people a fellow a fellow Jew so this is a broad one how do you fulfill this okay want want to watch me fulfill it I'm fulfilling it in other words this is a don't do right it's not a Mitzvah it's not like uh reciting a tum or um uh smiling at a person you're not doing anything so here's the thing I I want to focus on this cavan mitzvos conscious intention for mitzvos helps so much with the don't dos okay it's so easy to get caught off guard right now uh uh prohibitions are called by the gamor asaros how do you translate aara warning right Hashem knows what's best for our Nish for our soul and so he warns us don't do this okay now if you sit and don't do ready here I am not impressing anyone it says like this in the gorra um B it says like this if you sit uh and do not violate um you know a Prohibition it's like you did a Mitzvah okay it counts as if you did a Mitzvah now we're used to thinking that Mitzvah you know you're learning you're giving you're helping right but here we're learning it's a Mitzvah when you when you don't do now here's a question do you have to overcome a big battle to for your restraint to count as a Mitzvah no you just have to in you just have to in theory be able to do the AA I'll give you an example if in the parking lot where I live you know some guy gave me somebody's delivering a pizza and he left the car running and no one's around okay and I walk by the car now I could uh I could open the door get in the car and drive off now does it look like I'm the kind of guy that's going to do this no do I feel tempted to do it no do I get a Miss if I don't do it yes you don't you do not have to be in a great battle now look if the car is locked and you don't know how to wire and get in and steal the car then you don't get any Mitzvah if you can't do it then you don't get credit but if it's easy to do you get credit I I'll give you an example would anybody be um uh would anybody be interested in uh eating an ant right now one of the people that I'm being shared to you know now we know that checking for bug's hard I'm not talking about that okay but let's just say let's just say we're right here and an ant crawls on my finger right said it's terrible you know if you would eat an ant if um there are five prohibitions to not eat an ant like a crawling creature okay do you know I mean unless someone's really not feeling well they're probably not hungry for an ant so here's the thing I'm in a very clean home right now and there's no ants around so the fact that I don't eat the nimala right no credit but really if there was an ant right here a and I have no desire guess what I did a Mitzvah I came closer to a kesor but you have to not do the wrong thing for for the right reason meaning if you don't eat the ant because it's disgusting no credit but if you say hey there's an opportunity to serve AEM here because I can say as follows this is like example the cavana you would have Hashem I'll be honest I'm not very tempted to eat this ant but that's not why I'm not going to eat the ant I'm not going to eat the ant cuz you said don't eat ants you hear this the Torah says you shouldn't eat blood and if you don't eat blood uh guess what it says in the PK it'll be good for you and your children you'll be getting this tremendous blessing how much how much um how much reward do you get for not eating an ant okay I can just tell you this you could have more money than Elon Mosk okay and great health and great happiness and it cannot pay you for not eating an ant when you could eat an ant okay in other words for mitzvas and and see not doing prohibitions is also counts as a Mitzvah okay you can't be paid there's no way AEM can express the reward you deserve uh for any Mitzvah okay now I just told you how far it goes and how much opportunity is but now let's talk about harder ones okay so for Rashi says this there's other things that are much harder right like not speaking Lush Anda that's hard if you're upset and this and that right so the point is Russia says you you just you simply can't imagine the reward you get the vill of Goen tried to EXP explain how much you the hhe said like this the huim said in his introduction to his book it was worth it for me to write this book if one person imagine how many people have done it one person one time stopped and didn't say something bad okay so he brings the Villa go and says that the angels the angels are the malim are like these pure SE they're so smart they're so much smarter than AI than the brightest people in the world but they they could not express to you how much reward and closeness to hasem you get okay so what I would like to to say kavana limitz the whole this is such a marriage uh not doing the wrong thing prohibitions and km are such a marriage why because you know you'll hear like um God forbid someone's sick and they'll say we're taking on an hour to not speak lash har there'll be groups of people right so you imagine the the thing is so that creates a Consciousness but even better I mean is to say is let's say you know you're going to have a conversation uh with someone right stop even could just do this start training yourself you do it once a day for me it's easy like if I'm teaching or I have a rusa I open up and say besides fulfilling the misile learning Torah I have in mind we have in mind to not put people down not hurt people's not speak Lush and hor let's say right like right now here's another example I'm being filmed do I I could say something negative about a Jew uh or a group of Jews God forbid right am I interested in doing that to be honest with you no but I have in mind and you have in mind right if you're listening to someone when you when you're listening this video if there's anyone around or right after you see this video and you're speaking with people try it be conscious say um I have in mind you don't have to say it the other person if it's not right say I have in mind to not not hurt their feelings okay not to impress them I have a mind not to criticize other people while I'm speaking to this person right and that refraining is just absolutely powerful you are you're you're getting so close to hasem and you're you're consciously uh not doing the wrong thing for the right reason okay try it at home try it at work try it in SCH try it in the base midis try it in the Seminary try it everywhere okay [Music] oh