Description: Chapter 10 - 02
Ahavas Chesed
Chapter 10 – 02
The Chafetz Chaim quotes from ‘seforim hakedoshim’! The seforim hakedoshim say that when a person passes away and goes to Shamayim to stand in front of the Beis Din shel Maalah, they will place a Sefer Torah in a person’s hands, and start learning through each pasuk and each mitzvah. The Chafetz Chaim now says, they definitely will come to a pasuk in Parshas Behar:
וכי ימוך אחיך ומטה ידו עמך והחזקת בו
Rashi explains, when your brother becomes destitute, and he comes to you because he has failed to find parnassah, we are commanded to help him get back on his feet – give him a job, find him a job, lend him the money he needs to start a business or revive his business. Rashi says that Chazal beg us to catch a person before he totally goes bankrupt and has unmanageable debt, look out for people and try to help them and support them so that this doesn’t happen, because after that happens it is so difficult for people to recover. He gives a mashal for a great load balanced on top of a donkey, if it starts slipping and you catch it and balance it once more, even one person can do it, but once it falls off totally to the floor, it needs to ten people to hoist it back on again.
This pasuk is the chiyuv to lend people money when they need it, and to do everything in our power to support other Jews in their business and jobs so that they don’t fail financially. When they get to this pasuk, they will ask a person, ‘Have you kept this mitzvah?’ If a person doesn’t remember, they will remind him. One time a poor person, who had once been well-off, came and knocked on your door, and humbly requested a loan, and was willing to offer a collateral, a lien, or guarantors, but you refused him out of hand. This is all recorded in the sefer Zichronos. The man went home with the pain of rejection, but did you realize how long this man worked to build up the courage to ask you for this loan? He consulted with his wife for days, agonizing over the embarrassment of having to approach you, and he came by night, so that it be less obvious why he’s coming. He worked very hard to procure the mashkon, the collateral or the guarantors, and he also waited to make sure you weren’t busy with anything and you were doing well financially. But you dismissed him without a thought, without any concern for his situation, and he was broken-hearted by this refusal. He returned home empty-handed, to suffer the embarrassment in front of his wife. Perhaps his children also were aware of the difficult financial situation, and they were hoping that he would get this loan and it would relieve the financial stress in the house, and now they too break down in tears, losing hope of anyone helping them and redeeming them from their dire situation.
These cries, this pain goes up to Hashem and He suffers the pain with them, as Hashem suffers the pain of every Jew. This causes the middas hadin to become stronger, and this has consequences for the whole world! This will cause a person to be judged without mercy as well.
The underlying message that the Chafetz Chaim is trying to communicate, is not only that we have to do chessed, and either lend money or give money to tzedakah. He is teaching us how to feel for another person, what it means to really be nosai be’ol. When someone stands in front of you and needs your help, whether its financial or otherwise, don’t only think of the persons immediate situation, as he presents it, but also think what that person is going through as a result of the situation. Think of his embarrassment, think of his wife and his children, think how everyone gets affected by financial difficulty. This is how to do true chessed. It starts with an open heart and a willingness to really make place for the other person, and feel what they feel, and experience the extent of discomfort and humiliation that comes along with their predicament.
Ahavas Chesed
Chapter 10 – 02
The Chafetz Chaim quotes from ‘seforim hakedoshim’! The seforim hakedoshim say that when a person passes away and goes to Shamayim to stand in front of the Beis Din shel Maalah, they will place a Sefer Torah in a person’s hands, and start learning through each pasuk and each mitzvah. The Chafetz Chaim now says, they definitely will come to a pasuk in Parshas Behar:
וכי ימוך אחיך ומטה ידו עמך והחזקת בו
Rashi explains, when your brother becomes destitute, and he comes to you because he has failed to find parnassah, we are commanded to help him get back on his feet – give him a job, find him a job, lend him the money he needs to start a business or revive his business. Rashi says that Chazal beg us to catch a person before he totally goes bankrupt and has unmanageable debt, look out for people and try to help them and support them so that this doesn’t happen, because after that happens it is so difficult for people to recover. He gives a mashal for a great load balanced on top of a donkey, if it starts slipping and you catch it and balance it once more, even one person can do it, but once it falls off totally to the floor, it needs to ten people to hoist it back on again.
This pasuk is the chiyuv to lend people money when they need it, and to do everything in our power to support other Jews in their business and jobs so that they don’t fail financially. When they get to this pasuk, they will ask a person, ‘Have you kept this mitzvah?’ If a person doesn’t remember, they will remind him. One time a poor person, who had once been well-off, came and knocked on your door, and humbly requested a loan, and was willing to offer a collateral, a lien, or guarantors, but you refused him out of hand. This is all recorded in the sefer Zichronos. The man went home with the pain of rejection, but did you realize how long this man worked to build up the courage to ask you for this loan? He consulted with his wife for days, agonizing over the embarrassment of having to approach you, and he came by night, so that it be less obvious why he’s coming. He worked very hard to procure the mashkon, the collateral or the guarantors, and he also waited to make sure you weren’t busy with anything and you were doing well financially. But you dismissed him without a thought, without any concern for his situation, and he was broken-hearted by this refusal. He returned home empty-handed, to suffer the embarrassment in front of his wife. Perhaps his children also were aware of the difficult financial situation, and they were hoping that he would get this loan and it would relieve the financial stress in the house, and now they too break down in tears, losing hope of anyone helping them and redeeming them from their dire situation.
These cries, this pain goes up to Hashem and He suffers the pain with them, as Hashem suffers the pain of every Jew. This causes the middas hadin to become stronger, and this has consequences for the whole world! This will cause a person to be judged without mercy as well.
The underlying message that the Chafetz Chaim is trying to communicate, is not only that we have to do chessed, and either lend money or give money to tzedakah. He is teaching us how to feel for another person, what it means to really be nosai be’ol. When someone stands in front of you and needs your help, whether its financial or otherwise, don’t only think of the persons immediate situation, as he presents it, but also think what that person is going through as a result of the situation. Think of his embarrassment, think of his wife and his children, think how everyone gets affected by financial difficulty. This is how to do true chessed. It starts with an open heart and a willingness to really make place for the other person, and feel what they feel, and experience the extent of discomfort and humiliation that comes along with their predicament.