Description: Chapter 10 - 03
Ahavas Chesed
Chapter 10 – 03
The Chafetz Chaim quotes a medrash, that when a poor person knocks on your door, Hashem is standing to his right, as it says:
כי יעמד לימין אביון להושיע משפטי נפשו
If you give him money, the One who stands to his right will reward you, but if you refuse him (for wrong reasons,) the One who stands to his right will judge you, as the pasuk continues – to save him from those who pass judgement on his soul. It’s interesting that the language of the pasuk is to save him from those who are ‘shoftai nafsho,’ who pass judgement on the poor person. Essentially, whenever we choose to help a person or not to help, or how much we choose to help, many times the choice is based on how judgmental we are being. If we feel that the person shouldn’t be in this predicament, it is their fault, they could do something to help themselves, and all those kinds of calculations, which we are expert in making on someone else’s behalf, we will likely give a lot less, than if it is someone that we judge as being truly helpless and not responsible for their situation. This is a form of judgement, and it seems that it brings upon us similar judgement from Hashem, chas vi’shalom. The less judgmental we are, the more we accept the person and understand that Hashem placed him in his predicament, just as Hashem chose not to test us with that test b”H, the greater our middah of chessed will be, and so too, Hashem will treat us likewise without severe judgement and with chessed.
However, we do have to ‘judge’ and think deeply into the poor man’s predicament to understand how bad it is, what the ramifications are, and how much he is suffering! On this the pasuk says:
אשרי משכיל אל דל ביום רעה ימלטהו ה'
Praised is one who gives thought and consideration to a poor man, on an evil day, meaning on a day when an evil decree has been passed against him, Hashem will save him. When we give this kind of thought to the poor person in front of us, instead of judging him we emphasize and sympathize with him, and try to help him as much as possible from his predicament, Hashem will do the same. Instead of severe judgement and strict treatment, Hashem will consider your predicament and have mercy and grant you chesed.
The Chafetz Chaim concludes this perek saying, that a person’s outlook has to be, that the money was gifted to him by Hashem, and it was given with a purpose – to help others!
Ahavas Chesed
Chapter 10 – 03
The Chafetz Chaim quotes a medrash, that when a poor person knocks on your door, Hashem is standing to his right, as it says:
כי יעמד לימין אביון להושיע משפטי נפשו
If you give him money, the One who stands to his right will reward you, but if you refuse him (for wrong reasons,) the One who stands to his right will judge you, as the pasuk continues – to save him from those who pass judgement on his soul. It’s interesting that the language of the pasuk is to save him from those who are ‘shoftai nafsho,’ who pass judgement on the poor person. Essentially, whenever we choose to help a person or not to help, or how much we choose to help, many times the choice is based on how judgmental we are being. If we feel that the person shouldn’t be in this predicament, it is their fault, they could do something to help themselves, and all those kinds of calculations, which we are expert in making on someone else’s behalf, we will likely give a lot less, than if it is someone that we judge as being truly helpless and not responsible for their situation. This is a form of judgement, and it seems that it brings upon us similar judgement from Hashem, chas vi’shalom. The less judgmental we are, the more we accept the person and understand that Hashem placed him in his predicament, just as Hashem chose not to test us with that test b”H, the greater our middah of chessed will be, and so too, Hashem will treat us likewise without severe judgement and with chessed.
However, we do have to ‘judge’ and think deeply into the poor man’s predicament to understand how bad it is, what the ramifications are, and how much he is suffering! On this the pasuk says:
אשרי משכיל אל דל ביום רעה ימלטהו ה'
Praised is one who gives thought and consideration to a poor man, on an evil day, meaning on a day when an evil decree has been passed against him, Hashem will save him. When we give this kind of thought to the poor person in front of us, instead of judging him we emphasize and sympathize with him, and try to help him as much as possible from his predicament, Hashem will do the same. Instead of severe judgement and strict treatment, Hashem will consider your predicament and have mercy and grant you chesed.
The Chafetz Chaim concludes this perek saying, that a person’s outlook has to be, that the money was gifted to him by Hashem, and it was given with a purpose – to help others!