Lechteich Mussar Podcast
Join us as we explore the depth of bitachon, as explained in the timeless sefer Shaar HaBitachon.
Lechteich Mussar Podcast
Beis HaLevi #29 - Ahavas Yisroel
"In his brilliant essay on ahavas Yisrael, the Beis HaLevi, Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, beautifully explains the mitzvah of loving your fellow Jew. Who does the mitzvah apply to? When does it apply? What do I need to do to fulfill it properly? The Beis HaLevi also provides incentives to help us do the mitzvah in the best possible way." -ArtScroll Bais HaLevi on Ahavas Yisroel
Okay, everybody, welcome back to the Lech Teichmasz podcast. We continue over here with the Beis Alevi Perek Yir Aleph, chapter 11. We are nearing the end of the Sefer and we continue. V'hinei mishu b'tevei ba'al machlekes, v'ishriv u'madain hu rachek mi'achanufo.
Speaker 1:A person who, by nature, is contentious, argumentative and quarrelsome is argumentative and quarrelsome, is distanced from flattering others. A person who flatters other people is naturally distanced from discord and hatred because he's always busy flattering people, so he's not going to come to hate them. The two don't coexist. There's well known saying the two don't coexist. There's a well-known saying that it is not easy to find someone who strikes his fellow because he flatters him, notwithstanding that he himself hates the trait of flattery. Nevertheless, he will not start an argument with him because he flatters him. Now, at first glance, a person might think If all this is found in him, he will also be a little bit of a bad person. A person can think that even if flattery Hanufa is a bad, low, poor trait, nevertheless there is a minimal positive benefit found within. It's possible. A person can think that there's something good about it because he's going to be distanced from Machalikis, which destroys the world. When a person discerns that his nature is drawn towards discord and a person can think oh well, if I'm always getting into fights and I'm contentious and argumentative, maybe I should just flatter people, tap into a different bad midah in order to mitigate the atrocity of Sina, which is going to be Machariv the Oylem. So that's a logic that maybe a person would consider. So what do we say to this? Says the Beis Alevi, not a great idea. Further promoting this idea that maybe the Bais Alevi is going weiter, explaining why a person would think this? Because the Gemara in Shabbos tells us because of the baseless sin of hatred, sinas chinam, strife increases in the household of a person and Rachman Osslan, his wife, will miscarry. Indeed, miscarriages come through this hatred. So basically he's saying that maybe a person is going to say I don't want to make miscarriages, so instead of me hating people, I'm going to revert and channel my bad midas, funnel them through a different bad mida of Hanufa. But at least I'm not going to make Nafalim, at least there won't be fetuses that are miscarried on my cheshbin.
Speaker 1:Al-za'amru Chachamino Z'Chayim B'Vracha D'mi Sh'Yishboi Hanufa, filo Bar Mekagol Elumayisayim. But the Chacham Talos and Saita one was a flatterer. Even Fidesz cursed him this, running from one bad middah to the other in order to circumvent the bad results, the bad, terrible side effects of one and go to the other. That's not the proper way to do it. Rather, the way is to work and to work on ourselves and our Midas, and obviously it boils down to be Tachrin, not to hate people, not to be machniff people. Zeh Yadach Lissachim in the Sina. This is not the way to distance from Sina Aydei Sheyit Bak, hanifah V'lem L'Rosh HaSat L'Kata. It's not the way by going to cleave, to flattery and telling evildoers you're righteous.
Speaker 1:The Adarabba Ikri yisayidish hachanifa nevas mitachlis ha-sinashish b'libel ha-chavirei. On the contrary, the essence of flattery stems from the fundamental, deep-sourced hatred that he harbors toward his fellow, the enu cheshish b'takalosoi, rak samech b'takalosoi. He's not happy about his betterment when his friend does well. All he wants is for his friend to do bad, to stumble, and that's when he rejoices. That is why the flatterer does not give him teichacha telling him to rectify his evil deeds, and he encourages him to continue with his evil ways.
Speaker 1:If he really loved his friend, and just as for himself, he would distance himself from anything evil because it is evil, and similarly he would strive to distance his fellow from the evil path. In this case, if the person again the cheshbon, is he's saying, oh, I don't want to make more fet, is he's saying, oh, I don't want to make more fetuses miscarry, I don't want to make soros and khalis also, I hate people and I am a sinashchina, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to start being machnef people. I'm going to flatter them. Says about slavery.
Speaker 1:This is a terrible mistake because the whole Yisoy, the fundamental core issue where all of the Hanufa stems from, is hatred, because it's a vicious cycle. If he loved his friend, then he would never have to come to be machnifim. And now that he's being machnifim, he, like the Gemara says in the Yisoy, he's going to end up having the fetuses curse him. So what should a person ultimately do? The people curse him.
Speaker 1:Nations referring to fetuses will denounce him and obviously the way to work on this is with proper work on oneself, and this applies. This isn't just a Yisoyt and a method for Sinah and Hanufah, it's for all bad Aviras. The only way to really do it, to rectify and to work on and to move past and to reach wholesomeness Shlemas, isn't by running from one, hopping around from one Avira to the next, one, bad Middah to the other. It's by working on ourselves, inner work, work strengthening our B'tochen and realizing that everything is within the Eberster, that we won't be Machnef people, we won't have to hate people and ultimately we'll only bring Yeshua's and Simcha's against Chasr Shalom. The opposite, as we've seen in the Gemaras, a person is Machnef or Sinas Chinam, which brings Churban. We can