פרשת כי תצא
This week’s Parsha discusses the well known commandment to return a lost object. The Torah instructs us that if we come upon an object that seems to have lost its proper owner, we are to pick up that object and keep watch over it until we can reunite it with its proprietor. The Torah then commands us to not overlook that object. Rashi explains that this dictum is referring to a person’s tendency to “pretend” not to see the ownerless object in front of him, and ignore it reasoning to himself that he is far to busy to deal with somebody else’s item. After all, he isn’t stealing anyone’s property, he is merely not paying any attention to it. If a person has this attitude, he has transgressed a negative commandment in the Torah.
I would like to discuss a very interesting alternative explanation given by the commentaries for this instruction. They explain that when a person lacks a basic concern for his fellow man, he will not even be aware of the fact that he has come upon a lost object. As opposed to Rashi, who learned that the Torah is commanding us to not ignore something that was seen on the street, these commentaries are concerned that a person will reach a state in which he is not even capable of noticing someone else’s property. If he were to care about that anonymous individual who was the owner of that particular article, he would always be on the lookout for how he could help his fellow man. By not being able to notice the lost item, he is essentially evidencing his disregard for his fellow man, and that was what Hashem wanted us to avoid when he commanded us not to turn a blind eye to a lost object. The Torah wants us to develop a strong sense of empathy with our fellow Jew, and to truly feel what they must be going through at any time, and if they are feeling any discomfort, to do anything in our power to alleviate that discomfort.
In truth, Rav Shach Zt”l used to explain that this is the primary quality which is necessary to fulfill the commandment of Chessed in the Torah. We must first “feel” the needs of the people around us before we can attempt to fill them. He would deduce this from a very similar negative commandment regarding charity. The Torah commands us not to ignore the suffering of the poor. R’ Shach explains that the reason why Chazal chose this particular language of ignoring, as opposed to commanding us not to be stingy, was to teach us that one can only fulfill this commandment if he actually feels the suffering of the needy. If a person has not yet fostered a sensitivity to what the people around him are lacking, there is clearly no way he can fill that void. Helping the poor is not about giving them what they don’t need, but rather about insightfully identifying their needs through a deep sensitivity to what they are going through, and filling those needs. Only when a person has done this, can he realize that very often, the destitute need a lot more then just money. Many people have enough money, but are emotionally bereft. All they need is a warm smile or a kind word. But they too are in need of kindness, and if a person has not taken the time to feel the needs of the people around him, he too will not be considered innocent of this negative commandment “not ignore the needs of the underprivileged”.
R’ Shach points out that this level of sensitivity is hinted to in the verses concerning Avraham Avinu. The Torah repeats the words “And Avraham saw” twice in order to stress this point. Avraham was only able to “see” the angels’ needs because he was in a mode in which he was prepared to see them. Had he not developed himself fully in this arena, he would have physically been able to view the angels, without ever actually seeing them. We meet many people in the world who are very kind people, but yet find themselves unable to perform true acts of kindness. This is simply because they have not evolved in their sensitivity to others. They walk around with a self-centered type of distortion that the only way to help others is to provide them with something they themselves would appreciate. Kind of like the guy who buys his wife a set of power tools for her birthday, but not quite that gross. On the other hand, the Torah demands from us to expand our level of sensitivity to the point that we truly feel the needs of our fellow man, and are able to fulfill them robustly.
I heard two interesting accounts this week which I feel demonstrate this point beautifully. R’ Yisrael Salanter was once in Salant a few hours before Yom Kippur when he was quite a young man, and he stopped a very saintly looking Jew on the street to ask him the time. The man, who appeared to be very holy, and was going about his elaborate preparations for the holy day, did not stop to give R’ Yisrael the time. Right then and there, when R’ Yisrael saw that a Jew could reach the point of apathy and self-centeredness, albeit who’s goal was to introvert his gaze in order to perfect himself, but nonetheless overly focused on himself to the point that he could not give another Jew the time of day, R’ Yisrael decided to found the Mussar movement. In other words, this interaction was enough for R’ Yisrael to decide that the Jewish people were in an unacceptable state.
And the second account happened with R’ Moshe Chait, the renowned leader of the Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva who passed away very recently. It was told by a close student of his, who had decided that like most of the American students who came to Israel for the year, he intended to return to America at the end of the year and go to college due to his pressing financial situation. The student expressed his intent to his Rebbi, and R’ Chait wished him well from the bottom of his heart. At the enrollment for the next years studies, R’ Chait observed that this particular student was still in the Yeshiva and hadn’t made any move to leave, and indeed stayed on for many more years. When R’ Chait questioned the student about this peculiar behavior, the student responded that he was with his Rebbe at the Kotel one day, and he noticed that when R’ Chait observed how far away the shoes were from the Kohanim, he swiftly gathered them and gently placed them in front of the Kohanim so that they would not have to walk barefoot on the cold marble floors. When he saw that level of sensitivity for other’s needs, he asked himself, “How can I leave a Rebbi who has such refined qualities and take a chance that I may never meet someone of this caliber again”?
If one looks throughout the Torah, one finds that this is really a central theme in all of our service of God. When they asked R’ Akiva to summarize the entire Torah, he said “Don’t do unto others that which you yourself would find distasteful”. I would like to offer some practical advice on how to reach this state of compassion. The Gemorah in Berachos (58) says that when Ben Zoma would come upon a large gathering of Jews, he would bless Hashem for creating all of these people to serve him. For example, the baker provides bread for me, the butcher provides meat for me. This surprising Gemorah is certainly not portraying Ben Zoma as an arrogant person, but rather is teaching us a great way to reach this lofty trait of empathizing with our comrades. By appreciating our fellow man by contemplating how much the interdependence of each inhabitant of this earth offers us on a practical level, we will certainly attain a higher level of caring for them. Similarly, each Jew has a particular trait that no other Jew has that can benefit every other person. By appreciating that fact, we can certainly come to a greater admiration of our fellow man. Perhaps another thought that could be instrumental comes from this week’s Parsha. The Torah commands us to love the converts. And the Torah tells us that the way to do this is to put ourselves in their shoes. We ourselves were foreigners in foreign lands, and people took us in, we can therefore identify with other outsiders, and must do so in order to make them feel truly welcome. By considering what others are going through, and identifying with their suffering from personal experience, we will certainly advance ourselves in this holy trait. While this task is certainly not easy, we must focus on it as it is absolutely essential for proper Torah observance.
May we all merit to truly feel the needs of each and every Jew around us!