Parshios Matos & Masei
More Generous Thoughts
By Rabbi Label Lam
Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the Children of Israel
saying: This is the thing that HASHEM has commanded: If a man takes a vow
to HASHEM or swears an oath to establish a prohibition upon himself, he
shall not desecrate his word; according to whatever comes from his mouth
shall he do. (Bamidbar 30:2-3)
Amazingly a person can create obligations to act and make restrictions in
his own behavior that are as binding as any other explicit commandment in
the Torah. A slice of watermelon can become as forbidden as a slice of
bacon with one roll of the tongue. It’s worthwhile taking some time to
admire how powerfully invested we are with the gift of speech.
The wisest of all men, King Solomon writes, “Blessings to the head of the
righteous but (chamas) violence will cover the mouths of the wicked.
(Mishlei 10:6)
The Vilna Gaon explains that since the righteous person constantly sees
goodness in others and blesses them he becomes the object of blessing by
The Almighty. The habit of the wicked on the other hand, is to search for
and express fault and blame in others. He therefore brings curses upon his
own head.
The Vilna Gaon justifies the word “violence” “chamas” based upon its use
in the describing the reasons for the “great flood”, “Because the earth is
filled with violence-‘chamas’”. What was the violence of that time? He
explains that society was infested with minor acts of theft but the
verbally violent reactions of the ones who were stolen from was the source
of the ever so destructive- “chamas”.
Similarly, Rabbi Matisyahu Solomon offers a bluntly sobering explanation
of the phenomenon of “baseless hatred” which our sages tell us is the
underlying reason for the destruction of the 2nd Temple and the length of
the subsequent exile. Imagine a teacher is trying to gain the attention of
a student in his class. The child is playing with some toy inside his desk
and he is warned time and again. Eventually the teacher cuts off the arm
of the student. The parents and the principal are mortified. The teacher
explains that he was playing with things inside his desk during class
time. Everyone would agree in this absurd case that the teacher stepped
over all bounds of acceptability, no matter how he may try to explain his
behavior. Sure the kid was not innocent but he didn’t deserve to lose a
limb.
So says Rabbi Solomon that sometimes a person has a real claim against
another. He was slighted or cheated or damaged in some way but that does
not justify hating him in his entirety or frowning at and complaining
about his family and wishing them ill. All that would be overkill. It
requires a sophisticated and surgical approach not to condemn the whole of
a person or his clan because a single albeit legitimate point of
contention.
That’s the definition and the dynamic of the debilitating disease
called “baseless hatred”. Not that it is entirely unwarranted but that
that the limited license to complain spills over and floods the arena of
the “unwarranted”. Instead of being a source of blessing and goodness for
others we are ever tempted to kick and curse inviting further reasons for
unhappiness.
The Vilna Gaon explains why the blessing is to the “head” of the
righteous, “Because of the principle that HASHEM considers a well intended
thought as a deed already done, the moment the person thinks to lend his
blessings to another, he himself is immediately showered with blessings.”
When considering what different kinds of worlds we might come to occupy
based only upon the organs of speech, our minds are therefore put on
serious notice to generate more generous thoughts.
Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Label Lam and Torah.org.
