Endorsement
Rabbi Raymond Beyda
ENDORSEMENT
One of the time-honored techniques employed by the advertising industry to
sell product is called the "endorsement". A famous personality is paid by
the advertiser a fee to publicly speak the praises of his product. Football
players sing the praises of laser surgeons. Television stars tell of the
quality of an automobile. Rich, successful entrepreneurs advise the public
as to where to shop for paint. The public has learned to trust the veracity
of a rich and famous person's endorsement.
Does this make sense to you? If you needed to investigate the credentials
of a surgeon in a life-threatening situation would you seek the advice of a
major league all-star catcher? If you had large sums of money to invest
would you ask an Olympic Gold Medal ice skater where you should put your
money? Probably not! But let's face it -- the advertisers would not be
spending their client's dollars in a way that has not been proven to yield
bottom line sales. So we must conclude that most people -- at least -- do
accept the endorsements of the rich and famous as true and reliable.
Today when you are offered advice by one not expert in that exact subject
you are investigating -- stop. Consider that idol worship is o.k. for
children but can be harmful to the decision making of mature adults. Mature
people should judge an issue on its merits. Wisdom is found by consulting
the wise not the rich or the famous. (Someone once said, "Once a person
gets some money in his pocket -- he gets rocks in his head!".) It only
takes a minute to turn your attention to the subject at hand -- push aside
unreliable sources of advice -- and to seek out one who is wise in your
area of investigation. It takes maturity and it yields success.
DID YOU KNOW THAT
Ten men over the age of bar misvah are needed for a public reading of the
Torah in the synagogue. Should some of the ten leave after the reading has
begun, the one who is at the Torah at the time of their departure may
complete his portion and also may recite the blessing said at the
completion of his portion. The subsequent readers should be sent up to
complete the parashah and the haftarah but they should not say the
blessings normally recited before and after their aliyah. [Source Yalkut
Yosef, volume 2, Siman143:1,2]
FROM OUR SAGES
The Sefer Hasidim says that one should never judge another to the side of
liability because a person only sees things on the surface and only G-d can
see the depths of a person's intentions. In fact, on the contrary, one
should judge others favorably...One should not trespass what one considers
to be light transgressions because they lead to more serious violations.
For example, one should not violate the command, "Do not bear hate for your
friend in your heart" because it can lead to murder. [Sefer Hasidim, Siman
77-79]
Text Copyright © 2004 Rabbi Raymond Beyda and Torah.org.
