Parshas Ki Seitzei Message 5778

בּ"ה

‘You shall not see the donkey of your fellow or his ox falling on the way, and conceal yourself from them; you surely raise it up with him.’ (Devarim 22:4)

One is obligated to help load the burden back onto the animal (see Rashi HaKadosh).  However, explains the Sifri, if the owner of the animal goes and says to the person that basically, since there is a Mitzvah upon them to help, then they should go ahead and do so, and they themselves do not aid in the job, then the person is exempt from helping reload the animal.

Says the Chofetz Chaim zt”l:  So it is with a person; if we sanctify ourselves below [i.e. here on earth], then we are sanctified from Above [i.e. aided in the process].  If a person asks Hashem at the end of Shemoneh Esrei ‘Guard my tongue from evil, and my lips from speaking deceit’, and they themselves try to be careful not to do those things, then from Heaven they will be helped.  But if a person just flings this behind their back, as it were, and doesn’t do anything to actually try to guard from speaking such things; how can they petition the above Tefillah from Hashem?!

And similarly, says the Chofetz Chaim, we ask in our Tefillah, ‘And enlighten our eyes in Your Torah’:  But if we do not, immediately after Davening, go and learn, then our Tefillah is not accepted!  

This is like someone who asked their fellow to lend them a certain sum, and the lender agrees to do so, but he asks that the person come to his house, and there he would give him the loan.  Now if the borrower is slack in going, he certainly cannot be upset against the lender for not lending to him!

So too is the matter in our case; a person petitions HaKadosh Baruch Hu to enlighten their eyes in His Torah, and Hashem answers, “Good is the thing that you requested; return to the table and take a Gemara or a Mishnayos [or any sefer] in your hand, and I will enlighten your eyes.”. . .

(Chofetz Chaim Al HaTorah)

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Gut Shabbos to All!

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