Parshas Ki Seitzei 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
לא תתעב אדמי כי אחיך הוא לא תתעב מצרי כי גר היית בארצו ... (כג-ח)
Rashi explains that the reason we may not reject an Egyptian convert is because we must have hakaras hatov for them having provided us a home in the days of yore. And although they took the opportunity to enslave us while we were there, still, at the end of the day, they allowed us to live on their land, and for that alone, some measure of gratitude is warranted.
A bochur once went to learn in the famed Yeshivah in Radin, and, upon his arrival in the Yeshivah, made his way to the house of the saintly Chofetz Chaim zt”l to give shalom and receive the tzaddik’s beracha. The Chofetz Chaim asked the bochur his name, and then inquired as to whether or not he had for himself an achsanya, a place to live in while he learned in the Yeshivah. The boy answered that he hadn’t. When he heard this, the Chofetz Chaim immediately got up, and, despite his advanced age, troubled himself to go out and arrange for him a proper achsanya, and didn’t rest until everything the bochur needed was taken care of. The astonished talmidim of the Yeshivah didn’t have the temerity to ask the Chofetz Chaim anything about it, but the tzaddik himself later explained his unusual involvement with the welfare of this bochur. It so happened that many years beforehand, during his many travels, he himself had been a guest in this boy’s grandfather’s home in Vilna. Therefore, since we find in the Torah that there is an obligation to show gratitude not only to those who benefited us, but to all their descendants as well, as evidenced by the Torah’s command to show gratitude to all Egyptians for all eternity for the fact that their forebears hosted us, the Chofetz Chaim felt himself similarly obligated to pay back his debt of gratitude to his benefactor’s descendant, and therefore took it upon himself to assist the bochur in any way possible!
As we approach Rosh Hashanah and the yemei hadin, the first thought that should enter our minds is: Hashem has given me a whole year of life - did I truly and wholeheartedly thank him, even once?! Only once we recognize the Aibeshter’s good to us can we approach the new year and hope to survive.