The Power of Self-interest
During one of my speeches, a man in my line of vision constantly chuckled to himself, acting as though he were repudiating my words and insinuating that I offered nothing new to my audience.
In my heart, I agreed with the man. My words were divrei Torah, told already to Moshe at Sinai. But it bothered me that a fellow Jew should make a mockery of divrei Torah.
After the speech, I called this man aside. “Do you know that most of what I said I heard originally from your esteemed Rabbi, when I once visited his yeshiva?” I asked. The man seemed to become transformed before my eyes. “Really?” he asked, excitedly. “It was an amazing speech!” He turned on his way, singing the praises of my speech to anyone who would listen.
See how great the power of self-interest is! It can blind a person to the truth. This man’s personal connection to his rabbi blinded him to anyone else’s Torah thoughts. He considered only his rabbi’s words worthy of study. In his mind, whatever anyone else offered was not worthy of acceptance.
One is enjoined to accept words of Torah. As long as they represent sound Torah doctrine, it is irrelevant whether they were presented by one’s rabbi or the rabbi of another circle. Making a distinction between the words of Torah of one rabbi over another is nothing short of the Yetzer Hara’s ploy to reduce the flow of pure Torah knowledge. Let us still the voice of the Yetzer Hara and listen to words of Torah, whoever speaks them.
