Acting Neighborly
My dear disciple, Lyron Elbaz, lives in Lyon. His home is near that of a fierce anti Semite. One day, my disciple told me, “Rebbi, I have no doubt that this man is from the seed of Amalek. Whenever my family celebrates a Jewish holiday, he protests vociferously with his virulent vilifications.”
“Can you give me an example?” I asked.
“Certainly,” was his immediate reply. “Every Shabbat, as we sing the Shabbat zemirot at the meal, he bangs on our mutual wall and shouts at us to pipe down.” Then he continued, “Honored Rav, this is but one example out of many. My non-Jewish neighbor eschews anything tinged with holiness. I am certain he is descended from Amalek.”
“This is your opinion. If you were to ask me, I think your neighbor is actually a Jew. If any sign of Jewishness evokes an attack of anger, it is only due to the Jewish spark hidden in his soul. As it senses anything Jewish, this spark begins to grow. But before it has a chance to become fired up with a Torah life, the Yetzer Hara becomes enflamed and injects his neshamah with revulsion and repulsion for all things Jewish. This is why he openly demonstrates his objection to anything having to do with religion.”
My disciple was dumbstruck at this interpretation of events. But I was not finished yet.
“What I would advise you to do,” I said, “is to go over to the man and cordially ask whether or not he is Jewish. You may be very surprised by what you hear. Come back to me with his answer.”
He was taken aback at my words, but agreed to do as I had instructed. He later reported the following: He had approached his neighbor in a pleasant manner, and related that he wanted to improve relations between them. At first, the man was skeptical, if not suspicious. But he finally acquiesced to my pupil’s request and invited him into his house. When my pupil asked whether he was a Jew or gentile, he roundly asserted that he was a true-blue Frenchman. He assured my pupil that no Jewish blood ran through his veins.
They entered into a friendly conversation, and then, in a confidential tone, the man said, “I have a piece of paper with writing, which my mother left me before her death. But it is written in a strange language. Therefore, I was never able to read it. Maybe you can decipher her last will to me before she died?” He put the page in front of him.
My disciple’s surprise at this man’s openheartedness only matched his shock to discover the message written in – Hebrew! His mother bequeathed to her son the missive that he was a Jew. She signed her name Liba, a common Ashkenazi name.
When the neighbor realized he was a Jew, he began unwinding the thread of his life-story. He said that he was the son of Holocaust survivors and had never been informed of his Jewish ancestry.
After some investigation, the man discovered that he was truly a son of the Chosen Nation. With time, he became closer to his heritage. He recognized his Creator and ceased his denunciations of his fellow Jew’s customs. It was in the merit of his neighbor that this man returned to his roots.
Mishlei (3:17) states, “Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.” Only with words of Torah, words of pleasantness and peace, was this man saved from his attitude of anger. And his soul was saved from spiritual assimilation and annihilation.
Yesterday, the Tzadik Rabbi David Pinto shlitah gave a shiur in the city of Modiin, in the presence of the city's Rabbi, Harav Eliyahou Amar shlita , to strengthen people in Torah, Emunah, and Yirat Shamayim.
Shiur link in Hebrew :
Some photos of the shiur :
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