The Effects of Envy

A French boy who was completely non-observant would occasionally visit our yeshiva in Lyon. He would participate in the shiur which I delivered every Tuesday evening.

As a result of these shiurim, this young man merited recognizing Hashem and doing complete teshuvah. He once attended a Torah shiur at a different institution. They asked him there, “What brought you to teshuvah?”

“A certain Rabbi whose lectures I used to attend convinced me that teshuvah is the way to go.”

The maggid shiur then stood up and said, “If you did teshuvah in the yeshiva in Lyon, it is not worth a nickel!”

The boy, still wet behind the ears in authentic Judaism, was terribly shaken at this statement, declared by a rabbi who gave Torah lectures. He could not fathom that there could be differences of opinion, and even dissention, among talmidei chachamim, rachmana litzlan. He walked out shocked to the core. From then on, he stopped donning tefillin and began smoking on Shabbat. Things went from bad to worse, until he eventually consorted with a gentile woman, rachmana litzlan.

Upon reflection, I realized that the cause of this boy’s regression after doing teshuvah was the jealousy of the maggid shiur. He was simply envious of the success of our yeshiva. Instead of building up this budding young scholar, bringing him closer to his Father, he cut him down in his prime. He literally snuffed out a Jewish soul, akin to destroying an entire world.

Those who wish to bring merit to the public must unite, putting aside all personal agendas, toward one common goal: to guide the unaffiliated upon the right path, thereby increasing Hashem’s glory.