Being Careful

I’ll tell you a maaseh. One of the great Chassidim of the Yid Hakadosh of Peshischa was the Rebbe Reb Bunim of Pshischa. The story goes that the Yid Hakadosh once came into the beis medrash where Reb Bunim was learning with some other Chassidim,  and he told Reb Bunim that he should go on a trip. With that, the Yid Hakadosh turned around and walked out of the room. 

Reb Bunim had no idea what the Yid Hakadosh wanted him to do; where he should go, what he should do, or what the purpose of the trip was, but if his Rebbe said he should go on a trip, he was going to go on a trip! He asked the other Chassidim if they wanted to go along with him, instead of going alone, and they agreed to go on this mysterious journey. 

Reb Bunim listened to his Rebbe, and asked some of the other Chassidim to join him. 

Since the Yid Hakadosh had not told him where to go, they simply walked outside and flagged down the first horse and wagon they saw, and asked the driver if he could pay them to take them wherever he was going. The driver agreed, and they all climbed into the back of the wagon. 

At some point, the driver stopped at an inn for the night. Reb Bunim and the Chassidim walked into the inn, and they saw it was owned and operated by what appeared to be a religious Jew. They made arrangements to get a room for the night, and then, since they had not eaten all day, they approached the owner of the inn to see if they could buy dinner. Reb Bunim asked, due to his own personal kashrus considerations, whether he had any dairy or pareve food options. The owner replied that he did not, and the only dinner available was fleishigs.

Reb Bunim turned to the other Chassidim, and they huddled together to discuss whether they felt they could trust this Jew that his meat was kosher. They were debating whether they should ask who the shochet was that slaughtered the cow, how it was prepared, and so on. This whole conversation took place within earshot of the owner. 

While they were discussing this, an older man who was sitting nearby called out to them. “Chassidim, Chassidim! You are clearly very careful about what goes into your mouth, but you should also be as careful about what comes out of your mouth! You are speaking about whether you trust the kashrus in earshot of the owner!”

Reb Bunim turned to the other Chassidim, and said, “This was the message the Yid Hakadosh wanted me to hear! We can leave now.” 

Take It To Go!:

The message the Yid Hakadosh wanted to share is that although it is good to take on stringencies in the mitzvos we do that are bein adom l’Makom, between man and Hashem, we should also take on stringencies in bein adam l’chaveiro, in how we interact with our fellow man. Just as we must be careful with what we put in our mouth, and eat only food that is properly kosher, we must be equally concerned with what comes out of our mouth, by being careful of what we say and before whom we say it.