Based on the TYH podcast “Tachlis, What’s My Avoda?” with Harav Yussie Zakutinsky Shlita and Yakov Wohlgelerner. Listen to more, available on all podcast streaming platforms.
Ahavas Yisroel is not just a passive concept of loving our fellow Jew in our hearts. Ahavas Yisroel has to be weaponized! It can be used to help Jews, to uplift them, to bring them closer to the people they can become. Go around thinking: “Yidden are holy and amazing and unbelievable. I don’t even chap (realize) how great a Yid is, and that Yid doesn’t even chap how great he himself is!
Connecting to Nishmas Yisroel, the collective soul of the Jewish people, requires humility.. At the same time, we also need to be in awe of ourselves and recognize that there is a part of us that is a mystery. One of the most powerful pesukim in the Torah is מַדּ֙וּעַ֙ לֹ֣א יְרֵאתֶ֔ם לְדַבֵּ֖ר בְּעַבְדִּ֥י בְמֹשֶֽׁה, How are you not afraid to speak about Moshe Rabeinu? G-d himself warns us to be so careful about the way we speak about Moshe Rabeinu. According to the Zohar, every single Jew has within him a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. In order to engage with that spark, we have to be in awe of it. A part of us has to look in the mirror and say: “I don’t know who that is.” There is a depth to myself, and to every Yid, that I haven’t even met before – not in a scary way, but in an awesome way! Before we can think about saying something negative about another Jew, or even about oneself (other than in the context of self-introspection), you have to hear the words resounding in your ears, “How are you not scared to talk about My servant Moshe Rabbeinu?”
“This Jew’s like this,” “this guy does like this”, and “this community holds this way and this community does the other way.” “He’s right,” “he’s wrong,” “he’s in between,” and so on… These thoughts could be true and may be well intended, but l’maaseh, when it boils down to it, the truth of all truths is that we are all sparks of Moshe Rabeinu and how are we not terrified to speak about Moshe Rabeinu?
The yetzer hara loves bringing up the differences between different types of Jews. The best response to that, instead of fighting this yetzer hara head-on, is to allow the yetzer hara to have that “win.” Yes – you are right, Mr. Yetzer Hara. Jews can be very different from one another, I don’t deny that. This Jew is a square, this one is a circle, the other one a triangle. But there is a part of a Jew that is way beyond shapes, way deeper. Keep your shapes, yetzer hara. I’m interested in the Moshe: the part of the Jew that is beyond shapes! Once you give the space for that spark to emerge, all the shapes take on a different form. The differences in opinions and ways of life then become just another part of the mystery of the Yid, and we realize we are not as far apart from one another as we thought we were.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 9.
