אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
ג׳ חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
Continues from De'ah stands between the names.
The last post stopped at the remnant of the tent. Ein sorid ela talmidei chachamim. R. Elazar is not finished. He is still talking about what a house leaves over: on the table, in the mouth, in the eyes, and in a man's name.
Crumbs, not a loaf
Kol she-eino mash'ir pas al shulchano eino ro'eh siman berachah le-olam.
If a man does not leave over bread on his table when he is finished eating, he will not see a sign of blessing forever.
In those days people baked bread when they needed it. If a man consumed the bread at the meal and nothing remained, a wayfarer could knock and he would say, I would have loved to give you, but it is too late. So he is commanded to leave something over for the needy. Today everybody has something left over anyhow. That is the original meaning, and that is why it is still a practice among us. We leave over some bread on the table when we finish the meal. As a memorial to this great principle: we have to keep in mind those who might need it. The plain meaning is there is no remnant after he finished eating, therefore his happiness will not begin.
That is a beautiful thing that the Jewish nation does. Most people do not even recall why. The purpose is to remind them that something has to be left over for others.
The Gemara asks: how can you say it is a virtuous practice to leave over bread, when R. Elazar himself said the opposite? If anyone leaves over pieces on his table, ke-ilu oved avodah zarah.
Ha-orchim la-Gad shulchan, ve-ha-memal'im la-Meni mimsach.
Those who lay out for Gad a table. Gad is a certain form of good-luck symbol. Those who fill up for Meni libations. Idolaters, when they finished, used to leave morsels on the table and a cup of wine, an offering to idols. How can leftover bread be a mitzvah if R. Elazar condemned it as imitating the idolaters?
Lo kashya. Ha de-ika shleima bahadei. Ha de-leika shleima bahadei.
When you have a whole loaf with it, and when you do not. Leave over pieces, and you demonstrate that you are aware somebody might come in who is hungry. That is a virtuous thing. Give orders that they bring a whole loaf and put it on the table with the pieces: that is already a ceremony of idolatry. The big loaf resembled the god of grain, of fertility, and the pieces are the offerings given to it. A miniature avodah zarah on the table. That is forbidden for Jews today. You do not put a whole loaf with pieces on the table, because that is reminiscent of the ancient avodah zarah. Jews are commanded to leave something on the table to remind them that there are hungry people in the world. Bringing a whole loaf to put among the crumbs: that is asur. If you have a loaf there already, no harm.
The remnant on the table is for a man who might still knock. The loaf set among the crumbs is a remnant for Gad.
A small untruth is already on the road
Amar R. Elazar: kol ha-meshaneh be-diburav ke-ilu oved avodah zarah.
Anyone who changes his words, who says untruth, who lies, ke-ilu oved avodah zarah. It does not mean it is the same. Worshiping idols is the great lie, because it is opposed to the fundamental truth, the most important of truths. Anyone who learns to lie is already embarked on that road.
It is the truthfulness that should make a man hate and despise all the false religions. These people came out in the world and said that God spoke to them in the privacy of their tents, in the privacy of their hearts, and there is nobody around who ever saw it. They could not prove it, and still they demanded that the world should worship them. These people are the greatest liars in the world. Muhammad and Jesus are the greatest liars in the world. They are no equal among the manufacturers of tall tales in the world. Anybody who says a small untruth has to know he is already headed in that direction. It is the midas ha-emes that causes opposition to all of avodah zarah.
Yaakov objected to his mother's plan that he should tell his father that he is Esav. I will be in his eyes like a metate'a. A deceiver, an impostor. Of the idols it is written:
Hevel hemah, ma'aseh ta'tu'im.
They are vanity. They are the work of deception. Ta'tu'im comes from to'eh: to wander, to mislead. Avodah zarah misleads. Anybody who is metate'a, like Yaakov would tell his father, I am Esav your firstborn, would be like an idolater.
The bow
R. Elazar tells us of the importance of guarding the holiness of the eyes. A Jew's eyes should be holy.
Kol ha-mistakel be-ervah kashtecha tinua.
He who looks at ervah, his bow is shaken up. The bow means the gevurah, the strength of the man. There are a number of explanations. Right now we will talk about his neshamah. The gevurah of the neshamah is shaken up. It becomes weakened. HaKadosh Baruch Hu sends a retribution that this man becomes weakened.
When a man yields to his urges, he does not take the effort to overcome it. After all, it is not so hard to prevent himself from looking. HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, you did not use the strength that I gave you, so I will make it even more difficult for you from now on. In ancient times a warrior fought with a bow, shot arrows against the enemy. Kashtecha tinua: it will be shaken up. Take a good bow with a taut string and shake it so that it becomes overextended, and now the string is loose and it will not shoot.
Ervat te'or kashtecha.
Because of the nakedness of shameful things, your bow will be shaken up.
We will stick to the plain translation learned so far, which means middah ke-neged middah. Kol ha-mekadesh atzmo me'at: if a man makes himself a little bit holy, he walks in the street, and he keeps his eyes where he should keep them, on the snow, on the trees, on the sky, unless he is crossing an intersection, he looks where he is supposed to be looking. Since you are using gevurah, I will give you more gevurah.
Kol ha-mekadesh atzmo me'at mekaddeshim oto mi-lema'alah.
The man makes himself kodesh below, they make him kodesh above. A little bit of effort on our part is rewarded with much power.
Be qavul
The honorable ones of the world have a qavul. Always be qavul. Qavul means inconspicuous. You will continue to exist. You want to hang around this world a long time? Do not be conspicuous. Do not think you are missing out because you do not have glory, you are not famous. Publicity is one of the ways of living a short life.
Ha-rabbanus mekaberet ba'aleha.
Mastery, domination, buries the ones who possess it. Power makes a man die younger. Why was Yosef HaTzaddik the first of the brothers to die? He was not the oldest. He was a crown of the brothers. The Gemara says: mastery buries the ones who possess it. Yosef was a tzaddik, and he did not seek it. That is the nature. When a man has mastery in this world, he cannot hang around too long. If a man wants to live long, he is qavul. Qavul means be in the dark. Qavul means be unknown.
It does not mean you should not become great in Torah and great in good deeds. Suppose despite that, people seek you out and you become famous? You are an ones. What can you do? Even though it might be dangerous for your life, still you may as well have fished for greatness.
The Alter of Slabodka, when he went to heaven, had lost a son. The Alter wept. When he was in Slabodka, nobody knew about him. He did good work with talmidim, and his children would have lived. He came to Eretz Yisrael. There is a very big publicity about him. There are write-ups about him, even books written about him. He said this publicity was harmful, and he wept when his son died. It is the publicity of me that killed my son, he said. As a principle: do not be too conspicuous.
A remnant of bread is left for a man who might still knock. A remnant of speech is the truth, which is the only opposition to avodah zarah. A remnant of gevurah in the eyes is spent on snow and sky, and is paid back from above. A remnant of a name is qavul: unknown enough to keep living, great in Torah if that is what the work requires. The loaf among the crumbs, the small untruth, the look, and the write-up are four ways a house spends what it was given to leave over.
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