Baruch Dayan HaEmes

Last night, I got an e-mail to daven for a boy in 9th grade who fell into a diabetic coma and no one even knew he had diabetes. I got another e-mail this morning that he was niftar during the night. Today, someone told me that he was the little brother of someone I was in NCSY with. Baruch Dayan HaEmes.

This is a short d'var Torah to elevate the neshama of Avi ben Susan:

This d'var comes from Sichos Mussar (from R' Chaim Shmulevitz) for Parshas Mishpatim:

In this week's parsha, it talks about lending money to people and being careful not to demand your money back and not to charge them interest.

Chazal explain this phrase to mean that you should put yourself in the poor person's place and don't pressure him to pay you back if you know he doesn't have it.

All of these directives are intended to shape the act of kindness to be as perfect and as thorough as possible. Yet, even someone who has fulfilled all of these requirements is, in addition, faced with the sternest admonition of "You shall not place upon him interest." This is a prohibition of unusual severity. When Yechezkel warned the lenders, he said "He will not live." This is an unusual punishment for a negative commandment (not charging interest). Why is the punishment so severe?

The answer is that the quality of a mitzvah is evaluated not only in terms of form, but any accompanying motive such as self-gratification can corrupt the noblest deed. A person who has performed a mitzvah perfectly, unswervingly, adhering to the letter of the law, yet did not fulfill the mitzvah solely for its own sake, has fallen far short of what was demanded of him. Not being able to do an act of kindness without deriving some personal benefit (e.g. receiving interest) has made that person unworthy of the gift of life.

The Sichos Mussar goes on to discuss other examples of self-gratification in the context of mitzvos. Then at the end...

Shlomo HaMelech sums it up in Koheles. "I saw that all labor and all skillful enterprise springs from man's rivalry with his neighbor. This, too, is futility and vexation of the spirit." (Koheles 4:4)

Chazal expanded this to include much more than merely physical pursuits and accomplishments. It also includes Torah and mitzvos done with improper motives. Thus, be it even learning Torah, or performing a mitzvah, if the motive is 'rivalry with one's neighbor,' the act is deemed vanity and emptiness.

May our selfless deeds allow Avi's neshama to merit an aliya shelaimah.

Good Shabbos.