How much is a mitzvah worth?
Could a $10,000,000 induce you to refrain from
eating matzah on Pesach? $100,000,000?
$1,000,000,000? How about
tefillin where the downside of non-performance is much more pareve?
While none of us would give a thought to taking the
money let alone actually taking a pass on the observance of the mitzvah, our
mitzvah performance, unfortunately, doesn’t reflect this.
Query: When was the last time you put on tefillin or
ate a piece of matzah as if it was a $10,000,000 experience? Better yet, when was the first time?
And if this is the situation with mitzvahs that have
clearly defined halachos, what can be said about chesed whose halachos are subjectively
spiced up to a certain extent by context?
The chesed that most of us do tends to be
circumscribed by the fact that we are invested in various aspects of this
world. For some it’s material
things. For others it’s people or maybe
events. And for yet others there is the
concept of time, in that there are times
when we deem doing a certain chesed to be
inconvenient. The chesed performed
by the majority is to one degree or another compromised by all of these factors
and more.
Enter Aryeh Kupinsky Hy”d, one of the kedoshim that
was murdered in Har Nof.
As is well known by now, all of the kedoshim were
over the top with anything to do with chesed.
And with that exalted collective madreiga as a baseline Aryeh Kupinsky
stood out, not because he was more attuned to chesed than the others but rather
because of the nature of its performance was of necessity public. And because it was public we know more of
what he did.
Rabbi Daniel Travis fills us in on the details.
People ask, he says, how Reb Aryeh could have done
so much chesed. He was thinking about
people all of the time to such an extent that if he thought about himself at
all it was no more than a random thought.
Rabbi Travis tells us that this is a bad question. We
only ask it because we don’t understand what chesed is supposed to be. If we really had a feel of the essence of the
mitzvah we would realize that Reb Aryeh was the norm, not some übermench who
took chesed beyond its outer limits.
The question is on us.
Rather than ask: how did he do it, the question
should be: why are we not like that.
Rabbi Travis lets us hear that a Yid has to do
chesed without limits, as in whatever you can do, whatever is possible. This was the madreiga of the Avos and it was because
of his seeking to do chesed without limits that Avraham Avenu placed four doors
in his tent. He didn’t want any barriers
between himself and an opportunity to do chesed.
If Hashem puts the opportunity to do a chesed in
your hand, hold your fingers tight together so that none of it will slip
through. Take it to the max rather than
be satisfied with the minimum requirement.
If you’re giving a ride, give it door to door.
Daniel Travis explains that Aryeh Kupinsky was a complete
giver who always went for the max. He
was no less a tenacious a giver as some people are takers.
And then there was the freezer gemach which entailed
schlepping heavy freezers all over Har Nof so that those who couldn’t afford the exorbitant catering prices would be able to bake well in advance of their
simchas.
A person with a limited capacity cannot even comprehend
the concept of a freezer gemach. Rabbi
Travis points out that he may start a chair or money gemach. While they are important they are also small
and cheap. Freezers are big and
expensive.
If one does chesed without limits it’s not a problem.
And what exactly is chesed without limits as per
Rabbi Travis?
It’s the willingness to do anything for anyone at
anytime.
