Behaalotecha
So Will He Really Work for Food?
Dear Friend,
You see a person with a dirty face, torn clothing, and a sign that says “Will Work for Food,” and you might assume the person is homeless, jobless, and is not very interested in work or food.
We may hate to admit it, but it’s normal to judge people. Most of us do it all the time, to just about everyone.
In this week’s chapter of Ethics of the Fathers, we find a teaching of Hillel the Elder: Do not judge your fellow until you’ve stood in his place.
How can we possibly do that? Think of it like this. Suppose someone told you that the guy with the “Work for Food” sign was an actor. Suddenly you realize that your previous assumptions were all wrong. Under the grime and rags lives a person you hadn’t even bothered to look for.
The truth is that every one of us is an actor. We may act rich, poor, wise, foolish, proud or humble. But none of that defines who we are. We really are our G‑dly souls.
With that in mind, it’s all that much easier to take a step back and see that we may not know the people we think we know.
The Chabad.org Editorial Team
P.S.: Have you ever misjudged or been misjudged? We’d love to hear about it. Please share your experiences in the comments section.
I don’t know if I should give up on blind dates, or just give up altogether. Any message of hope for the dated-out? I’m starting to lose faith in ever finding love.
Since many idol-worshipers used to cut off the hair on the sides of their head, we are required to maintain a physical appearance that distinguishes us.
How does an urban couple in America’s “Second City” marry Jewish tradition with modern life?
My grandparents were forced in one direction, my mother and her sister in another.
Have we become slaves to our things, rather than masters using them to create joy and purpose in our world?
I would like to be an intellectually honest spiritual seeker, a warm and loving and dynamic wife and mother, a supportive friend; but at the end of the day I look in the mirror and see an annoyed and tired dishrag, and all I want to do is have a cup of coffee and a bar of chocolate . . .
A condensation of the weekly Torah portion alongside select commentaries culled from the Midrash, Talmud, Chassidic masters, and the broad corpus of Jewish scholarship.
Granted, asking for meat is not the most spiritual exercise, but what is it about the request that so offends Moses?
Man was created in G-d’s image, but how do we maintain that image and sanctity? This class details the Torah’s universal message for humanity.
Chabad chaplain shares insights—no, he's not afraid, and yes, he stays in touch with some people upon release.
Five weeks after Nepal was rocked by successive earthquakes, officials at Chabad say they’re using the Talmudic principle of "concentric circles of care" to help them determine who to help first.
Adult study to expand after $1.3 million online matching grant challenge is met.
From teens to groups of adults, lending a hand, big and small, to those recovering from the flood.
Every Friday, before Shabbat, she would throw a burning coal into the oven, so that smoke would drift out of her chimney . . .
Naturally, we think of the Jewish people as a conglomerate of many Jews. But the Baal Shem Tov saw the Jewish people as a single, indivisible whole.
Think of a geometrical point. A point is indivisible, but not because it is too hard, too big, or too small to cut up. A point simply has no area to be divided. That’...
