A Stumbling Block Before the Blind

Very useful teaching, Rabbi, now I've realized how many times I've been given non-kosher advices, some of them not for the advantage of the adviser, but mainly because of they wanted to feel elevated, and really, the right thing to do is to reject them. The teaching is for the adviser, but I'm prone to take the role of the aggrieved and in this case I think this talk has been useful for both, adviser and advised. Reply

Doesn't G-d put stumbling blocks before us, such as mental illnesses eg: Clinical Depression, Tourettes Syndrome, etc.? Reply

Why then, is it written in the negative? I understand - so even if it is good advice for the other, we are not to give it if we have personal gain, personal bias - understood - but there is no "vav" here and the posuk says "do not" so it seems to indicate that we are not to give the advice even if there is no personal gain....i.e. no "vav" Reply

Vav Big fan!

When I discover the depths of the torah, I'm haunted. Reply

Interesting how that portion that says don't put a stumbling block before the blind is followed by, "don't curse one who cannot hear". It would seem G-d is trying to say that, before we allow pain upon Hashem's people, we should let them know that the pain is coming. Thus we would have opened their eyes to impending doom before it hits them. Therefore we metaphorically won't be putting a stumbling block before the blind or cursing those who cannot hear; Just as Hashem warned Adam and Eve of the fruit they shouldn't eat, thus opening their eyes to the stumbling block in their midst. Reply