“I think I can’t”
by Rabbi Mordechai Rhine

Tzoraas was an ailment that afflicted a person because of his sins. It was G-d’s way of communicating a need for improvement. There were many different forms in which the ailment could come. Most well known is the Tzoraas that afflicted a person’s skin, in a leprosy-like appearance, for talking Lashon Horah. Another application was when Tzoraas would appear on a person’s garment. I would like to focus on the Tzoraas that could come upon a person’s home.

The Torah tells us that if Tzoraas appears on a person’s home, the person “to whom the house belongs” shall go to a Kohein and ask him to come and rule if it is Tzoraas. The Torah then directs: They shall clear out the house of its contents.

In identifying the reason that Tzoraas came upon a person’s house, the Talmud centers on the words, “The person to whom the house belongs,” and explains that Tzoraas of the house comes upon a person who is stingy. Instead of being kindhearted and helpful, this man lived with the motto that his house belonged to him alone. Over the years, when neighbors asked to borrow things, he would answer, “I don’t have that.” Now with his contents strewn on his front lawn it became clear to all that he did have the items in question.

I would like to pose the following question. What type of person are we talking about? Are we talking about someone who is downright stingy, a person so bitter that he refuses to lend anything to his neighbors. Or are we talking about someone who sincerely thinks he can’t afford to lend the item. He truly feels, for example, that he can’t lend his can opener or vegetable peeler to his neighbor because he might need it while they have it.

Perhaps the experience of emptying his house isn’t just to expose him to the world that he does own a can opener or vegetable peeler. Perhaps the experience is G-d’s loving way of revealing his resources to himself. When the homeowner’s belongings pass before his eyes he realizes that there is an older can opener and a second vegetable peeler that he can use short term if he must. Suddenly he realizes that he does have the necessary resources to do the mitzvah.

Sometimes in life we turn down a mitzvah because we sincerely think we are incapable of doing it. Often if we take stock of our resources we will find that we are quite capable of doing the mitzvah.

I am reminded of a man who arrived late at night to a large hotel in New York and asked to rent a room for the night. The clerk told him that the hotel was full; there were no more rooms. The man, exhausted from a long day of travel, was a bit desperate to get to sleep. So he decided to press the issue. “Tell me,” he asked with a smile, “If the President of the United States would pull up now would you have a room for him? Well I happen to know that he isn’t coming here tonight, so you can give me his room.”

There are many times that we may say, “I think I can’t,” only to find that if we reframe the request we are quite capable. By thinking creatively we will discover that our world of blessing is much greater than we thought.

© 2015 by TEACH613™

 

With best wishes for a wonderful Shabbos,