THE WISDOM OF TOLERANCE

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well and enjoying summer.

Mazal Tov to Avi on the wedding of his brother Eli BH. Wishing you many simchos Avi!

During the summer we read a chapter of Pirkei Avot every Shabbos.

Last Shabbos and relating to this week we read chapter 4, and we came across a cute story, related to Mishneh 3, which I was thinking about often during the week.

The Mishneh says: 'Do not regard anyone with contempt, and do not reject anything. For there is no man who does not have his hour, and no thing which does not have it's place.'

The Maharal comments, that every person and thing plays a role in the grand scheme of creation, without which the world is incomplete.

The Meam Loez illustrates this with a story of a mouse, who by mistake walked over the foot of a lion, and woke him up.

The lion was angry and cried out, ' You lowly mouse, you deserve death for walking on me!'

The mouse responded with a broken heart, that he apologises, and begged the lion not to harm him, and that he will one day repay the lion for this.

The lion laughed and said, 'How can a puny little creature like you possibly be of of help to the king of the beasts?!' But he nevertheless let the mouse go.

Once the lion was out hunting, and he fell into a trap that had been set by hunters.

The lion roared an awesome roar that reached the ears of the mouse in its little hole, who decided to go out and see if he could help the lion.

He found the lion trapped, and so he gnawed a hole in the net in which the lion had been caught, thus allowing the lion to escape.

Linked, is the giving of Charity to the poor, which is discussed in this week's Parsha Reeh!

Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos