Reply To: YWN Coffee Room Nightly D’Var Torah

For the week of Parshas Re’ai

**********************Jax’s Tuesday D’var Torah*************************

Rav Pappa was climbing a ladder when he suddenly began to slip. He grappled for a moment, then caught himself before falling. He was gripped with trepidation because he understood this as a sign from Above that he had done something that was deemed worthy of death penalty. Rav Chiya suggested that perhaps Rav Pappa had failed to give tzedaka to a poor person. The Talmud teaches, “One who hides his eyes from tzedaka is considered as one who serves idols.” Idol worship is punishable by death. The Maharsha (Baba Basra 10A) says that Rav Chiya was hinting to the following incident:

Once a poor person came to Rav Pappa, who was in charge of the communal charity fund, for a donation from the fund. Rav Pappa denied him because this man was also going from door to door for donations and the law stated, “When a poor person collects from door to door, he is not given a gift from the communal fund.” Rav Samma rebuked him saying, “If you don’t give him, than others will not give and he will die.”

Rav Pappa responded, “What can I do? The law states ‘When a poor person collects from door to door, he is not given a gift from the communal fund.’ ” Rav Samma retorted, “He is not given a large gift, but he is given small token gift.”

Rav Moshe Dov Harris explained that Rav Pappa could not be considered as one who “hides his eyes from tzedaka” just because he did not know a law. Rather, Rav Pappa failed to deduce the law because he lacked empathy towards the plight of the poor person. In addition to transferring funds, the mitzvah of tzedaka requires that one be sensitive to the plight of the poor person and feel his pain. Had Rav Pappa put himself in the poor man’s shoes, he would have realized that ‘no gift’ could not be an option and therefore a small token gift must be in order. Rav Pappa’s failing was in the essential mitzvah of tzedaka and thus is tantamount to Idol worship.

How important it is for us to be constantly and acutely tuned in to the feelings of others.