We continue with stories about how Gedolim had intention when they did an act of Hessed, turning it into a mitzvah.
In the days of old, when trains stopped, they wouldn’t leave right away. They’d stop for a few minutes, and peddlers would get on the train to sell their wares.
The Chafetz Chaim was once on a train with a group of people when some Jewish peddler women came on to sell buttons. The Chafetz Chaim bought some buttons from one of them, and once the people saw the Chafetz Chaim do so, they bought as well.
The Chafetz Chaim later explained, “Do you know how silk is made? Many small hairs are taken from a silkworm and added together, and silk is made.
He said that every time we do a small deed, we are creating that silk. We just take a little hair, and can make silk out of it, provided that we have the right intention.
He said. “When you bought the buttons, if you thought, ‘I don’t really need those buttons but I’m just doing it to give the person a little parnasa and make them feel good,’ that is a mitzvah. But if you bought the buttons because you need them, then you lost the opportunity for a Mitzvah.”
This is an important rule. If we just copy what we see a Gadol doing, it is not really going to impact us, because we aren’t doing it with the intention that they had. If you see them buy a button, so you buy a button, you haven’t really done anything. You have to think what they are thinking. It’s a general rule that our deeds impact us, when we know what we are doing. The Gemara says that if a person is yawning and he knocks into a light switch and turns it on on Shabbat, that is not a sin at all. He isn’t involved in what he’s doing. So too, when you do an act of kindness without intent. If you buy the button because you need buttons for your shirt, that does not count as an act of kindness. Thinking turns the mundane into the holy.
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach explained the famous Gemara that says that Hashem wanted to merit the Jewish people. And because He wanted to merit us, He gave us many Mitzvot.
What does that mean? Doesn’t having many Mitzvah make it harder? He explained that there are many things that we do anyway throughout the day, but by God turning them into a mitzvah, He is giving us the opportunity for a mitzvah. This is, of course, provided that we are thinking.
The example he gave is tying your shoelaces. There is a Halacha on how to tie shoelaces (Put on the right shoe, then the left, then tie the left shoe and then tie the right). You are tying your shoes anyway, but if you have in mind that you are doing it right, you are fulfilling a mitzvah.
We are specifically discussing this concept as related to Ben Adam LChavero /man and his fellow, but we can look at another example to illustrate how far this concept goes. Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz was a great Rosh Yeshiva from Europe. He once came to New York and stayed with Rav Yaakov Yosef Herman, famous from the book about him, All for the Boss. In those days, New York was full of cars, but Europe was not. Rabbi Leibowitz told Rav Herman, “The streets of New York are full of Mitzvot.“ Rav Herman did not know what he meant, as at the time that weren’t even that many religious people in New York. Rabbi Leibowitz explained that crossing the street in New York was dangerous, but if you looked both ways and were careful, you could fulfill the mitzvah of being careful of your soul.
From then on, when he crossed the street, Mr. Herman would think about what Rav Baruch Ber did. Every time Rav Baruch Ber crossed, he would say that he had in mind to fulfill the mitzvah.
This is true of crossing the street, of exercising, doing push-ups or whatever you’re doing. If you have in mind that it is a mitzvah, it picks it up.
And we should have this in mind specifically in all of the Ben Adam LChavero that we do.
Have a wonderful day.