Hello everybody, welcome to the Chofetz Chaim Daily Group. Le'ilui Nishmat (for the elevation of the soul) Yosef ben Avraham. To have your name mentioned here, please message us. Today's title is Midah keneged midah.
Right now, we are in the days of Elul, in the month of Elul, getting closer to Rosh Hashanah, to the holiest days of the year. None of us knows what the year is going to bring us. B'ezrat Hashem (with Hashem's help), only Beracha (blessing), but no one knows, which is why a person should prepare himself properly before Rosh Hashanah, before Judgment Day.
The Chofetz Chaim brings down an unbelievable lesson. He says every single person knows exactly what they did, but they want Hashem to forgive them. They want the Malachim, the angels in Shamayim (heaven), to speak only good about them in front of Hashem, to only defend their actions in front of Hashem, to be good lawyers and good advocates in front of the Creator of the world, the Judge of all Judges, HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, blessed is He), and to give us a good year.
So, even though every person says the Chofetz Chaim knows that they did something wrong this year, every single one of us also knows that we're actually very, very good people. Unfortunately, here and there we fall and do Averot (sins), but we don't want to do them. So we want the Malachim, we want the angels to speak only good about us in front of Hashem.
The Chofetz Chaim says that a person who wants to have good judgment, a person who wants Malachim to talk only good about them, although they sinned, should do the same thing for their friends, neighbors, and family members in this world. Even if you know your friend did something wrong, even if you know your neighbor did something that makes you want to speak Lashon Hara (evil speech) about them behind their back, if you control your mouth and don't talk negatively about somebody else behind their back, the Malachim in Shamayim are not going to talk about you negatively in front of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
Midah keneged midah is the way we act in this world to others by controlling ourselves and not talking about other people, behind their backs against them; the Malachim in Shamayim are not going to talk negatively or mention to Hashem the sins we did in this world.
But if it's the other way around, if a person goes around telling everyone the story about his neighbor who did X, Y, and Z—“He's such a terrible person, he's such an annoying person. Oh, this guy—oh my gosh, you don't want to sit next to him”—and goes around and around behind his back, talking negatively and saying Lashon Hara about him, and in Shamayim, too, why shouldn't they mention to HaKadosh Baruch Hu the negative things he did that year?
Thank you so much for listening.