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"Do not say to
your neighbor go and come and tomorrow I'll give you, Oh, the tricks we play one upon another. It is no wonder why so many people have a problem trusting others, when so many others are so busy playing games with another’s well-being. Simplicity and honesty are almost forgotten practices today. We make our world and our lives so much more complex than they need to be. We think up an idea and then defy reason and logic to insist that we squeeze our square shaped ideas into the round holes of reality. We fail to grasp why it is that the world does not recreate itself to our chosen image of the moment. We fail to understand why reality cannot shift and change and keep up with our vivid imaginations. The solution to so many problems is rather simple. The answer itself is simplicity and honesty. We must learn to be straightforward and honest about what we feel, what we think and what we are going to do. We must be honest and acknowledge our limitations and then be careful to live within them. We must not ignore our innate parameters and demand that life itself change so that we can fulfill our every desire. The wise know their limitations, fools do not believe in limitations. The wise often live; fools often die. Maybe this is nature’s way of natural selection, sifting out from the human gene pool those too stupid to survive. Honesty can indeed be cruel, but knowing the truth enables ones to see and live with reality. Heaven has its plan; there is Divine Purpose in everything. When there is clarity, there is understanding. When one understands oneself, one can then express oneself to others. When there is honesty between people then trust can be built. Yet, when one can be forthright and chooses not do be, and then is discovered, how can such a one be trusted in the future? There is a subtlety to how we must communicate with others. We can be very straightforward or we can be round-about. When to act one way and when the other depends upon the type of person we are dealing with. A neighbor is the term used to describe a friend, someone to trust. With a neighbor, it is right and proper to behave with simplicity and clarity. However, with someone who is not a neighbor, this is one who is a potential source of harm, whose motivations towards one are questionable; with such a one caution should be the rule. Neighbors are treated with simplicity and clarity. Strangers are treated with caution and subtlety. There is a time and a place for all things under Heaven. Our problem is that we fail to distinguish properly between these times. We fail to recognize the difference between the neighbor and the stranger. When this occurs, we treat our neighbors, who should be trusted, as strangers. This distances them from us causing disharmony. When this occurs, we treat strangers as neighbors. This brings close those who should remain distant. When this occurs, we open upon ourselves the windows of misfortune. How much trouble have we caused ourselves merely because we have never learned to be clear and simple. For it is in the simplicity that comes discretion and the power to distinguish. Treat the neighbor as your neighbor. Treat the stranger as a stranger. Embrace the one and distance the other. Do so with wisdom, discretion, simplicity and truth. By knowing your parameters, ordained for you by Heaven, and by living within them, you create for yourself the surrounding fence of security. Safeguard the fence, let in only those who belong. Violate not the space of others. Respect them as you wish for them to respect you. Treat your neighbor as is right; give to your neighbor accordance to the ways of neighbors. When neighbors act as neighbors we all benefit. There are enough strangers around us of whom we must be wary. Know your neighbors, live with them and by them, and the Way of Heaven will open before you with ease.
Comments? Questions?
Yeshivat Lev Torah -
Collel Benei N'vi'im |
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