Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

58
בלה תובשחמ
Rav Machlis and his wife were once were invited to an engagement party. In the
middle of the party the chatan got up to make a vow. The vow was that at every
Shabbos meal he will have for the rest of his life at home, there will be a guest at his
table. Three and a half years earlier the chatan had gotten divorced, and between
then and his second marriage he was rarely invited out for Shabbos, so the chatan
had eaten most of his Shabbos meals alone. Alone! I don’t understand how a
respected man of the community would basically be forced to eat by himself.
Clearly the chatan was hurt, and he therefore told himself he would never want
anyone else in his community to feel the way he had felt during those three and
half years.
We find in the Zohar further proof on the importance of keeping someone
company. There are 365 negative commandments in the Torah. According to the
Zohar each mitzvah represents a day of the year. The prohibition of eating the gid
ha-nasheh corresponds to Tisha B’av. Of all the commandments in the Torah why
would this prohibition correspond to one of the saddest days of the year? The
reason is that through our baseless hatred, which came from every person caring
for himself rather than others, the Beit Ha-mikdash was destroyed.
Every time the schochet does not cut off this part of the animal to sell, he and
all of us are reminded that B’nei Yisrael – the children of Yaakov – left Yaakov
alone! We as B’nei Yisrael cannot let this happen again. Rather, when we see that
someone plans on eating a meal by himself, we should reach out to him and
invite him into our house. Or, if there is someone we know is by themselves sick
at home, we should go and visit them. It is up to us not to make the mistake that
the sons of Yaakov made. By improving ourselves and not letting others we know
be alone, we will make the world a better place and therefore get closer to the
rebuilding of the Beit Ha-mikdash.