לע"נ ר' יואל בן ר' פנחס הלוי
About this post:
It is critical to have balance in life. Part of balance is knowing what is more important, what is less important and being careful not to blow anything out of proportion or minimizing what is critical.
So in our day and age, lashon hara is taken lightly. As a child we heard "Sticks and stones will ...but names ..." Maybe, maybe not. But "names" will earn a person up to 17 lo taasehs 14 asehs and 3 curses - for every word [stats courtesy of Rabbi Kagan known as the Khofetz Khaim זיע"א]!!! So a person who would NEVER put food into his mouth without a bracha will use the SAME MOUTH to malign another human being. MUCH WORSE.
Any religious Jew would NEVER have a coooollldddd refreshing glass of milk at his July 4th barbecue after downing three hot dogs but has no compunctions about watching a movie for which there is an aveirah of ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם [thousands per movie]. The former is מדרבנן while the latter is מדאורייתא.
For some, the mitzvos of living in Israel and serving in the Army are by far the most important mitzvos in the Torah and they fulfill them at all cost but at the same time are not careful about many other mitzvos WRITTEN IN THE SAME TORAH! A loss of balance.
Rav Elchonon Wasserman didn't like the term "religious zionist" because it wouldn't make sense to say "religious tefillinist" or "religious kashrut-ist". Tefillin is PART of the Torah, kashrut is PART of the Torah and so is living in Israel. It is not a separate religion. He saw what happens when one mitzva is over-emphasized - the others often go out the window.
Some people make tzniyus to be THE woman mitzva. By golly - does that mean that all a woman has to do is get dressed properly and not stand out and she is set for gan eden? Heaven forfend!! Women have LOTS of mitzvos to do - tzniyus being one important one [in part because it directly affects many other people. One overly attractive alluring woman can take a walk down the street and drag a thousand men into gehenom].
So beloved friends - let us keep our religious balance, learning and never forgetting how much emphasis to place on every mitzva. And this balance should express itself in all areas of life. ודי לחכימא!
