#66 - Perek Daled M - Mesilas Yesharim Explained

"U'par kol-- kol chayavim, amar Rabbi Yochanan, kat avi mati lahi kra--" Uh, sorry, "amru," excuse me, they said.

"Rabbi Yochanan, kat avi mati," when he would get to, "lahi kra, avi bachai." He would cry.

I'm always moved by how much Tana'im and Amora'im would cry.

I remember when I saw my great-great rebbi, Shimon Simcha Kuleshzewski, which was an, an amazing Ish Tas, a person of sekhel.

Uh, even if you think of him like a real litvak, uh, you know, an introverted in a certain way person, his emotions weren't out all the time.

And I remember I saw him at a hesbed one time crying like a baby.

It was very, very moving to me.

So imagine seeing Rabbi Yochanan, the sage, great sage of Yerushalayim, of, of Yerusha-- of, of Eretz Yisrael.

I don't know if he's in Yerushalayim, but he was up, up north, but of Eretz Yisrael.

"Karabti alecha mid mishpat." The pasuk says in Melachi, "And I drew close to you for mishpat, for judgment." "Vayiyti eid me maher," and I was a quick, um, a quick eid, a quick, um, witness.

"Machshavim uminafim umishmon le sheker," and I saw all the bad things you were doing.

Mechashvim, like Kishuf, wi-witchcraft, Minafim, and adultery.

"Umeshmonim le sheker beoshi yeskar sokhi," you're not paying workers.

Yesivoshvi-- So it means the-- HaKadosh Baruch Hu is saying like, "I see the negative things you're doing, and I'm gonna take you to task." And Rabbi Yochanan would cry, "Evi chishokel inu lam kalot kehamurah takani eish lo?" Means what's he putting in the same paragraph, adultery and not paying your worker the same day? That's what moved him.

The fact that HaKadosh Baruch Hu was an eid me maher, okay, Rabbi Yochanan got that.

But, but look at the severity.

When he would read the pasuk and he would review the pasuk, witchcraft, very severe.

Witchcraft is one of the most severe things, by the way, it says in Derech Hashem.

Minafim, adultery, okay, even part of the world still remembers that that's, uh, part of the world thinks that's a mitzvot gedolah.

But thank God, sane people still realize that that's from the worst source of arays.

But not paying your worker on time, that's tough stuff.

"Evi chishokel inu lam kalot kehamurah takani eish lo?" Is there anything to do? The same feeling we have when we read these things Rabbi Yochanan had.

It's too much, right? "Bevadai," ein, now he explains, "Bevadai she ein kemani samamar sheyeha onesh al shnei ke echad." What moved Rabbi Yochanan? Listen carefully.

It wasn't that Rabbi Yochanan thought, and for sure that's not what the pasuk means, that you get the same onesh for adultery and for paying your workers late.

No, that doesn't make any sense.