ELUL STATE OF MIND: The Power of Positive Influence

0:01 There is one action that is so hellacious, one practice so sinister that, although we are a nation of mercy, we are Rachmonim by Shonim and Goimlech HaSodim. If you should meet a merciful person, even if they are not wearing a yarmulke or tzitzis, you still must be concerned that they are children of the mosaic faith in the Abrahamic dynasty. However, the courts are taught, are told in Parashasrae, that if it should come across their desk an insider of Avodhuzara, somebody should be tried for saying nilch of a navduelikim hachayrim that he went behind closed doors and he told his friend hey, I got this new idol, this totem pole, this little Buddha thing.

0:52 You can come with me, we're gonna go bow down to it like a drug deal. I know it's not been a part of your family's heritage for quite some time. It's new, it's really fun, it's really good. Come with me. That insider of evil. Don't listen to him, do not acete him, don't take pity on him, don't close your eyes and do not conceal him. Five separate prohibitions. And the Gomorrah in Sanhedrin tells us that when it comes to this case, the judicial practice all of a sudden we just flip a switch. We're not trying to acquit him and to help him like we normally are. But here, even if you should have some sort of piece of information that may acquit this fellow or even bring it to a retrial to get him off, you're prohibited from walking into court.

1:39 Let this insider of idolatry suffer. Don't have compassion. A nation built on compassion and rahmanis here prohibited, even if you should be the son of this individual, and normally you're prohibited from carrying out the execution because you're a son, you're related. Here it's okay, totally mutter, do not close your eyes, don't conceal him, and normally a judge has to have children. So we should have a certain feeling of compassion. So one of us children has that zady-like feeling towards people here. Let a grumpy old man try the case. Don't have mercy on this fellow and if you should be drowning, don't jump in and save him.

2:20 Let him drown. There is something so wretched, the tire of find, something so deeply rooted, so evil, in the influencing of the public for the negative, and kalvachoymer ben benoy shall kalvachoymer Certainly all the more so. We know that in good, we know that good outweighs bad by 500 times all she lays in val'ru bayim, as it says in the Ten Commandments. Can you imagine how valuable and how precious it is in the eyes of Hashem, that you should influence the public for the good. Could you imagine how we flipped the switch into destroy this person, the inciter of evil?

3:06 What could it possibly be like? What would possibly be the attitudinal shift towards somebody that is being mizaka esharabu, that teaches those that don't know, that starts organizations, that helps people, that influences and helps and encourages the Jewish youth and the orphans and the widows? What do we do during Ello? We help others. If this is the way that somebody who is an inciter of evil is treated with such cruelty, such judgment, then can't you imagine, if you flip it on its head and you multiply it by 500, for somebody who does good and influences the public, for good and for Torah and for mitzvahs, how precious it is in the eyes of Hashem?

4:01 Go be mizaka the robin and go help out the public.