Chosen People #7

[Tikvah]

Two things Rebbitzen Heller said about Arevut really made an impression on me. The first was the story of Rav Yitzchak Dovid Grossman and his kallah going to where people had the least so they could give to the community.

The second was that it was as if the Kohen Gadol had stolen from the people in the Ir Miklat by not davening for them (before they accidentally killed someone.)

Tikvah

[Seema1]

I was thinking about the roles that Yakov and Aisav were born with - the asei tov and the sur meira.  Doesn't everyone have aspects of both qualities?  Isn't a person with person who has some strong inclinations to do ra still have a responsibility to do tov? And a person who has great potential to accomplish "holy" pursuits - doesn't he have a yetzer hara to do "ra"?

[Tikvah]

All people have elements of both sur m'ra and asei tov in them. But the strength of each mida is different  in each person. Some people are more sur m'ra and others are more asei tov. Even Esav must have had a little bit of asei tov and Yaakov a bit of sur m'ra but because they were both so extreme on the spectrum of these two middit we can learn about these two middot by comparing Yaacov and Eisav.

Tikvah