Terumah: 5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld; said in the name of his mother a"h, whose yahrtzeit falls today, 7 Adar: "What a person does - he does for himself" and the connection to the parsha of "V'yikchu li terumah".…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:02 Speaker 2 Today is a special date, 7 Adar I, the day of Moshe Rabbeinu’s passing. Some observe it in Adar II, and some in Adar I. What I want to mention is that today is the yahrzeit of my mother, a”h. So the Torah thought we share will be for the elevation of her soul.

00:28 Speaker 1 Rachel, daughter of—

00:29 Speaker 2 Rachel, daughter of Reb Shimon HaLevi. One saying she often repeated was in Yiddish: “Vos men tut, tut men zich.” In English: Whatever a person does, he does for himself. Of course, one must keep mitzvos and do them for their own sake: “They shall take for Me an offering”—“for Me, for My sake.” But at the end of the day, a person does it for himself. She would tell a story to illustrate this saying. There was once a Jew who begged for alms. He would sit in the marketplace, and whenever someone passed by and gave him tzedakah, he would say, “Thank you. Vos men tut, tut men zich.” One day the governor of the city passed by and saw this poor man, so he gave him a generous gift. The man said, “Thank you. Vos men tut, tut men zich.” The governor was a little offended. “I give you a generous gift, and you tell me I’m doing it for myself? I’m giving you charity!” He thought, “Fine, I’ll teach him a lesson.” What did he do? At home, he prepared a beautiful cake and put poison inside it. Soon afterward, when he passed by again, he gave the man the cake. And the Jew said to him, “Vos men tut, tut men zich.” The governor thought, “Well, we’ll see how this turns out.” But the poor man thought to himself, “Should I eat the cake alone? I’ll wait. I have children at home, and they can enjoy it too.” So he didn’t touch it. He waited until it was time to go home, then took the cake with him, thinking he would sit with his children and share it with everyone. Just then, someone knocked on the door. Who was it? A poor man came in. He had lost his way in the forest and hadn’t eaten for several days.

02:43 Speaker 2 He was hungry and exhausted, poor fellow, and begged them for something to eat. Seeing his condition, the man thought, “We have to have compassion for him.” So he took the cake and gave it to him. The visitor devoured the whole thing. He went home, and afterward began to feel pain and writhe in agony. People began investigating what had happened and what had caused it, until they discovered that it was the cake. The governor said, “Now I see with my own eyes: vos men tut, tut men zich—whatever a person does, he does for himself.” This also fits with the Baal Shem Tov’s saying that a person is judged both with his knowledge and without his knowledge. What does “with his knowledge and without his knowledge” mean? The Baal Shem Tov explained: Who can judge a Jew? A Jew is a part of G-d Above. How can—no one else can judge a Jew. So who can? Only he himself can judge himself. What do they do Above? They arrange for him to encounter a case involving something he himself did, but he sees someone else doing it. He then, as it were, decides what should be done to that person for such an act, while in fact he is passing judgment on himself. This, too, illustrates the idea of “vos men tut, tut men zich”—whatever a person does, he does for himself. [unclear]

04:06 Speaker 3 Amen.