Chasidut על בבא קמא 184:19
Kedushat Levi
We may also use Rabbi Yehudah’s simile regarding how our actions on earth are recorded and evaluated In the celestial spheres as a means to understand Hillel’s answer given to the heathen who was willing to convert to Judaism on condition that Hillel was able to teach him Judaism during the time he was able to stand on one foot. (Shabbat 31) Hillel summed up Judaism by telling the prospective convert that “what is hateful to you do not do to any of your fellow man.”
The Talmud Baba Kamma 92 phrases it as a negative virtue when it warns us not to throw a stone into a well from which we had first drunk water.
The “fortune” that the Creator has given to each one of us for free, is our body and its organs as well as the intellectual faculties which serve us well during our life on earth. Is it conceivable that we should be so lacking in gratitude as to refuse to carry out the minimal demands made upon us by our Creator?
If anyone of us does not fulfill G’d’s commandments is G’d not entitled to become very angry at such a person? All we have to do to realize how unjustifiable such a conduct is, is the fact that we ourselves consider anyone not showing gratitude to a fellow human being who had gratuitously endowed us with material wealth as below contempt. What Hillel told the heathen who wished to convert is nothing else than that in Judaism we consider an ingrate as having committed the cardinal sin. The word מעלה in Rabbi Yehudah’s statement can also be translated as “virtue,” i.e. consider in your relationship with G’d that you have demonstrated on earth that you know how to practice gratitude. Surely, the gratitude you owe your Creator cannot be less than what you owe your peers on earth? Rabbi Yehudah implies that virtues we practice daily in our dealings with fellow human beings, must certainly also be practiced in our dealings with G’d.
The Talmud Baba Kamma 92 phrases it as a negative virtue when it warns us not to throw a stone into a well from which we had first drunk water.
The “fortune” that the Creator has given to each one of us for free, is our body and its organs as well as the intellectual faculties which serve us well during our life on earth. Is it conceivable that we should be so lacking in gratitude as to refuse to carry out the minimal demands made upon us by our Creator?
If anyone of us does not fulfill G’d’s commandments is G’d not entitled to become very angry at such a person? All we have to do to realize how unjustifiable such a conduct is, is the fact that we ourselves consider anyone not showing gratitude to a fellow human being who had gratuitously endowed us with material wealth as below contempt. What Hillel told the heathen who wished to convert is nothing else than that in Judaism we consider an ingrate as having committed the cardinal sin. The word מעלה in Rabbi Yehudah’s statement can also be translated as “virtue,” i.e. consider in your relationship with G’d that you have demonstrated on earth that you know how to practice gratitude. Surely, the gratitude you owe your Creator cannot be less than what you owe your peers on earth? Rabbi Yehudah implies that virtues we practice daily in our dealings with fellow human beings, must certainly also be practiced in our dealings with G’d.
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