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Parshas Yisro - Custom-Made for YOU

By R' Shaya Gross, z'l

Posted on 02/04/21

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

[Ed. Note] Out of the respect and recognition of the impact made by longtime BJL friend and contributor, Reb Shaya Gross, z’l, we will maintain a living memoriam to Shaya through the sweet words and thoughtful insights of  his Divrei Torah. BJL readers will remember his weekly column on the Parsha and on various Torah ideas and concepts. These meaningful words will help us remember this special young man who will be sorely missed and for those who did not merit to know him, this will be the most appropriate way for them to become familiar with who he was.


The Pasuk in Parshas Yisro tells us 'You shall not covet your friend’s wife, maidservant, ox, donkey, and ALL that belongs to him.' The commentators explain that the emphasis on 'ALL that belongs to him' teaches us a strategy to train ourselves not to become jealous of others.


For example: your friend may have a nicer car than you but he has health issues. Or your friend may be healthy, but he's divorced. Or your friend is happily married, but he doesn't have nachas from his kids. No one has a perfect life. We all have ‘packages’ to deal with. That is what our Pasuk is teaching us; don't be jealous of ALL that he has. Although he may have things that you would like to have, together with that ‘package’ comes other things that you wouldn't want to have.

In fact, I once read that if people would see the complete packages of their friends and have the choice to choose the package that they desire most, they would all pick their own package back! This is very understandable, being that every package is custom-made from Hashem for each individual. He knows what is easy for us to handle, what is hard for us to handle, and what is impossible for us to handle. Hence, He carefully designed the package we can handle which will enable us to grow closest to Him.


Let us all try to be grateful for the things that we are blessed with, and accept with love the issues we have and the areas that we struggle with. In that way, we will rid ourselves of the terrible character trait of jealousy, and become closer to Hashem and to the special way of life that He wants us all to live.