Rabbi’s Shmooze

In this week’s double parsha it tells of the reckoning of the money that Moshe received for the construction of the temple. Many people protested that Moshe had no need to show where every single penny went, but Moshe did it anyway to show absolutely that not a single penny went into his pocket.

That reminds me of a story.

One Shabbos in Shul, the Rabbi announces,
"Next week we will discuss the virtue of honesty and being truthful.

Please read chapter 32 in Proverbs."

Following week the rabbi gets up and says, "All of you who have read chapter
32 in proverbs can go home and the importance of saying the truth will be very clear to you.

Almost the entire congregation gets up to leave. The rabbi shouts "Everyone should take their seats immediately. My speech regarding honesty will be directed to all of you.

Proverbs ends with chapter 31!"

We don’t have to go out of our way to prove ourselves every single time, to every single individual who should ever say an insulting comment. But if there is something that we could do once, and it wouldn’t take too much effort, and it would stop even a small amount of people from voicing their suspicions, then perhaps the lesson to be learned here is that we should do it.