How can we refine others?!?

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This week’s Parsha has a lot of Mitzvos (commandments), one of the famous ones, is the Mitzvah of Hashavas Aveda – returning a lost object to it’s owner, as we see (Deuteronomy 22, 1):

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The literal translation is:

You shall not see the ox of your brother or his lamb cast off, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely return them to your brother.

The Sefas Emes shares the deeper meaning of this and makes it more relevant to us, especially in this time of the year, as follows:

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According to Sefas Emes when we see another person struggling spiritually, being confused or casting off… we can’t just ignore it, we mustn’t hide ourselves from them, it’s up to us to bring them back.

But, how?!?

Here’s the secret:

????? ?"? ????? ??"? ????"? ?? ?? ????? ???? – ???? ??, ????? ???? ?"?, ???"? ???? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ??"? ??? ?????. ?? ??? ????? ?? ?' ????' ????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ??"? ?"? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??'. ??? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ??????. ??? ???? ???? ??????. ?? ???? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ???? ????? ?"?: (??"? ???"?)

Whenever we see a flaw, weakness or imperfection by someone, really it's us looking in the mirror, HaShem is showing that we need to refine this very issue, and when we repent for this, we bring down an energy of repentance which also reaches this particular fellow, this is the meaning of .??? ?????

When someone misuses his holiness and Divinity, someone else receives it, but the mission is not to keep it but to return it - by working on our flaws, blemishes and shortcomings, and by being bothered when someone else is struggling, our mission is to want our fellow people to be as Divine, holy and pure as they can!

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Written by Moshe Neuwirth