"Withness"
The news tells us what is happening, the Torah tells us how to relate to all that transpires...
Parshat Behar
"Your brother shall live with you ("Imach" in Hebrew)"
The Torah here refers to the obligation to help someone find a means of supporting themselves before they become needy. As Rashi tells us "If a person stumbles, before he falls one can save him, after he falls down, five cannot lift him up"
The idea if "Imach", "with you" is that the Torah asks us put the same level of passion and ingenuity into helping this person find livelihood as we do into our own.
We should not see the person as fundamentally inferior because our business is going well and this person needs my help. The truth is that in one instant the wheel turns and who knows?
We are always "with" the needy we just may not see it.
We should understand that as we raise the other person up, we are raising ourselves up at the same time.
Shabbat Shalom
(Rabbi) Shlomo Yaffe
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