Emet Inspire - Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Parashat Emor

Welcome back to this week's EMTT inspired. I'm just I'm very happy to be able to offer a few words and some thoughts of inspiration as we as we go into the Shabbat. You know, one thing that we do at EMTT is we offer a kabura for our advanced girls in which we're working on different meat and ways to grow in terra. One thing we're working right now in particular is on a fascinating meetup which is really the meet up of how do we greet one another? How do we say hello to each other? And surprisingly, this is something very important because the task of a Jew really is to be to walk in the ways of Hashem. And we understand that one of the attributes of Hashem is that he's mayor panov. He has a harus pun. He shines his countenance upon us. In other words, he greets us with such warmth and and and a smile. And therefore, that's the way coach Baraku does it. It means that we also have to resemble him and we have to work on how do we greet each other? How do we look at each other? And and just like Hashem greets us and gives us a warmth and brings out something from us that we didn't know we had, that's what we're supposed to greet each other, look at someone and say to them, they give them the greeting they need in order to bring out their greatness. So very fascinatingly, we understand that if we want to know really how far does this idea go in terms of greeting, what what does a greeting look like? Well, we understand we have a hal and the says as follows. It says it's brought down. They call it the one who goes and greets his friend before he he before he prays. It's as if he's offered up some sort of false offering and it's brought down actually in the la we understand that it says that that we pass it says that po meets a friend in the marketplace or the mash or a person who is goes to a friend's house before he prays. There are more mach that's something that was not supposed to do. but can't greet somebody before they greet a come and that's not and the question is why and the reason is and the time brought down is because to greet somebody before one's greeted Hashem is in some ways a a denial of the honor that we owe if I greet my friend or I go out of my way to greet my friend before I die and perhaps if I meet them along the way or somewhere in the home it might be different but to go out of my way to greet a friend before I've greeted the creator of the world a consulting to Hashem. How can we do something which which in any way detracts from the honor that we have to give to Hashem and therefore we greet someone before I've greeted Hashem before I greeted God I I dishonored God in some way the question on that in the altar asked this question but wait a minute the way we greet somebody is completely different than the way we greet Hashem Hashem obviously the king of kings we greet with all the honor due the king and yet my friend I greet I should show honor I show respect fact, but certainly it's different than the way I'll greet the rabbon the alterbata answer with a fascinating insight and he points out that we know that in the next world as we arrive we're going to be asked certain questions some of the questions I think we're familiar with have we have we practiced our business did we practice our business business honestly did we did we look towards the the msiah were we did we sat However, there's another question that maybe some of us aren't so familiar with. And the question that they're going to ask us in the next world is, did you treat your friend like a king? Did you cause your friend to be a did you cause your friend to be a king? That's a question they're going to ask us. So, what does it mean? It means the way we greet each other has to be the way we greet a king and if we go out of our way to greet one's friendly formally greeted the king of kings in some way it's a lack of honor of because the way we greet another human being it's as if that person is a king is what they're going to ask us did you treat your friend royally and therefore out of our way to greet that friend before we prayed in essence is taking away detracts the honor that is is due to the King of Kings. This is the way we have to greet one another. We have to look at each other and see royalty in who we are. Look at each other and say, "You're a king in my eyes." And by doing so and letting that person realize how much we value them. Of course, that does so much for a person to realize that they have a greatness that they can express out into the world. It gives such confidence. If we could do that for one another, if we can understand that every human being and every Jew of course possesses this royalty, what a wonderful, wonderful way to give that gift. Let somebody know how royal they are. Treat them like a king. Greet them the way Kurb wants to. And we should feel that royalty. We should treat each other with that royalty. And then by doing so, we should build a nation that truly understands this great gift of what it means to be an obstacle.