THE TIE BREAKER
When HaShem judges the world there are two tracks of judgement. There is the tzadik (righteous) track and the rasha (wicked) track. When HaShem judges a person He identifies on which track the person is. Rambam explains the method by which HaShem defines people as being a tzadik or a rasha is by stacking up their good deeds against their bad deeds. Whichever one outweighs the other defines the person as either a tzadik or a rasha. Rambam continues to explain that it is not the number of deeds that establishes the status but rather the size of the deeds. There are good deeds that although are small in number nevertheless are so great that they outweigh the negative deeds and vice versa. In the event a person’s good deeds and bad deeds are equal then it depends; if he does teshuvah he is counted among the tzadikim and if not, not.
What metric is used to determine the size of the deeds? Furthermore, if a person is half and half would it not be better to simply perform a few more mitzvos no matter how small they are and tip the scale? Why teshuvah?
There are many types of definitions by which to define people. A lawyer, a doctor, an artist, a stamp collector and so on. Not all definitions reflect the person’s occupation. Some reflect how he makes his money and some reflect how he spends his money and some reflect what he enjoys doing. So what is the defining marker which defines a person as to who he is?
Perhaps the defining character of a person depends on how he sees his self worth. If a per-son sees his self worth in being a lawyer then he certainly is a lawyer. If he also collects stamps we would not say he is a stamp collector unless his self worth is built on his collection. We would not define someone as a coffee drinker even if he drank three cups of coffee daily.
There is an interesting halacha regarding foods that consist of two different brachos. For example, a lettuce salad that is mixed with mango, pineapple, tangerines and almonds. Will the bracha on this salad be established by the lettuce and be haadama or perhaps the fruits will establish the bracha and it will be haeitz? The general rule is that you follow the majority of the ingredients. The dilemma arises when you have a food which is half chocolate half almond, will the chocolate determine the bracha or the almond? Let us reframe the question; is this candy a chocolate candy with an almond inside or is it an almond candy with a chocolate coating?
The answer to this dilemma is that it depends what is more important to you. If you enjoy the almond more than the chocolate, it is an almond candy and you recite a haeitz. If you enjoy the chocolate more than the almond, it is a chocolate candy and you recite a shehakol.
Perhaps the metric used to measure the size of the good deeds is how much does the person associate himself with the mitzvah he did. How much does the person associate himself with the bad deed he did? When he spoke lashon hara and he felt horrible after saying it, you know that he does not associate himself with lashon hara. If after learning his daf yomi he feels a sense of fulfillment and continues thinking about it after he gets to work then you know he associates himself with learning Torah. The same is in the reverse.
Perhaps the reason Rambam says that the fellow who is half and half must do teshuvah to establish himself as a tzadik is because he is exactly like the chocolate covered almond. Who is he; an almond or a chocolate? When he does teshuvah he identifies himself as a tza-dik who made a few mistakes. If, on the other hand, he does not do teshuvah, he is identifying himself as someone who does not care to be associated with good deeds and hence he is a rasha.
Have a very safe and very wonderful Shabbos and I wish you a k’siva v’chasima tova.
Paysach Diskind