Don't Lose Sight of Tovas Lev even in Traffic

 From an article printed in this week's issue of Yated Ne'eman. (Pg 24) by Rabbi Avrohom Birnbaum

Don’t Lose Sight of the Tovas Lev B⁰arometer…Even in Traffic  See full article HERE

Someone.. went to the Steipler Gaon and asked the Steipler, “What should I look for when it comes to shidduchim?” The Steipler replied by repeating the same two words over and over and over again. What were those two words? “Tovas lev, tovas lev, tovas lev.” She should have a good heart, a benevolent heart, a heart that wants to do tovos for others, a heart that not only wants to do tovos, but seeks to do tovos, a heart with a natural instinct to help, to empathize, to feel the plight of another...

.....You Won…For Now

That brings me to another painful but related topic. It is also an “ikkar and tafeil” issue. We all know what the ikkar is: Torah, mitzvos, middos tovos… You go to a levayah and hear stories about how much the niftar had been devoted to learning, how she supported his learning at all costs, how kind she was and how generous he was, how many poor people he or she helped, how many yeshivos he supported, and the list goes on.

I don’t recall anyone saying that he was so clever that when he designed the building/store/development, he was able to finagle the powers that be to allow him to provide patrons with fewer parking spaces, even though everyone knew that there was way below the appropriate number.

No one will say that he built a supermarket or even a shul or yeshiva and ruined the quality of life of all the neighbors because he somehow figured out how to get away without providing parking or with building a narrow street so that for the next four decades, his fellow Yidden were inconvenienced…

I sometimes drive through developments and experience frustration, and I see the frustration on the faces of the many others who are stuck and I wonder. Yes, the primary fault lies with the government officials who set policy at the top and those who serve at their pleasure, but what about the developer or the owner? Certainly, you can get away with it. Certainly, you can make more money and get a few more square feet in or another unit in, but think for a second: Is it worth it that for the next countless years, you might be damaging scores of fine people who just want to live their lives? Is it worth it that so many Yiddishe mammes and tattes should come to work, yeshiva, or wherever they are going stressed out and frustrated because you managed to figure out how to get the right lawyer and the right corrupt engineers and traffic study people to knowingly lie or at least fudge the truth? Yes, you won. You made a few dollars. But did you really win?

Is the suffering of all those Yidden because you were able to get away with it really worth it? After 120 years, do you really want to have some cheilek in that peckel? Really? Think about the long term just for a second.

There is another thing as well. What about the chillul Hashem? Does the fact that the town in which you reside, a town that symbolizes frum Jews, have a name for being corrupt, for being ugly and congested with not a whit of care for its long-suffering citizens, make the name of Hashem beloved to others? When political campaigns in neighboring towns say, “We don’t want to become the urban mess that is next door,” does that make Hashem’s Name beloved or desecrated?

And one more thing while we are at it. When a mosad of chinuch, a yeshiva or a Bais Yaakov, makes a simcha hall without providing adequate parking or tries to change the law to allow for inadequate parking even when they know that it will snarl traffic and cause sakanah, is that not a colossal chillul Hashem? Yes, we understand that our mosdos need to be solvent and the income from a simcha hall is helpful, but at what cost? Are you willing to sacrifice your primary mission of inculcating Torah and Torah values into your young charges by engaging in conduct that shows greed and hardball-playing that are the diametric opposite of Torah values? Do you not realize what hypocrisy that conveys?

What Do You Want Said in Shomayim?

Let us remember the Steipler’s lesson of tovas lev.

We sometimes get so caught up in winning the momentary battle that we don’t think about winning the war. After 120, no one is going to say at a person’s levayah that because of that person, neighborhoods were ruined, people suffered daily and nightly in traffic, and people were injured or killed r”l because of the intolerable traffic situation.

No one would be so insensitive to say something like that at a levayah, but what about up Above, in Shomayim?

Let’s take a lesson from Eliezer and Rivka about priorities, and instead of just preaching, let’s actually put our money where our mouths are or put our mouths where our money is…

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