Operation Inspiration

Guess what? I invented a new word. Yes, I’m hoping it gets included in the dictionary and they give me credit. I call the word, “plagiarism.”

OK, I’m kidding. I didn’t invent plagiarism, which is defined as “taking someone else’s work product or ideas and passing them off as one’s own,” but I don’t take as much issue with it as some people do (and I’m pretty sure President Biden would wholeheartedly agree with me.) Some are quite indignant about it, while others only care in certain instances, as seen in the following humorous story.

As was customary at the end of every term, the students of the Chasam Sofer came in to speak with the Rosh Yeshiva “in learning.” One young man came in and began relating a complex piece of Torah thought and analysis that seemed familiar to the Rosh Yeshiva’s son, the Ksav Sofer, who also sat in on these meetings. The Ksav Sofer realized that this boy had seen the notes of this ‘shtikel Torah’ sitting on the Rosh Yeshiva’s desk, and now the impudent child had the gall to attempt to pass it off as his own work.

When the boy left, the Ksav Sofer exclaimed, “Father, how could you let him get away with saying that your Torah was his own?!”

“My son,” smiled the Chasam Sofer, “I don’t mind if he says my Torah and claims it is his, so long as he doesn’t say his own Torah and claim that it’s mine!”

His only issue was that people not be misled by “Torah” attributed to him which could cause them to get the wrong idea about things. Had someone merely not given him credit for Torah, he wasn’t bothered, because he wanted to spread the word of Hashem and it was not about his own ego.

To me, the ethical issue of plagiarism, besides for the Geneivas Daas aspect in which you’re fooling someone into giving you something you don’t deserve, is less at issue when it comes to certain things. Indeed, there is a saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If I like what you said, and I repeat it as my own opinion, it shows that you were successful in influencing me. It may now have become my opinion.

I’m sure that I’ve often written things I heard from others that made sense to me and became part of my own outlook on life, and that’s fair. In fact, I think that was the Chasam Sofer’s point.

Of course, we learn from Esther HaMalka that if one quotes something in the name of he who said it, they bring redemption to the world. That’s why I will now tell you that what I’m about to share was taught in the name of R’ Yochanan Zweig, a Rosh Yeshiva in Miami. I read it this week and just had to share it.

Most often, Tzaraas was the result of speaking Lashon Hara. How is it fitting that this sin, which is worse than the “Big Three,” and can destroy lives and generations, can be appropriately punished by getting a little discoloration on the skin, perhaps the size of a nickel? Is that really comparable?

He answered with a fantastic parable I can’t share due to lack of space, but suffice it to say that what the baal Lashon Hara did was take a single moment in someone’s lifetime and define them by it.

They may have lived a lifetime of goodness, fulfilling mitzvos and performing chesed, but the one time (or several) they were not so perfect (and nobody is perfect; we all sin) that’s what was captured and recalled by the baal Lashon Hara. Therefore, it is precisely fitting that the existence of a small discoloration covering a minute proportion of a person’s skin renders him completely a metzora. He is treated measure-for-measure with how he treated someone else.

I was floored. It’s just so true and accurate that I had to share. But, it’s not taking someone else’s belief and claiming it as my own, because I’ve made it my own now, and I’m hoping this becomes part of my future approach to life as well. Perhaps, as I share this, it will become part of yours, too.

Now, I’d like to flatter Rabbi Zweig by imitating his approach and using it in a different way as well. Yes, the baal Lashon Hara pinpointed a negative moment in someone’s life and defined them by it, thus ignoring all the good they did. But what if we used that same mida in the reverse?

What if we found something special and unique that a person did, and defined them by that even if that’s not how they acted all the time? Isn’t that what we describe as the pintele Yid, that little glimmer that shows what truly lies beneath the surface of someone’s otherwise less-than-perfect behavior?

If we saw moments of brightness and greatness in others, and recognized those as the true person, just as the gossipmonger believes the momentary failures belie the true nature of those he speaks about, we’d be able to love and appreciate others much more.

Imagine you saw a tzaddik do something wrong. Would you assume that was his true self, or that he had a momentary lapse? Clearly, the latter. Well, if we start to see people in that light, we’ll be better able to avoid Lashon Hara, and love our fellow Jews. That’s a big deal, as I once coined a phrase, “V’Ahavta L’rayacha Kamocha – Zeh Klal Gadol BaTorah!” ?

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