Think Twice

If someone does an avaira on purpose, he will have to be punished by Hashem. But what if someone does an avaira by accident? Will he have to be punished?

The answer is, when Moshiach comes, the person who sinned will have to give a korban in the Beis Hamikdosh. Why? It was an accident! Why will he have to pay for it?

The following story teaches us that if someone is very careful, he will not do an avaira even by accident! So, saying that he did an avaira “by accident” would not count.

There lived a great chosid—who was a chosid of the Mitteler Rebbe and later on a chosid of the Tzemach Tzedek—whose name was Reb Hillel Paritcher.

One evening, Reb Hillel went to eat supper with a certain family. He came there, and they were going to have chicken. Everybody sat down, and their meal started.

Reb Hillel took his fork and knife, and cut off a piece of chicken from his plate. He brought the chicken to his mouth, but then put it back on his plate. He did that again—he picked up a piece of chicken with his fork, brought it to his mouth, but then put down his fork.

Reb Hillel did the same thing a few times. Finally, the family noticed that Reb Hillel was not eating the chicken. They thought, “Reb Hillel must be very strict with kashrus. Maybe something is wrong with our chicken and he somehow knows about it.”

The father of the family asked, “Reb Hillel, is there anything wrong with the chicken?”

“Possibly,” Reb Hillel replied. “Where did you get the chicken from?”

“Well, we got it from the shochet,” the father said. “He is a very good shochet and we have known him for many years.”

“And who delivered the chicken to your house?” Reb Hillel inquired.

“Oh, well we have a worker,” the father answered, “and he brought us the chicken. Our worker is not Jewish, so the shochet wraps the chicken up in a special wrapping, with a seal. That way, we know that the chicken came from the shochet.”

When Reb Hillel heard that, he wanted to know, “Where is your worker? I want to speak to him.”

“He is in our backyard,” the father of the family said.

Reb Hillel then stood up, and went outside into the backyard. He found the worker there, and asked him, “Where did you get today’s chicken from?”

The worker answered, “Well, as usual, I went to the shochet, and got the chicken. The shochet lives close to the center of town.”

Reb Hillel gave the worker a very strong look and asked him again, “Where did you get the chicken from?”

The worker started to shake. “What’s the big deal,” he said. “I went and got the chicken!”

Reb Hillel then asked the worker, once again, “Where did you get the chicken that they’re eating right now? Tell me!”

The worker said, “Listen, today was a very hot day. I didn’t want to go all the way to the shochet’s house, so I just took one of the chickens that were running around in the yard, and killed it, in a similar way to how the shochet does it.

“Then, I took some of the old wrapping that the shochet used, and wrapped the chicken in it. So, instead of the shochet shecting the chicken, I did. Then I had some extra time on my hands, because I didn’t have to go all the way to the shochet’s house.”

Now Reb Hillel knew that the chicken was not kosher. Of course, if the chicken is not shected properly, it is not kosher!

Reb Hillel went back inside the house and told the family what had happened. They had to throw out all the food, and even some of the dishes that they would not be able to kasher. Of course, they felt very bad about what they had eaten.

The family had a question: How did Reb Hillel know that the chicken was not kosher?

They posed their question to Reb Hillel, and Reb Hillel replied, “The entire time, while I was eating, I was thinking about some dinim that I had learned. But then suddenly, as soon as I picked up the chicken, I started thinking about the dinim of kashrus.

“I thought to myself, why am I suddenly thinking about these halochos? I was thing about something totally different just a second ago. I put down my fork, and my mind went back to what I was thinking about before!

“So, I picked up my fork again, but then I started thinking about the dinim of kashrus again! I realized that something was wrong, because this repeated itself a few times. I then found out that the chicken was not kosher,” Reb Hillel Paritcher concluded.

What do we learn from this story?

If we would really think about what we are doing, we would see the “warning signals” that Hashem sends out, to remind us that what we are about to do is wrong. That would let us know not to do it. So, think (twice) before you act!