Rav Pinto - Because They Disgrace the Torah Scholar

"Whoever harms the sages must be ostracized due to repulsion! For this entire severe plague is because of one Torah scholar who is being disgraced," these are the words of the righteous Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto shlit"a, which we brought yesterday. Now, Rabbi Pinto shlit"a continues to explain who that Torah scholar is, because of whose disgrace this entire severe plague exists and all these sufferings are coming to the world. The whole world is in lockdown, Torah scholars are sick and dying, parnassah (livelihood) has become difficult for everyone, as more than a million have become unemployed and there is no end in sight.

"The angel that is created by the evil of the world, by lashon hara (evil speech), by 'Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret' (Deuteronomy 27:24), by the disgraces that one person heaps upon another, by one who causes pain to another. Let us take this evil angel that we have created over the years, and we have raised it, and fattened it, and made it obese, and strengthened it. Every time a person caused pain to his fellow, a person sat at home and suddenly his fellow wrote something bad about him, you caused him pain, you created evil, you added something more to the evil angel. A person sat and did nothing to you, suddenly you cause him pain, you gave more power to the evil angel."

"Hashem can wait decades with a person, a person can do all the evil in the world and Hashem goes and guards, and guards... Hashem has a patience that is unparalleled. There is no reality in the world of patience like that of Hashem, but when you overfill the cup, suddenly in one day everything turns over and becomes a destruction that has no equal."

"Therefore, a person must be wise and lower the power of this evil angel that was created over the years by all the evil we have done, all the evil the world has done. Each and every one of us has a part in this, every time we enjoyed the pain of another, every time we laughed when another was in pain. Every time we enjoyed that it was not good for another, we must break our hearts with a great breaking, and every breaking of the heart of each and every one of us, and a commitment upon ourselves for more Torah study, a commitment for more simplicity, a commitment for more humility, every commitment upon ourselves to close our ears, our tongues regarding tzaddikim, the lashon hara against Torah scholars. To know that there is no such thing; whoever is a Torah scholar, whoever is a man of learning, must be honored with great honor."

"What is happening today? I am close to this rabbi so I hate that rabbi, I am close to this rabbi so I am against that rabbi. It is forbidden. Hillel and Shammai were the two greatest disputants in the Shas, they would argue in the Beit Midrash, but they would leave the Beit Midrash and marry one another, they would love one another. Any dispute that is for the sake of Heaven, that is the dispute of Hillel and Shammai; a dispute that is not for the sake of Heaven is the dispute of Korach and his congregation."

"A person must be careful not to be in a dispute, do not enter into the disputes of the great ones; the dispute, the pain, the bad things and the bad words - these things brought this great disaster."

"The holy Torah says that a plague comes to the world like for matters of tzara'at (leprosy), for lashon hara, for perversion of justice. What a perversion of justice, by our many sins, there is in the world today! A person did nothing, they take him to prison, humiliate him, bind him, disgrace him. A person did nothing, they take him in disgrace in the morning from his home, spill his blood, spill the blood of his family. They kill people while they are alive, they judge people while they are alive."

"Every such thing adds fire to the great fire that created an evil angel."