The answer is that when medical science tells us something, we accept it as truth. These are the facts; this is reality. Unfortunately, when the Torah tells us something, it just isn’t real. “You need a lot of emunah to really accept that. I don’t know if I am on that level.” And so in the parents’ minds, “Lashon hara – well, I mean, a mitzvah it’s not, but it surely isn’t as dangerous as smoking. Smoking really kills!”
This seems to be the answer to Rebbe Yanni. As great as he was, and as much as he accepted every word of the Torah as completely true, on some level it wasn’t 100 percent real to him. The peddler revealed to Rabbi Yanni that the Torah teaches us “lashon hara kills” in its most simple, direct meaning. It then became real to him.
The Greatest Distance on Earth
There are two great lessons for us here. One is simply to understand the gravity of the words we utter – their effects on others and on ourselves. The second lesson is much more broad-based and affects all areas of our growth. We humans are motivated by that which we consider valuable. If we live in a culture that uses money and material possessions as the measure of success, this affects us and becomes part of our reality. It becomes a goal worth pursuing, something to aspire to and something to use as a gauge of our achievements. While we are acutely aware we can’t take it with us, our value system becomes distorted. This affects our focus and how we spend our time.
One of the most important aspects of growth is making the Torah’s values real. Not in theory, not as some remote distant idea, but rather by understanding that every word in the Torah is true. While we may not feel it now, one day we will. One day we will understand that every word of Torah learning is more precious than fine jewels. One day we will appreciate that every callous remark we ever made will come back to haunt us. And one day we will recognize that every action, deed, and thought was being videotaped to be played back to us at the end of our days.
The more we focus on the value system of the Torah, the more real it becomes to us, and the more motivated we will be by that which has eternal value and preciousness.