Mesilas Yesharim, Perek 11 Part 1/11

AI summary (may contain mistakes)

Nekiyus means care in every detail of each lav, and the Mesilas Yesharim begins where desire is strongest, with money, where a person most easily rationalizes. Beyond open theft, business is full of a taste of gezel that people excuse as business. We see it in Gemara sources on competing with a neighbor's livelihood and on a worker's time, and the Mesilas Yesharim treats stolen time used for a mitzvah like a stolen object.

Key points

• The Mesilas Yesharim asks for extra strength where desire is strongest, as with money.
• The Gemara in Sanhedrin reads not defiling a neighbor's wife as not encroaching on his business.
• The Mesilas Yesharim calls a hired worker's personal use of his time stealing from the baal habayis.
• The text read calls a bracha on bread from stolen wheat an angering of Hashem.
• The Mesilas Yesharim applies this to work time used for a mitzvah, which the Gemara does not say outright.

In this shiur

1. 0:00Nekiyus and areas of strong desire
2. 4:43A taste of gezel in business
3. 6:22Using a friend's things in yeshiva
4. 9:37The Gemara in Sanhedrin on competition
5. 11:45Giving out free things to customers
6. 13:57A hired worker's time
7. 18:38A mitzvah done with stolen things
8. 21:30Nekiyus beyond plain stealing

Topics

• Nekiyus
• Gezel
• Honesty in Business