Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
May 1-2, 2026 • 15 Iyar 5786 • Emor (Lev 21–24).
Last week's theme (
"Trouble With a Capital 'T'") was about an inward struggle.
This week, outward.
Scenario #1:
You have company at your dinner table. It's Shabbat, there's a white tablecloth (did you know that's a mitzvah?) and the nicer dishes and so on.
One of your guests is a bit clumsy and spills his wine—that's red wine.
Question for your table: how do you react?
Scenario #2 - your sitting at the dining room table with a book open—not a cheap paperback, but an expensive hardcover book, let's value it at least a $100. Someone (maybe your spouse or other member of your family) brings you a cup of juice or tea or other colorful beverage, and while setting it down, it sloshes onto your book.
How do you react?
These exact scenarios occurred in the lives of two famous rabbis, and their reactions should be instructive to all of us.
In the first scenario, the rabbi was Rav Yisoel Salanter zl and his immediate reaction was to spill some of his own wine and remark, "This table sure is wobbly!"
In the second scenario, the rabbi was Rav Moshe Feinstein zl. The expensive book was the Talmud and the liquid was ink and the spiller was his wife... his immediate reaction was, "That's actually a very pretty color!"
If you think about it, when someone makes a mistake, they already feel bad enough about it, why should you rub it in?
Our job is not to hit them over the head, it's to say, "You are 100% loved despite your mistake and what you have done did not diminish that even a bit!"
Easier said than done, no?
Shabbat Shalom
This week, outward.
Scenario #1:
You have company at your dinner table. It's Shabbat, there's a white tablecloth (did you know that's a mitzvah?) and the nicer dishes and so on.
One of your guests is a bit clumsy and spills his wine—that's red wine.
Question for your table: how do you react?
Scenario #2 - your sitting at the dining room table with a book open—not a cheap paperback, but an expensive hardcover book, let's value it at least a $100. Someone (maybe your spouse or other member of your family) brings you a cup of juice or tea or other colorful beverage, and while setting it down, it sloshes onto your book.
How do you react?
These exact scenarios occurred in the lives of two famous rabbis, and their reactions should be instructive to all of us.
In the first scenario, the rabbi was Rav Yisoel Salanter zl and his immediate reaction was to spill some of his own wine and remark, "This table sure is wobbly!"
In the second scenario, the rabbi was Rav Moshe Feinstein zl. The expensive book was the Talmud and the liquid was ink and the spiller was his wife... his immediate reaction was, "That's actually a very pretty color!"
If you think about it, when someone makes a mistake, they already feel bad enough about it, why should you rub it in?
Our job is not to hit them over the head, it's to say, "You are 100% loved despite your mistake and what you have done did not diminish that even a bit!"
Easier said than done, no?
Shabbat Shalom
