i love these pieces of insight. yeshar koach
an idea. state the perek number and mishnah number for reference.
shabbat shalom

Menachem Szus
Alon Systems, Inc.
1515 N. Warson Road
Suite 205
St. Louis, MO 63132
USA
tel: 314-428-2208
fax: 314-428-0880
menachem@alonsystems.com
http://www.alonsystems.com

On 1/29/2016 4:11 AM, Heath Berkin wrote:

The Mishna in Avos says: "one who disdains other people, removes himself from this world".

The Midrash Shmuel explains this to mean that if you don't like other people or harbor hatred towards them you will be left alone not finding anyone to befriend. When a person is alone he has no one to share his worries or to confide in. This situation will leave a person with great emotional distress as he will never have someone to comfort him emotionally. This will lead to a deterioration of his health and shorten his life effectively removing him from this world.

Our Sages say that when a person is troubled or worried he should do one of two things:

1) He should share his troubles with someone else as this alone will help diffuse some of his heartache
2) He should try to divert his mind from thinking about his troubles

Obviously the first way it is necessary for a person to have a friend, family member or spouse to speak out his troubles to. But I think the second way as well is accomplished through having a friend. The easiest way for a person to divert his mind from his troubles is by focusing on other people that he cares about and not on himself.

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath