A girl who is on a diet attends a party with a friend. She begins to go break her diet and her friend tells her, “You don’t want that! You can’t have it!” and takes the cake away. Should a bystander overhear, this friend would sound incredibly mean and nasty. But in reality, she is being protective. This is what Hashem did for us. Though we may have been on a spiritual high when we came out of Mitzrayim what would happen when that high began to fade. Holding the mountain over our heads was Hashem’s way of taking away the cake. A real friend will take your cake away. A real friend will disagree with you. A real friend will help you, honestly, on your level no matter what her own standards are.
In Pirkei Avos it says, “Kinay l’cha chaver.” The word chaver is in singular, because even one friend is enough. The use of the word kinay, buy, tells us that we aren’t renting a friend temporarily, we are buying them to own – forever!
Most importantly, we must never forget that our true and only REAL friend is Torah. The Yalkut Lekach Tov teaches that when we come before Bais Din Shel Maleh our wealth won’t help us. Our friends won’t help us. Ultimately only our Torah and our mitzvos will be our true friends. With Hashem’s help we will strive in our Avodas Hashem and our bain adom lachavayro and we will see the geula shleimah in our lifetime.
