Hei Av

On a visit to her friend Risa’s home, Shoshana admired Risa’s pretty outfit.

“I have another one very similar to this one.  Why don’t you try it on?  If you like it, you can keep it,” Risa told her.

Shoshana widened her eyes in surprise.  “Are you sure your mother won’t mind?”

“Not at all!” replied Risa.  “My mother loves to buy me nice clothes, but she always tells me, ‘nice things are meant to be shared.’  Lots of times when we find something on sale, my mother buys two – one for me, and one to give to a friend.”

“Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and run after it.”

The Baal Shem Tov commented:  Every physical thing that we are permitted to use has both good and bad in it.  When we use something only because we want to get pleasure out of it, this is evil.  But each thing is created by Hashem, and has a “Life-force” of Hashem inside that keeps it in existence.  If Hashem did not want the object to be, it would simply stop existing. 

This life-force of Hashem in each thing is good.  Any time we use something in the world, we need to “turn away from evil.”  That means that we should not use it only for our own selfish pleasures.  We must also “do good” – to want to be helped by the Life-force of Hashem that is in that thing.   Before using something, we need to stop first and think, “How would Hashem want me to be using this?” 

This is what “seek peace and run after it” means.   A person who turns away from evil and does good must search and run after a way to make peace between the physical and the life-force of Hashem that makes it exist.