How many mitzvos a smelly fish can achieve
By zevi770 · July 5, 2012
Once a man shouted at his wife – “don’t throw out that fish!” – “but it smells” she said – “but its baal tashchis!” (you may not throw out food;) “will you eat it?” – “no, – but let’s give it to our neighbor!” “You sure?” “Of course, of course! And it’s a mitzvah to feed the indigent as well!” – reluctantly his wife agreed.
Meanwhile the neighbor figured it must be good and unfortunately it wasn’t and so he died
“Did you hear our neighbor died?”
“OY terrible! it’s a mitzvah to go to the funereal” he says to his wife.
“It’s a mitzvah to comfort the mourners!” and so they also went to comfort the mourners.
“By the way, it’s so sudden that he died, what happened?” “well he got food poisoning from a piece of fish.”
The wife gasped.
When they got home the husband joyfully said “can you imagine, you would throw out that piece of fish and now because of it we didn’t sin, we helped the poor, we visited the mourners – and you wanted to throw it out!”
Is God for man or actually man is for God and this is the point, that God is not for man, rather man is for God – but the truth is, that if that is the case, the story makes sense – rather the truth is that all of Judaism – God – is only for the sake of man, and hence if a mitzvah is against humanity, it is far from a Mitzvah, it is actually an aveirah, sin.