Shabbat Nachamu

Last year at this time I was just arriving in New York for a visit/some meetings for work.

I was graciously invited by the Rav of my in-laws' shul - R' Moshe Rosenberg - to speak briefly Shabbat morning. The following is a summary of the idea I shared with everyone in shul.

Shabbat Shalom.

The Purpose of Man's Existence according to R' Chaim Volozhin

As we mentioned previously, The Gemara teaches us that the second Beit Hamikdash was destroyed as a result of sin'at chinam - hatred for one another. 

On the topic of our interaction with others, I think the following source speaks for itself:

In the introduction to sefer Nefesh Hachaim, one of the son's of R' Chaim of Volozhin tells of the rebuke that he would often hear from his father regarding the treatment of others:

[My father] would often rebuke me upon seeing that I did not concern myself with the suffering of others. And this is what he constantly said to me: 'This is the entire [reason for the existence of] man - [man] was not created for his own sake, but rather [man was created] only for the purpose of assisting others to the best of his abilities'.