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Why is a flatterer denied entry before God? The shiur builds on Rashi (רש"י)'s insight that the hasidah (stork) is non-kosher because it does "favors for its friends"—which is precisely the problem: with friends you don't do favors, you give yourself. Flattery means giving things, words, and actions while withholding emotional connection in order to maintain control, and this is fundamentally destructive to relationships—with people and with God.
Rabbi Zweig opens with the Talmudic principle in Masechta Sotah that a flatterer (chanef) does not come before God. He then presents several puzzling questions: If flattery is inherently unhealthy, why does the Talmud (תלמוד) permit flattering wicked people? What exactly is so terrible about flattery when the recipient feels good and the speaker's insincerity might be comparable to other mitzvos done without perfect kavana? And what does poverty have to do with flattery—the Talmud states that Bavel (Iraq) received nine out of ten measures of both poverty and flattery in the world? The shiur's central insight emerges from a difficult Rashi (רש"י) on the prophet Zechariah's vision of two angels carrying flattery to Bavel. Rashi explains that flattery is symbolized by the wings of a stork (hasidah) because the stork "does favors with its friends." But this seems paradoxical—why would kindness to friends represent flattery, and why would that make the hasidah a non-kosher bird?
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Parshas Pekudei
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