A Short Tribute

His Honor was asked by a friend, a religious person who has well-bred secular friends whom he hosts at home and to whom he serves food at his table, such as meat and wine, and offers them all manner of things, whether this does not involve a transgression, since it is forbidden to share bread with one who does not recite the blessing.
Maran [Our Master], of blessed memory…did not write this in the sense of prohibition but rather as a warning, meaning stringency… since he is fulfilling the commandment of hospitality he is not transgressing "do not place a stumbling-block before the blind", and whether he recites the blessing or doesn't, he should serve him.
Every instance of hospitality has a reason and is an inherent commandment, whether it be receiving guests, brotherly love, granting a favor, domestic harmony, forestalling a threat or obtaining a favor, or unexpected visits that are difficult to send off empty-handed, and it is also a great sin to offend their dignity…
If so, since in each sense there is an aspect of a major or minor commandment, and it is very problematic to embarrass and very problematic to rebuke, and not everyone knows how to rebuke, silence is therefore called for, and amity is best, so that one should receive every person gracefully and provide them with food and drink to their good health, and the Almighty will determine his reward.

His Honor also asked whether it is permissible to attend a Gentile's funeral. My friend! This matter is an obligation, to maintain amity, even with the lesser ones among them, and certainly if he is among his followers, for they have a share in the World to Come.

"Let your home be wide open" – so that every person may find relief from his distress therein: the hungry will find food, the poor find charity, the hard-pressed a loan, the ill medicine and so on. Not that they should all come at once, but that each should benefit, within one's capacity. The principle is that the homes of the people of Israel should have in them some item to benefit the poor… There was a poor woman in the city of Drakart who would rise early each morning, heat the stove and lend hot water or coals to her neighbors. There was a fire in town and she and her neighbors were saved thanks to this good deed. For despite the fact that they were poor, when they had the means their homes were wide open for the benefit of others.

And from that day onward the holy spark would return and become a great flame in my heart, and I began to awaken the community to make Aliyah [immigration to Israel]. But my words were of no avail, because the hearts of the Jews of Algeria were closed tightly shut to hearing about this matter because of the peace and quiet and plenty in which they lived. And in particular because they were unfamiliar with the Hebrew language spoken in Israel… I received a telegram from Morocco... and immediately travelled there, where I discovered a great enthusiasm for Aliyah and much information concerning the situation in Israel. Indeed, many travelers returned from there with slander about the land, about its lack of material and spiritual wealth, and we have therefore been weakened, while our income remains more than ample, and the peace and quiet and great plenty in which we live have added to impeding our immigration to Israel. Although Aliyah had not ceased, but increased very slowly and began to increase in the year of 1947.

Concerning the age-old custom in the month of Sivan (April) of storing worn Torah scrolls and printed books, and escorting them from town to the cemetery to be buried with song and piyut, whether there is any basis for this custom…
I have not seen anything written in books concerning the custom of escorting them with song and piyut, yet in the place of my birth, in Meknes, an important Jewish town, may G-d protect it, the custom was indeed to escort them to burial to the sound of much singing. I've heard that this was also the custom in several cities of the Maghreb and here, in Tlemcen, as well, the custom on the day of geniza is to hold a small festive meal…since the reason that the scrolls are worn is the extensive amount of study for which we have used them, and therefore at the sight of worn scrolls and pages, which shows how much Torah study there is in the city, we sing and rejoice at having studied so much Torah.

'For what reasons is it not common for Torah scholars to give rise to Torah scholars among their sons? Because they do not first recite a blessing over the Torah' – I have seen a certain commentator interpret this to mean that most Torah scholars are poor, and when they bless their children they begin by wishing them wealth, that they not be as poor as they, and bless them with Torah learning at the end, making it seem as though Torah is not important to them, and therefore their sons do not achieve Torah learning, and this is, to my mind, correct.