— George E. Bergman
I don’t think people realize how very true that statement can be. I have invited guests to my home (only once) who turned out to be so obnoxious that I had to work extra-hard to remain cordial and pleasant. They were speaking loshon hora non-stop (no matter how much we changed the subject), and a few choice expletives came out of their mouths, and they did not control their children. I had been especially asked by someone whom I respect to invite them, because they were new to the neighborhood, but clearly the person who made the request knew nothing about their personalities, or he would probab ly not have asked.It was the longest Shabbos meal I have ever experienced, and I didn’t want to let on to the person who asked us to invite them that there had been a problem, so I never brought it up.
This whole thing ties in with a tough choice of the day thread. How do we handle being asked to do something by someone (not a parent) whom we respect, but who clearly has no idea that he or she is asking something very distasteful of us? Then again, doing a mitzvah when it is NOT so easy, really is an even bigger mitzvah, no?