208. Adviser (1)

It is a commandment that every person must give a good and fitting advice to one who asks him for advice. By doing so, he is doing kindness to him. There are, however, people who withhold themselves from giving advice, because they are worried that if the advice is successful and their friend achieves something because of his advice, his friend will not acknowledge the kindness of the advisor but instead he will thank Hashem. And if the advice turns out bad, he will curse the advisor. They therefore say, “Why should I bother with this painful thing?”. It is incorrect for a person to worry about this. On the contrary, when a person comes to ask him for advice, he should not withhold kindness from he who deserves it, and clarify his words and say, “Ideally I should have advised you unasked. However, I held myself back because I was worried that if the advice would not work, that you would curse me G-d forbid. Now that you have come to ask, I am obligated to tell you what appears to be correct according to my point of view. I suggest that you also take advice from your Creator, and listen to all the advice, in such a way that if it does not turn out good for you, I will not agree that you should have any complaints against me.”. Therefore, if no one asks his advice, he should not advise without being asked, in case his advice turns out to be bad, and they will complain about him.