With All Due Respect!

Who is respected and honored? He who respects and honors others (Pirkei Avos 4:1). If one respects others, he will be respected in kind. If one degrades and humiliates others, he will be degraded and humiliated in kind, as these short stories will vividly portray. I have written these stories to demonstrate to others that they have inalienable rights as individuals, as human beings and as spiritual entities fashioned, created and imbued with the spirit of G-d. They should not just sit back, raise their hands in despair and allow others to walk over them. Rather, they shall raise their eyes heavenward, pray for guidance and assistance, and set things straight and right. The saintly Reb Chaim Brisker once said: "If a person must enter into battle in order to attain a righteous goal, he should make certain that he is stronger than the opposition. If he is only more righteous and zealous in his religious observance than his opponent, but not stronger than him, he should desist from initiating even the slightest of conflict." In other words, he must possess two prescribed conditions before embarking upon a battle to attain this goal: First, he must be certain beyond a shadow of doubt that he is correct according