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SHAAAALOOOMMMMMM SWWWEEEETEST FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope that all is well in body and spirit! Rough times - but we will get through it. Together!! With Hashem and with each other.
In this week's parsha we read of the dialogue between Hashem and Aharon at the burning bush. For 7 days Moshe argues w/ Hashem. How can he redeem the Jewish people if his brother Aharon's feelings will be hurt that his little brother Moshe gets the glory and he will stand in his shadow??! שלח נא ביד תשלח - SEND AARON, Cried Moses!!!!
This seems nuts. He has to redeem the Jewish people. This is no time to worry about Aharon. He'll get over it!
The Tolna Rebbe Shlita related: HaGaon Rav Schneur Kotler ztz"l said that his father HaGaon Rav Aharon ztz"l told him that the only person who ever got the better of him in an argument was a chossid.
A chossid told Rav Aharon that Rav Simcha Bunim of Pshischa claimed that he could have brought Moshiach but refrained from doing so b/c it would have hurt the feelings of the Apta Rebbe, R' Yehoshua Heschel. The Rebbe worked so hard to bring Moshiach and here the "optaiker" [pharmacist - R' Simca Bunim was a pharmacist in his youth] brought Moshaich. That would cause the Apta Rebbe "חלישות הדעת" - a bit of a shot to his self esteem. So R' Simcha Bunim said that he wouldn't go there.... No Moshiach.
Rav Aharon was like "That's insane. What sort of baba myses ["fake news" in Spanish] do Chasidim tell?! He could have brought Moshiach and didn't do so in order not to hurt someone's feelings??! C'mon. As the sportscaster Warner Wolf used to say "Gimme a break!!". [Rav Aharon quoted Warner Wolf?? Gimme a break!!!]
The chossid said "Didn't Moshe Rabbeinu do just that?? He argued with Hashem that he couldn't redeem that Jewish people if it would cause Aharon חלישות הדעת".
Touche! [A Yiddish word meaning "di bist gerecht"].
OH WOMAN!!!!
How are we to understand this??
The pasuk says צדק צדק תרדוף - Justice justice thou shalt pursue. Why the double צדק?
To teach that even justice must be achieved with justice. The ends don't [usually] justify the means. We don't steal in order to give Tzdaka. We don't completely neglect our families and other obligations in order to learn Torah. We don't act w/o derech eretz for a variety of "frum" reasons.
The list goes on.
And we don't bring the Geulah if it means hurting someone's feelings. Hashem could do it w/o that. Moshe understood that and understood that Hashem WANTS him to argue. [Otherwise, he would have dutifully obeyed]. And the story made it into the Torah - forever!!!
Yet, ALL TOO OFTEN, people hurt the feelings of others even w/o such a noble cause like bringing the redemption.
One's feelings can be hurt via email - either when not receiving a response or having to wait an inordinately long time for a response. Just b/c I don't see the person I am ignoring doesn't mean that he doesn't feel ignored.
Spouses hurt each other's feeling ALL THE TIME. Children are hurt by their parents and parents by their children. Rabbis are insulted by their congregants and vice versa.
PEOPLE ARE SENSITIVE.
We may never lose sight of that for a second. And the memory of accidental or intentional slights usually sticks for a LOOOONG time. [I can easily recall hurtful things people said to me decades ago that I am sure that they long forgot about]. So BE CAREFUL. The mouth [and keyboard] is a powerful weapon.
It can also be used for good. People are also sensitive to compliments. You don't have to be politically liberal but COMPLIMENT liberally. It has a powerful effect!!
THAT can BRING the redemption!!!!
Have a sweet delicious Shabbos!!!!
Bi-ahava rabba,
Me
A shiur about the burning bush from an analytical halachic perspective.
