All Or Nothing?

Recently a very well known rabbinic figure in the religious zionist world was accused and found guilty by the court of inappropriate behavior with a student/s.

This is a mammoth chilul Hashem and places a stain on all good upstanding rabbis all over the world. Now a rabbi can't hug a student without fearing that he will be accused of inappropriate behavior. 99.9 percent of all rabbis and educators are completely clean of any of the accusations leveled against this person. It is always the 0.01 percent that gets all the press and makes people suspicious of anyone like him. This is a tragedy and as chazal say אחד שוגג ואחד מזיד בחילול השם - Even if he is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, a chilul Hashem came about through him and for that we must all mourn and he will have a lot of work to do over Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur asking the "Big Guy" for mechila. The gemara [Yoma 86a] says that for chilul Hashem there is no tshuva in this world. Tshuva, suffering, Yom Kippur and then death. Not an easy one. [Please see the Pachad Yitzchak on Yom Kippur Maamar 15 and 16].

But wait! He also has helped and taught many thousands of people. Does this incrimination mean that he is all bad??? Does this erase all of his mitzvos. On one hand there IS a concept that an aveira erases a mitzva [but can't erase Torah - see Sotah 21a]. The Rambam says in Hilchos Tshuva that when one is a sinner Hashem "rips up" his mitzvos until he does tshuva. On the other hand we have a rule אין הקב"ה מקפח שכר כל בריה - Everybody gets what they deserve for their good deeds even if they are sinners as well. Why must people view him as being all bad? Maybe a mixture of good and less good.

 May be we ALL mixtures of good and less good?? I know I am. Baruch Hashem I have my aveiros and I suspect that you have yours too:-).

A number of years ago a man who was mekarev thousands of Jews all over the world died. He made a tremendous kiddush Hashem wherever he went. He brought ruchniyus to beggars, prostitutes, professors and college students. Everyone. His message was one of love and acceptance. His probably gave more hugs than any person alive. The heilige Amshinover Rebbe said about him to his chassidim "Not only is he going to get a bigger portion in gan eden than I am going to get - he is going to get a bigger portion in gan eden than you guys think I am going to get." I personally wish to be more like him. His generosity was almost unparalleled. He was so dedicated to helping and loving people that he seemed to have almost completely nullified his ego. Our world is one where everything is the ego and he was above that. Nobody was beneath him. Not prison inmates or little children or anyone. He was filled with love. I simply have met almost nobody like him in my life [maybe one person]. He continues long after his death to inspire people.

On the other hand he was accused of doing some questionable stuff. He was also witnessed doing some very problematic things. [I too, would like to hug everybody who comes into shul but I would put a limit from EXACTLY where the mechitza stands and beyond...:-) To touch an ervah is יהרג ואל יעבור].

So what does this mean about him? It means that he is both a tzadik and ALSO afflicted with personality defects [or so it would appear]. It is not all or nothing.

The message: We have to find the holy part of ourselves, accentuate that and thereby drown away that less solid parts of who we are. In the terminology of Chazal - to enable the yetzer hatov to overpower the yetzer hara.

Make sense?