Shaaalllommmmm sweeeeteest friends!!!!!
This Dvar Torah is dedicated to a Tzadik Nistar who is beyond kind. He knows who he is and so does Hashem. May he and his family have only bracha and chesed all of the days of their lives.
In this weeks parsha we read about the great machlokes with Korach and his cronies. You know - it is lonely at the top!!! People attack you from ALL SIDES. In Moshe Rabbeinu's time he didn't even have a twitter account to answer all of his detractors and accusers....
The pasuk says [16/4] וישמע משה ויפל על פניו - Moshe heard and fell on his face. What did he hear? Chazal say that he heard that people were accusing him of being with their wives. They wanted to test their wives with the Sotah waters to see if their suspicions were valid!!
MOSHE RABBEINU!! A man who separated from his own wife because of his high level of prophecy. A man who went 40 days and 40 nights without bread and water [and even cake!!]. A man who spoke "face to face' with G-d. How can it be??? Sleeping with married women?? UNTHINKABLE! How could they even accuse him of such a dastardly deed??
Rav Charlap explains that היא הנותנת - his greatness was exactly the source of their suspicions. The greater a person is the lower he is liable to fall. The Jews are compared to the stars and to the dust of the earth. When we are high - nobody is higher. We get HIGH, MAN!! The highest. The stars. But when we sink low - nobody goes lower. We are so low we can play handball on the curb.
So the Jews figured - if Moshe is that great that means he also has the capacity to sink the lowest. That was why they suspected him of the worst.
There is a HUUUUGE lesson here for all of us. We tend to feel secure in our talents and areas of expertise and success and only are concerned with our areas of weakness. But we have to remember - sometimes it is our greatest strengths that can be our downfalls. I can tell you personally that my greatest strengths have another side that also make them very big liabilities. I am happy I have them but also have to be constantly wary of the down side.
So look at your strengths and try to discern how they also have another less glorious side to them. Then try to use them only for the good without the negative part.
So for example: If you are very smart - sometimes we are required to suspend our intellect, as when we try to figure out tragedy. Depending solely on one's intellect can lead one to dangerous places. Also, some very smart people neglect to develop their emotional side.
If you are very good at making money - remember that greed often overtakes people or they get so involved in the excitement of making more and more that they neglect other parts of life that are no less important.
And the list goes on and on. I can't do psychotherapy over an email but you get the point.
Of course Moshe was innocent of all charges and may we also be pure and innocent in all of our doings.
With much love and wishes for a GREAT Shabbos and gut chodesh,
Me
