Friday, July 07, 2006

Thoughts from Parasha Chukas(/Balak)

This week's parsha is full of interesting occurences. One of them is the death of Aharon Hacohen. When klal yisrael hears about his death the pasuk tells else that "Vayivku es Aharon shloshim yom KOL bais yisrael". Interestingly, by the death of Moshe, it says, "Vayivku vnai yisrael es Moshe b'arvos moav shloshim yom" It does not use the word "KOL". This implies that there were perhaps some people that mourned Aharon that did not mourn and cry for Moshe. The fact of the matter is that although both were manhigim their roles were different. Aharon was the peacemaker. As such, he was loved by and therefore mourned by all. The medrash goes into great detail describing the levaya of Aharon. Moshe however was the dayan. He had to pass jugement, therefore one of the two parties was often/occasionally not too pleased with Moshe.
It is interesting to note that at the end of the megilla it tells us that Mordechai was "ratzui lerov echav", he was accepted by MOST of his brothers. This is hard to fathom, he just saved the entire jewish population. My Rav once brought this as a proof. He pointed out that a Rav's job is to pass judgement and give mussar. As a result, he may not be loved by all, but ultimately, that's not his job. As long as he's accepted by most, and he's making a difference, he's doing his job. If he's accepted by all, there might be something lacking, that perhaps there's something that he should be doing differently.

7 Comments:

Blogger Jameel @ The Muqata said...

And if we're thinking of "rov"...howabout the miracle of Chanuka?

The "rabim biyad me'atim" refers to the Hellenists who were culturally defeated by the Hashmonaim.

Let's examine the progression:

Aharon..."100% wall to wall support"
Moshe..."Support of Most"
Chashmonaim..."minority support"

Which leads us to this coming week's parasha.

The person who had absolutely NO support...was a minority opinion of ONE...yet did the right thing and earned himself G-d's convenant of peace.

Pinchas HaCohen.

"When no men are present, be a man."

July 09, 2006 6:33 AM  
Blogger anonym00kie said...

very nice.
i once heard a rabbi i learned with say that about dating. he said if you only hear good things about a guy.. be a little suspicious.. (unless hes aharon :)

but i have to tell you the most intersting thing about this week's parsha for me was the fact that i heard the name ballack all week in relation to the world cup - (hes a famous soccer player for the german team!) how WEIRD is that?

July 09, 2006 11:03 AM  
Blogger FrumGirl said...

Makes sense to me. you cant make everyone happy in the leadership role. I also like Jameels take on being a man lol.

July 09, 2006 3:47 PM  
Blogger the only way i know said...

i like it!
a good 'vort'!

July 09, 2006 3:48 PM  
Blogger David_on_the_Lake said...

Thanks for sharing..

I hear another pshat..why Mordechai was rutzui l'rov echav...The ones that werent happy are the ones that run away to Florida every Purim to escape...lol

July 09, 2006 7:28 PM  
Blogger socialworker/frustrated mom said...

Thanks very nice thoughts.

July 09, 2006 11:54 PM  
Blogger kasamba said...

I so agree, if everyone loves the Rav then he's ain't doin his job...

July 10, 2006 7:48 AM  

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