How far can you go for peace?

True leadership!  It is rare, and when we see it we marvel.  Moshe (Moses) was the consummate leader, and in the story of the rebellion of Korach that we read this week, we see how great a leader he was.  It is almost unbelievable how Moshe behaved toward two of the leaders of the rebellion that Korach instigated in the desert.  I assume you are familiar with the story.  Korach questioned Moshe’s leadership, claiming he was doing things on his own accord and not by command of Hashem.  Korach wanted to be the High Priest, and unified a  large group of leaders to join his rebellion.  Two of the instigators of the rebellion were Datan and Aviram, brothers who jumped on the bandwagon and used the opportunity to once again fight against Moshe.  I say once again, because Datan and Aviram had fought against Moshe since he was a young man.  According to our tradition, they were the ones who turned Moshe in to Pharaoh when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Jew to death.  It was they who left the manna overnight, against Hashem’s instructions, and it was they who went out on Shabbat to collect manna that did not fall on Shabbat.  They were also the ones who tried to lead the Jews back to Egypt after the debacle with the spies.  These were people who took every opportunity to fight Moshe every opportunity they had.  It seems as if they just hated him and used every means to try to undermine him.

 

In the end, they were swallowed up in the ground together with Korach.  Just before they met their end, the Torah says (Bamidbar 16:12), “Moses sent to call Datan and Aviram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, ‘We will not go up’.”  Rashi says that Moshe called for them to come in order to try to end the strife.  Here was a man who, for all of his adult life, had been harassed and fought by two lowlifes who had caused him and his people immense damage.  Now is the time that he is going to be rid of them, but he makes a last effort to bring them to peace?

 

Rabbi Ashkenazi wrote a fascinating commentary on this.  He said that despite all their wickedness, Moshe remembered that Datan and Aviram had a positive side to them.  When Moshe originally told Pharaoh to let the people go from Egypt, his reaction was to increase their pressure and their work.  They now had to find their own straw to make bricks, and still provide the same quota of bricks as before.  The Jewish officers, appointed by the Egyptians to oversee the Jewish slaves, were beaten by the taskmasters, but did not beat the Jews in return.  They put themselves in real danger and approached Pharaoh, telling him his nation was sinning by making life impossible for the Jews.  Two of those officers confronted Moshe and Aharon, and asked them why they were making life worse for the Jewish people, a question that Moshe himself subsequently asked Hashem.  These two officers were Datan and Aviram.

 

Moshe remembered about them what they had forgotten about themselves.  Deep down there were caring individuals who were willing to accept beatings and confront the king in order to protect the people.  Despite their horrible actions over the years, Moshe was appealing to that spark of goodness within them, even when they were seemingly doomed.  This is a true leader.  He did not identify them by their behavior against him, nor by their current wickedness.  He saw the entire person, and he worked to bring out the hidden good.  Datan and Aviram refused his overture.  But Moshe, the greatest leader who ever lived, was teaching us a lesson in peace that we should try to emulate.  How often does it happen that two people, perhaps relatives or former friends, get angry at each other.  Sometimes it grows into a major dispute that leads us to completely disconnect, or even worse, to constantly argue and fight.  Moshe teaches us never to give up.  No matter how bitter the argument, no matter how long it has persisted, we should always be prepared to step back and make overtures to reconcile.  

 

This Sunday is the 27th Yartzeit of our Rebbe.  He was such a leader.  The Rebbe always saw the goodness in every person.  He transformed people with an encouraging word, his loving look deep into our souls by his kind blue eyes.  The Rebbe reminded all of us what we had forgotten about ourselves.  No matter how far a person has strayed from their roots, from their connection to Hashem, and even from decent behavior, the Rebbe reminded us that at our core we are a spark of the Divine.  Please see here for a wealth of information on the Rebbe and his Yartzeit on the third of Tamuz.

 

The Rebbe found good in every person, in every event, and in every aspect of the world.  He taught us that this world is Hashem’s beautiful garden, and although we do not see it now, this is because the physical hides the inner essence.  When Moshiach comes, the truth will be revealed, and every time we do something to reveal that inner truth, a Mitzvah, we bring that moment of revelation closer.