Kindness AND Truth
Can someone please send this to Nancy Pelosi and all those politicos who still, after years of failed effects with Islamofascists - continue on with the Pollyanna-attitude of peace talks with Arabs? Any more trips could get her the Golden Calf booby-prize.
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PARSHAT SHEMINI
The Pesach festival is over, as far as the matza is concerned. Yet we continue to move forward, striving to go beyond limitations [1], to discover new domains. The weekly Torah reading [2] presents us with two contrasting and complementary approaches to life, represented by two great figures: Moses and Aaron.
From the beginning of the story about how the Jews went free from Egypt, both Moses and Aaron play a vital role in whatever is taking place. Usually they act in total unison, so that it is difficult to see any distinction between them. If one looks more closely, however, one sees that they represent very different qualities, both of which are necessary.
The Sages tell us [3] that "Kindness is Aaron... but Truth is Moses".
This idea is explained by the Lubavitcher Rebbe [4].
Moses represents Truth. The role of Moses is to receive Divine teaching and to state clearly what it is, as pure truth without any modification whatsoever. Neither concern for the limitations of the moment nor diplomacy can disturb the transmission of truth. Indeed, from the point of view of absolute truth, society and life as a whole are viewed in ideal terms: as they should be, and not necessarily as they are at that moment. The quality of Moses therefore refuses to countenance any kind of compromise.
Aaron, by contrast, expresses the quality of Kindness. He takes into account the situation of the person to whom he is talking. The teaching he is communicating is authentic, indeed it comes directly from Moses and from G-d. But it is shaped to fit the limitations of society and of life as it actually is at that moment in time.
Aaron represents the ability to adapt in an authentic way; while Moses expresses the refusal to deviate a hair's-breadth from the ideal. However, our Parshah tells of the death of the two sons of Aaron. One explanation is that this was a punishment for Aaron's sin: while Moses was on the mountain, urged by the frenzied people, Aaron had made the Golden Calf. This was an incident in which the desire to accommodate to people's desires went too far...
Both these qualities are necessary. We need Moses, in order to know clearly what the truth is and what our ideals and our direction should be. We also need Aaron, in order to transmit the practical guidance which is required for the immediate situation. If either of these dimensions is lacking, serious problems are likely to arise; if there is only 'Moses', the truth is there but, perhaps, no-one will listen; if only 'Aaron', we run the risk of total distortion, till in the end the commodity we are selling (albeit possible 'successfully') is unfortunately not Judaism at all..
The making of the Golden Calf took place when Moses was absent, and Aaron was left alone. In our own lives, and in our communities, we have to ensure that the two factors of Moses and Aaron are always combined, acting in harmony. They are provided by balanced understanding of our sacred Torah, as transmitted to us by our Sages, with a wisdom which combines Truth with Kindness.
Footnotes:
1. The Hebrew word for 'Egypt ' can also mean limitations (with a
slightly different pointing)
2. Lev. chs.9-11.
3. Midrash Shemot Rabbah 5:10.
4. Sefer HaSichot 5748 p.375.
ORIGINAL
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