THEIR PURE INSIDES
The Torah requires every Jew, including every 13 year old boy and 12 year old girl, to judge every other Jew favorably. This means that when we see someone doing something questionable we must give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they did nothing wrong or at least they were not aware of what they did. For a bar mitzvah child or, for that matter, anybody who is not trained in mussar and other forms of Torah greatness, it seems almost impossible. There must be an approach or a perspective that can offer us a grasp on this mitzvah.
At the end of this week’s Parsha, Ki Sisa, the Torah tells us that when Moshe brought down the second set of Luchos (Tablets) his face had a striking radiance. It was so great that he had to place a mask to cover it when speaking to the people.
What was the cause of this radiance? Immediately following the sin of the Golden Calf, HaShem wanted to destroy His people and rightfully so. After all, it was only 40 days after they received the Ten Commandments at which HaShem directly told them not to serve any idols. There could be no greater betrayal than that. However, Moshe interceded on behalf of his people and HaShem accepted his argument. The Zohar teaches us that in the merit of Moshe’s successful interceding on our behalf his face radiated with this striking radiance. What is the connection between his advocacy and the radiance of his face?
Reb Aaron Lopiansky shared the following insight. Let us contrast Joe and Moe, both of whom aspire to become world class engineers. Joe is a simple fellow who is not particularly good at math but is really committed to learning and becoming great. Moe on the other hand is an exceptionally gifted fellow in many disciplines especially math and also shares that same aspiration as Joe. Both Joe and Moe demonstrate persistence and commitment to their studies and are awarded full scholarships. Sometime in their freshman year they start hanging out at the bars are before long are consuming more beer than math. The scholarship board discovered what was going on and decided to withdraw their award. Both Joe and Moe received notices that their scholarships were pulled. The dean of the college, however, learnt of this and ran to the board with the following argument. He conceded that it did not pay to support Joe’s education once he demonstrated his lack of commitment to achieving his aspiration. Without that drive, Joe will never move ahead; there is simply too much to learn and to overcome. However, when it came to Moe, he argued that he has all the potential to become incredibly great in whatever he will do. The moment Moe will come to his senses he will blossom. The greatness is already there, it is just a matter of applying himself and his inner genius will flourish. The board accepted his argument and Moe’s scholarship was reinstated.
Moshe’s argument to HaShem on behalf of his people was that of the dean’s to the board. Moshe argued that the Jewish people come from incredible stock, from Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov. There is so much inherent greatness within these people. Yes, it is true that they slipped and fell from their greatness but that is not who they are. Moshe recognized the inner sanctity of his people and that every Jew has a spark of HaShem within him. The deviant behavior is not their essence it is something they learnt from their environment and will fall away to allow their greatness to shine.
Once Moshe identified the core beauty of every Jew and any lack of thereof is simply a covering, Moshe’s own inner sanctity shined forth in brilliant radiance.
Perhaps, if we can appreciate Moshe’s insight it will be a bit easier to judge another Jew more favorably.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind