QUESTION
How do we account for the variety of Jewish religious groups?
ANSWER
And the answer is; in a garden, how do we account for the variety? There are red flowers and there are blue flowers and pink and white. And baruch Hashem the variety causes it to be more interesting and beautiful. We have to know that each group contributes its specific contributions to our people. Not everybody has all the maalos. And each one is essential to the wellbeing, and the happiness, and the beauty of our nation.
And therefore, when Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai had a machlokes, it wasn’t a reason for weeping and moaning about variety. We have to know that Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai together upheld the Torah; each one served Hakadosh Baruch Hu in his way, and each one sharpened the other by their conflict. ל∆ז¿רַּב„ַחָי ל∆ז¿רַבּ¿ב – One piece of iron causes the other iron to sharpen (Mishlei 27:17).
And even the conflict between chassidim and misnagdim, for instance, had a very good effect. There was an old writer, the Zichron Yakov, and he said because the misnagdim so frequently and so much accused the chassidim of not learning, the chassidim began learning as much as the misnagdim did. And the misnagdim started learning other things, mussar and yiras Shamayim, in order to show that they had the same avodas Hashem like the chassidim.
And so after a while the besamim of one rubbed off on the other and the good qualities began to diffuse.
And that’s Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s system when He made the twelve shevatim; each shevet had its own qualities, very different from the other shevatim. But all together they contributed and they made it a perfect whole. February 1982
