In this week’s Parsha of Chukas, Aharon Hakohen passed away. Aharon merited a very special painless death. Hashem told Moshe to speak to Aharon, convince him and tell him to come up the mountain. Hashem told Moshe to comfort Aharon about him dying. Rashi quotes the Midrash (Tanchuma 17) that Hashem said to Moshe, “tell Aharon, you are lucky to see your crown given to your son, what I didn’t merit.”
We all know that Moshe wanted his son to be his successor but Hashem told Moshe that Yehoshua his student will be the next leader of Klal Yisrael. But Aharon merited that his son became the next Kohen Gadol. Furthermore, Moshe took off the royal clothing from Aharon and as he took it off he put them on Elazar straight away in the order he took them off. That means the top clothes of Aharon was put on Elazar first, then the layer underneath was out on top etc. and a miracle happened that the clothing rearranged itself to be in the right order. So not only did Aharon merit that his son was his successor, he actually saw his son wearing the royal clothing of the Kohen Gadol.
The Midrash that Rashi quotes needs an explanation. Hashem told Moshe to comfort Aharon that his son will succeed his position. That is a certain comfort. But Hashem told him to add another few words that he Moshe didn’t merit that his son takes over his leadership. Why did Hashem tell him to add this extra point?
When Hashem told Moshe to go to Mitzrayim Moshe tried to back out. Moshe claimed that he couldn’t speak properly. In the end Hashem told him that he should go and Aharon will be his spokesman. Hashem added that Aharon will be happy for Moshe. If so is that something that would comfort Aharon Hakohen that he got something that Moshe didn’t get?
We find a very interesting Gemara (Taanis 25.). Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa was a very poor man. His situation was unbearable and his wife asked him to pray. Suddenly a leg of a table made from gold landed on their floor. They had received wealth directly from Heaven.
Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s wife had a dream. In her dream she saw that all the great Tzaddikim in Heaven had a table with three legs and her table only had two legs. She told over her dream to her husband. Rabbi Chanina replied, “do you want everyone to eat (in spiritual terms) from a complete and perfect table and we should have a table missing a leg?” His wife agreed with him. So he prayed and the leg was taken away.
This story needs an explanation. We all know that a table with two legs cannot stand. All the more a table full with the reward for Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s Torah study with such poverty. So they would have to take turns holding up the table. So obviously they asked for the third leg to be returned. But from the Gemara we see a very interesting point. If all the Tzaddikim in Heaven would have had a table of two legs and they all had to support the table, they would have agreed to it and taken turns for eternity holding up the table. What made them change their mind? That everyone else had a stable perfect table? But that seems to be written in the Gemara.
Let us take another famous story in Jewish history. The Jews were serving Avoda Zara – idol worship. Eliyahu Hanavi gathered the whole of Klal Yisrael to Mount Carmel. Eliyahu Hanavi was the only Prophet of Hashem there. On the other side were four hundred and fifty prophets for the Avoda Zara, the Baal and four hundred and fifty prophets for the Asheira.
Eliyahu had brought two oxen siblings. He turned to the prophets of the Avoda Zara and asked them to pick one first. They chose one and tried to move it but the ox wouldn’t budge. Hundreds of prophets trying to move a single animal but the ox was determined and wouldn’t move.
Eliyahu turned to the ox and said, “go with them.” Then something amazing happened. The ox started talking to Eliyahu and said, “I and the other ox came from one mother, we grew up together, pastured together. He is going to be used as a sacrifice for Hashem and I will be used for Avoda Zara to anger my creator?”
Eliyahu replied and said, “ox, ox, don’t worry. In the same way that Hashem’s name will be sanctified by the fact the fire will come down from Heaven to burn the ox I sacrifice, so too, Hashem’s name will be sanctified through you by the fact that the prophets will put you on their alter and no fire will appear.”
The ox replied to Eliyahu and said, “Is that the advice you are giving me? I swear I will not budge from here until you hand me over to them.” And without a choice Eliyahu had to go and hand over the ox to the prophets.
The rest of the story we all know. The prophets sacrificed the ox and nothing happened. They had even placed someone inside their alter to light a fire but a snake killed him. Eliyahu put his ox on his Mizbeach, poured lots of water over it. He then prayed to Hashem and a fire came down from Heaven and burned up his sacrifice and all the water around it. All the Jews cried out, “Hashem is the G-d, Hashem is the G-d.”
The ox had an amazing dialogue with Eliyahu Hanavi. His claim was very simple. The purpose of every creation is to be used for Avodas Hashem or alternatively for something else that will be used for Avodas Hashem. If it is used for Avoda Zara it did the opposite of its purpose. Eliyahu had to explain that although it won’t go on his Mizbeach, but the fact that a Kiddush Hashem – Hashem’s name was sanctified by the fact that no fire appeared, that is also fulfilling a purpose.
We can understand the stubbornness of the ox. The question is what happens every time a priest tried to sacrifice a cow for Avoda Zara. Why don’t we see every cow staying put and not budging? The answer lies in the words of the ox itself. The other ox, its sibling is going to be sacrificed for Hashem. Why the other ox yes and it not?! That’s what bothered the ox.
Let us add one more example with the same message. The moon complained to Hashem that it and the sun were the same size and two kings can’t rule with one crown. Hashem told the moon to minimize its own light. In order to comfort it Hashem created stars that would be together with the moon. The question is what is the comfort? The Chiddushei Harim answers that the comfort is that there are lights that are smaller than the moon.
From these stories we can try and understand our Parsha. Hashem created us with certain characteristics. Yes, we are born with a nature to be disturbed by others having more than us and we also have a nature of comforting ourselves knowing that there are others that don’t have what we have. Hashem understood that even Aharon Hakohen would have an additional comfort, even if it is so minor, knowing that he merited something that someone else didn’t have.
We have to understand what is the purpose Hashem gave us this nature? The answer is that Hashem wants us to use both characteristics. When it comes to Avodas Hashem and spirituality we have to strive for more and more. How do we get motivated? By seeing those that greater than us and those that have advanced more than us. That is meant to cause us some kind of discomfort that should cause us to strive for more.
When it comes to Olam Hazeh, worldly matters, there Hashem doesn’t want us to get carried away. There Hashem wants us to be satisfied with what he have and spend more time in our Avodas Hashem, learning Torah, praying and doing Mitzvos. But how can we satisfy ourselves with what we have? By comforting ourselves that there are so many people that have less than we do.
The problem is that many times we are just the opposite. In spirituality we comfort ourselves with those less than us but in worldliness we are disturbed by our friends who are more successful.
Rabbi Eliyahu Hakohen, the Author of the Sefer Shevet Mussar brings the following story that happened with him in in his Sefer Minchas Eliyahu. In the year 5442 a Dibbuk entered the body of a young boy. (A Dibbuk is a departed soul of a person that hasn’t been given permission to enter Gan Eden and cannot even enter Gehinom due to the severity of its sins. It hovers around the world enduring tremendous suffering from Malaachim punishing it for its sins. In order to avoid the suffering such souls try and enter the body of a living person, during that time the Malaachim can’t do anything. These people would then start acting strangely and mysterious voices would start talking from their body. The way they were forced to leave was by taking these people to great Tzaddikim who would force the soul to depart from the person. There were such stories in the time of the Ari Hakadosh, the Vilna Gaon and many great Tzaddikim during history. Many of these encounters are documented.)
The boy was brought to Rabbi Eliyahu Hakohen. He spoke to the soul and knew who it was. It was the soul of a local butcher who sold chickens. He was a person who regularly got angry and committed various severe sins. Rabbi Eliyahu asked him what was his story? The soul replied, “I had a lot of debts, I couldn’t survive the suffering and I couldn’t face receiving help so I committed suicide. I swallowed poison and passed away. And someone who takes their own life loses their portion in the World to come. So I am enduring terrible suffering.”
Rabbi Eliyahu Hakohen asked him different questions which he answered. Then he asked the soul what is the size of a soul (Ruach)? The soul answered that it depends on the spirituality of the person. He added that his soul was the size of a small nut but there are souls even smaller than his! Tzaddikim have big souls and people that sin have small souls. This soul was the size of a small nut. But sadly, how did the soul comfort itself? By the fact that there are smaller souls! Maybe the size of a sesame seed or a poppy seed!
