The lesson
The lesson that we are to learn in our service of G-d is as follows: Though we may observe people in whom it is difficult to find any merit for them, we should do our utmost to see their good.
This is expressed in the fact that although Moshe saw the manner in which Dasan and Aviram acted, he nevertheless believed them to be followers and not rabble-rousers themselves.
When Moshe called Dasan and Aviram to come to him, they replied with tremendous audacity:
Text 8
Moshe sent to call Dasan and Aviram, the sons of Eliav, but they said, "We will not go up. Is it not enough that you have brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert, that you should also exercise authority over us? You have not even brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Even if you gouge out the eyes of those men, we will not go up."
Notwithstanding their tremendous impudence, Moshe nevertheless judged them positively, and assumed that they were not instigators of the rebellion against him but followers.
From this virtue of Moshe’s we should take a lesson as to the extent that we should judge our fellow positively. Although it may seem that our fellow’s actions are such that no merit can be found for them, we should nevertheless try to see them in a positive light and as a result thereof, return them to a proper path.
(Based on Likutei Sichos 13, Korach 1, reworked by Rabbi Dovid Markel. To see other projects and to partner in our work, see: www.Neirot.com.)
Bamidbar 16:12-14
