"Lift yourself from among this congregation" (Numbers/Bemidbar 17:10)
It is told that in the year 5572, during Napoleon's war against Russia, a French general passed through Volozhin, and spent a few days there. During his stay there, the general heard about the greatness and wisdom of the famous gaon, Rebbe Chaim of Volozhin, zt"l, and made time to have an audience with him to ask what he predicted the outcome of the war between France and Russia would be.
Rav Chaim answered with a parable:
"There was once a nobleman who traveled with a stately carriage, drawn by four of the best Italian and Arabian horses. When the horses arrived in a muddy area, they stopped because they could not travel in the mud. The driver tried with all of his strength to get them to move, but to no avail.
"Behind the general on the road, a simple farmer was traveling with a wagon laden with straw, pulled by two small, lean, weak horses. When he saw the nobleman's carriage was blocking his path, he turned his horses to the side, and passed the nobleman's carriage, as if there was nothing blocking the path. When the nobleman saw the farmer's wagon passing through the mud with such ease, he was amazed, and he asked him to explain how this is possible.
"The farmer answered: 'It is true that your horses are stronger and more in number than my own, however they have no connection one to another. They are of the highest pedigree, but each is from a different land, one is Arabian and one is Italian, and each has his own strength, and is arrogant over the other. Each horse wants to demonstrate that it is he alone who is drawing the carriage, and not to share the honor with the others, thus each draws the carriage in his own direction. They do not feel subjugated to their mission in drawing the carriage, to travel in a straight line together. My horses are different. They are a mother and her two children, who grew up together under identical conditions. Even though each lacks energy, I only need to lift up my whip and they go ahead together with one mission, to fulfill my commands, and this is how they are able to bring me safely to my destination."
Rav Chaim continued and told the French General: "Similarly, sir, although it is true that the French army is greater in number and physically stronger, but the Russian army feels more unity and patriotic self-sacrifice for the cause of their native land. This is because the French brought many mercenaries from various lands, as well as foreign generals, so each has a different upbringing and ideology. Each soldier fighting on behalf of France cares only for his own victory and glory, not the greater French cause. The Russian Army, on the other hand, is all made of one element, each one helping his brother, with one general over them all. Therefore, my opinion is that the French are fighting in vain against the Russians, and in the end they are doomed to fail and go home in defeat."
From this story, we can learn a deep lesson on how damaging to people arrogance is. Even if someone is strong, if he enters into a partnership to accomplish something, he cannot do it if he is arrogant, because each individual wants to take all of the credit, and through this he loses in the end.
Along these lines, it is told that a feud once broke out between two religious Jewish communities in Galicia, and each side appointed their own rabbi. The outcome was that the Maskilim (secularists) were able to take advantage of this feud and appoint their own leader, even though they were the minority in the community. When the holy Rebbe the Divrei Yechezkel of Shineva zt"l heard about this, he said "I long had difficulty understanding the meaning of the scripture 'you shall appoint a king upon you from the midst of your brethren, you are not able to appoint a foreigner' (Deuteronomy/Devarim 17:15), why would the Torah need to warn us of such a thing? Why would anyone think to appoint a foreigner to be king over Yisrael? However, from here we see that feuding can so debase a community that each side of the feud might come to decide that it is preferable to have a heathen rule over them than their own Jewish opponent."
There is another story that teaches the damage of feuding and strife: The Beis HaLevi, Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik of Brisk, zt"l, was once called upon in another town to settle a harsh feud over who should be elected the rabbi. The Beis HaLevi recognized that the people got so embroiled in the feud that and invested all their energy into it thereby neglecting the business and needs of the town. He told them, bitingly, that "it is written in Parshas Behaalosecha that when the Am Yisrael complained to Moshe that he should give them meat, Hashem told Moshe to gather seventy elders from Yisrael. Why is this? The answer is that once they were busy electing who would serve as the seventy elders, they forgot the rest of their problems and needs."
We see this by the feud of Korach, who brought members of the tribe of Reuven with him, as well as 250 nobles of the congregation, and each individual sought his own honor. This caused the attribute of Divine justice to overtake them and they all passed away from the world and lost everything. This is why Chazal say (Avos 5:17) that "any argument that is not for the sake of Heaven will not be upheld in the end, and the archetypical example of this is the dispute of Korach and all of his assembly".
It is possible to say that this is why Hashem commanded the Bnei Yisrael after the machlokes of Korach: "lift yourselves up" - lift yourself up in truth, "from amongst this assembly" - from the lesson you learn from the assembly of Korach, as you see that each of them sought to arrogantly lift himself up rather than to work as a team, and this brought machlokes, and in the end they fell. From this we learn that only humility and communal unity can lift us up and bring a better life.
Comments
Post a Comment