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By Rabbi Daniel Levitt
Parshat Matot-Masei
The Torah portion of this week is the double parsha of Matot-Masei, which deals mainly with wars with the Canaanite nations, laws badociated with war and of some of the first laws pertaining to the future conquest and colonization of the land of Israel. It also includes a detailed list of all the encampments of the Israelites during their wandering time in the desert.
Almost as an aside, the Torah mentions the death of Aaron in the relevant encampment during his account of all the places where the Israelites encamped. . Our tradition tells us that it is not typical for the Torah to repeat words or elaborate unnecessarily. Therefore, it is curious that the Torah tells of Aaron's death here after already developing this incident earlier in the book of Numbers.
When we badyze the exposures of our tradition on aspects of Aaron's personality, the moment of his death. In the Jewish calendar, when this part of the Torah is generally read, we find that the intentional mess mentioning the death of Aaron teaches us an important lesson.
Pirkei Avot describes Aaron as saying, "Aaron loved peace and sought peace; He loved all of God's creations and brought them closer to the Torah. "Many people would say that they love peace and think that peace is paramount, but we see that Aaron was not just a man of words: He was a man
Aaron was also enjoyed the Torah and Jewish tradition and had an overwhelming desire to bring people closer to the Torah, but in a way that respected everyone as God's creations.Aaron was not condescending or triumphalist in his approach He loved people and he respected everyone equally Aaron was a man of peace committed to taking action to bring peace and he did it in a way that was not alienating for those who knew him.
There is a Midrash that describes one of the ways that Aaron would influence people – simply being extremely kind to everyone he has come into contact with – the saints, the sinners and all the others, all who have been kind to him were so inspired by the respect and care that he showed them that after meeting with the high priest, they would have resolved to be better people and better Jews. The people loved Aaron so much that we understand that his death was even greater than the death of Moses.
The death of Aaron was supposed to have occurred at the beginning of the Jewish month of the Av, which fell this week. Every year, this part of the Torah is read just at the moment when Aaron's death occurred so many years ago. Similarly, it is not a coincidence that this placement in the Jewish calendar is related to the month of Av.
Jewish tradition commemorates the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem on the ninth day of Av. During the first nine days of Av, many Jews have a tradition of practicing mourning customs to make the lesson of temple destruction meaningful in a personal way. The rabbis have taught us that the destruction of the temple, the subsequent exile of the Jewish people, and the fact that we still have to experience complete redemption are all punishments for the baseless sin of hatred between people.
as well as many other points of Jewish tradition and culture throughout the year), we learn to overcome this most flagrant sin – the sin of baseless hatred.
Aaron is the perfect model to serve as an antidote to the sin of hatred between individuals as well as in our community.
Aaron lived a life worthy of emulation, he was inspired and inspiring, and he did it in a way to attract people rather than alienate. Aaron did not treat people the way he was right, and they were wrong; he did not require that he approve the actions or opinions of people to be respectful of them as human beings. He made it a point to be respectful of everyone. He did his best to help people learn to respect each other, to talk to each other and to resolve their differences to build a community.
Aaron was a unique unifying force that the world desperately needs today.
Although we are not all Aaron, we can all learn from Aaron and try to imitate him. We can strive to disagree with the people around us without being unpleasant and we can make an extra effort to show all people that we respect them as human beings without qualification. No matter what you think of messianic concept and redemption, if we all tried to imitate Aaron, even a little bit, the world would be a much better place.
Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi Daniel Levitt is the executive director of Hillel at Temple University: The Edward H. Rosen Center for Jewish Life. The Rabbis Council of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide commentary on the Torah to the Jewish exponent.
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