Miller's Musings Parshas Tzav: The Self-Made Man

בס''ד

                      

Credit where credit’s due!  We can all agree with that.  But what about credit where it does not seem to be due?  Rashi tells us that the words “And Aharon and his sons did all…which Hashem commanded” actually extol one of Aharon’s virtues that he followed Hashem’s instructions to the letter.  But let us remind ourselves who we are speaking of here.  We are talking about Aharon the Kohen Godol, a man who was considered equal to Moshe Rabeinu.  Is it really such a great praise to say he did what Hashem commanded?  Would he ever even have contemplated anything different?  

In reality for a righteous individual of the calibre of Aharon, to in any way deviate from the dictates of Hashem would have been something totally inconceivable.  It was not even a possibility, nor was there a choice in his mind that he would have needed to make.  But we must realise that this was not the status into which he was born, but rather the result of years of dedication to perfecting himself.  The person he now was, was not the person he was created as being, but rather the person he himself created through the life choices he had made up until this point. This, explains the Darchei Mussar, was the source of the acclaim that the Torah was bestowing upon Aharon.  The basis for the admiration towards Aharon was not for the fact that he chose to do exactly as Hashem proscribed, for him there was no alternative.  But rather it was for the fact that he had formed himself into a person for whom there was no option other than following the will of Hashem.   

This is a tremendously important lesson for us, both with regard to understanding our Tzaddikim and for understanding ourselves.  There may be a temptation for us to look at those saintly individuals and use their seemingly unattainable levels as an excuse for our own mediocrity.  We can exonerate our own failings by dismissing the possibility of our ever being able to reach the heights of piety that these great people have reached, deeming their accomplishments as almost innate.  This is however a belittling of the Tzaddikim and ourselves.  The reason they are who they are is because they made decisions that would lead them away from being ordinary people to being people of distinction.  This is their praise and it is also our condemnation.  For if they could take the path to greatness, so can we. 

*May the power of Shabbos stimulate our growth*

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם

 

לרפואה שלימה:  שרה יעל בת ברכה אסתר