Be Like the Disciples of Aaron:
Reflections on Parshas Chukas
By Chaya Mushka and Nechama Krimmer
Nearing the end of the forty years in the desert, both Miriam and Aaron passed away, as explained in this week's parsha, parshas Chukas.
The Torah relates that the entire Jewish people mourned the death of Aaron. What was it about Aaron that made him so beloved by the Jewish people?
In chapter one of Pirkei Avos, the Ethics of our Fathers, the famed Hillel says, "Be like the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them to the Torah" (P.A. 1:12).
Hillel, a halachic giant prominently discussed in the Talmud, was, like Aaron, known for his kindness and compassion. Once a convert brazenly asked Hillel to teach him the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Unfazed, Hillel easily answered, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Now, go and learn".
It is no wonder why Hillel charged his students to "be like the disciples of Aaron". Aaron was the quintessential peace maker, particularly in regards to shalom bayis, the relationship between husband and wife.
So important is shalom bayis in Judaism, that Hashem, Himself, modified Sarah's words when relaying them to Avraham to preserve their marital bond. When Hashem told Sarah she would have a child, she laughed and said, "But my husband is old!" When Hashem relayed this to Avraham, however, he quoted Sarah as saying, "But I am old!" sparing Avraham potential hurt from Sarah's words (Bereshis 18: 12-13).
In his time, Aaron was not above using this same tactic to bring peace not only between husbands and wives but also among quarreling friends. He would go to one party and say how sorry the other was. Then he would go to the other party and say the same. By the time the two friends met up again, they peacefully resumed their relationship.
That Aaron was the Kohen Gadol made his love of peace and kindness even more endearing to the Jewish people. Since he held such a lofty position, people felt special when he attended to them, thinking, "I must, indeed, be worthy if the Kohen Gadol took time out of his day for me!"
Aaron's compassion did not distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. In fact, when praising Aaron in Pirkei Avos, Hillel uses an interesting expression, which alludes to this. Rather than saying the obvious, that Aaron had ahavas yisroel, love for a fellow Jew, Hillel wrote that Aaron had ahavas habreios, love for the "creatures". This can be understood that Aaron loved even those ruled by their animalistic natures.
Through his kindness and his living example, Aaron drew those he came in contact with closer to Hashem and the Torah.
It's perhaps not a coincidence that the parsha that speaks of Aaron's kindness and the Jewish people's love for him, falls out each year near the 3rd day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, the yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Surely through the thousands of stories told of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's ahavas yisroel and ahavas habreios, we can see that the Rebbe, indeed, was a disciple of Aaron. The Rebbe never turned away a single soul, Jew or Gentile, righteous or "wicked". Through his emissaries around the world and his many mitzva campaigns, the number of people the Rebbe brought closer to the Torah is immeasurable.
I'll end with a short story. Once there was a boy around age 8, who was a living terror. He rebelled in school, thumbed his nose at his parents, and respected no one. Basically, he acted like an unruly teenager at age 8! His frantic mother brought the boy to the Rebbe hoping that the Rebbe could straighten her son out.
The boy was not at all thrilled to be sent to yet ANOTHER rabbi in order to be told of the errors of his ways. He walked into the Rebbe's room, behind his mother, with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.
The Rebbe addressed the boy, kindly. He inquired if the boy did well in school. The boy shouted back, "No!" Next the Rebbe asked the boy if he did his homework. Again, the boy's angry response was, "No!" Lastly, the Rebbe asked the boy if he listened to his parents. The boy, waiting for the upcoming lecture on his behavior again shouted, "No!"
The Rebbe stood up, smiled widely at the boy's mother, and said excitedly, "Emes! Emes!" Truth! Truth! The boy speaks the truth!
That boy, now in his late 60s, remembers his encounter with the Rebbe vividly. It was the first time that someone saw him for what he was, warts and all, and found reason to praise him. Like our forefather Aaron, that was the way of the Rebbe, to see the good in all people.
May we soon merit to again sit at the feet of these tzaddikim through the coming of Moshiach and the ushering in of an Era of universal peace and fellowship between all living beings.
