Beha'aloscha- The power of feelings
For Year 2 of Parsha Lesson, I will be focusing on one practical middah, character trait, to think about in the week ahead and steps we can take to attain it.
Background
In this week’s Parsha we have the story of where Miriam and Aharon (Moshe’s siblings and themselves great prophets) thought somewhat negatively of Moshe and discussed it amongst themselves. We then have one of the most amazing pesukim in the entire Torah: ‘and the man Moshe was the most humble of all of the people in the world.’
Question
Moshe! The great Moshe who was also the one to speak with Hashem, G-d Himself, as one would speak with a friend. Moshe, who was the one through whom Hashem gave the Torah to the Jewish people and by extension shared with humanity Hashem’s teachings, values and how people should live their lives on this world. This great man was also the MOST humble man. How is that possible?
Especially when one considers that the Torah itself says that Moshe was the greatest of all prophets (who are the greatest of all people), and that Hashem so esteemed Moshe that Hashem himself defended Moshe’s honor when Miriam and Aharon spoke badly about him! How is it possible to be so humble when the ultimate judge of everything, Hashem, thinks so highly of him and accords him such great honor?
Answer
R’ Yisroel Salanter explains that there are two different systems with which a person can grow and attain good character traits: that of the reasoning (seichel) and that of the emotion. The job at first is that one’s reasoning should gain control of the animalistic, physical body and spirit of the person and then after for a person to raise themselves up to even higher levels, beyond reasoning, to attain even higher levels of perfection of character.
Moshe of course KNEW how great he was and knew his talents and how much Hashem valued him and accorded him honor. Nevertheless, Moshe was able to FEEL as if everyone that he encountered was in fact greater than him. This feeling is called humility and leads a person to have an exalted character which is shown through actions and behavior which are particularly righteous, kind and uplifting of those around them.
Lesson
For many of us, most of the time, our emotions and feelings are an impediment to doing the right thing. We can feel down, disheartened, angry, insulted, etc. These feelings prevent us from acting in a reasonable and rational way which would be better for us as people and enable us to keep the Torah and follow the laws of Hashem.
However, this does not need to necessarily be the case. A person can awaken inside of them emotion and feeling which can aid them in overcoming challenges. Emotion is a tremendously powerful tool which is usually our downfall, but it can also be a tool that can be harnessed to accomplish great things.
Great people like Moshe Rabbeinu (our teacher) have a tremendously difficult time treating others properly, with respect and caring for them- because of their greatness and accomplishments. The trick that we see by Moshe, to overcoming this challenge, is to instill in one’s self a powerful emotion to enable the person to nevertheless act properly.
By Moshe, emotion was his tool to transcend logic and reason and act in a humble manner despite his own unsurpassed greatness. For us, emotion can be a tool to enable us to adhere to logic and reason and to counteract the emotions and feelings that are getting in our way.
First Step
The First Step towards instilling in ourselves proper and powerful emotion to aid us in overcoming our challenges is to study the matter with which we are challenged by. When we do this and come to an understanding or new insight of the matter at hand, this naturally kicks off some degree of emotion inside of us- as it says in Mishlei ‘the light of the eyes makes the heart happy’ which the commentators explain to be referring to having a new insight or clarity (the lightbulb going on) into a subject matter.
The next step is to not allow that emotion to just flit in and then out of our consciousness, but rather to focus on it and stoke the emotion that we are feeling.
By doing this, for even a few minutes a day, regularly, a person will see themselves change fundamentally and have an easier time tackling whatever challenge they may face.
Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Rabbi Eli Meir Kramer
