Page 42 - HaMizrachi #25 Chanuka 2020 USA

HOLIDAY READING

Rabbi Zev Leff

Beware the Dangers of Jealousy

osef’s brothers regarded him causeless hatred for which the Second of the Temple and exile of the Jewish
as the usurper of their roles Temple was destroyed. people was an apparent vindication of
Yin the Jewish nation. So when Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai’s stance
Ya’akov sent Yosef to report on their With this understanding of how one since the zealots could hardly claim a
welfare, they saw it as an opportu- imperfection in character can have Divine sanction for a policy that failed
nity to defend themselves against this such long-range effects, we can under- so miserably.
threat. They feared he would defame stand a difficult statement of the
them to Ya’akov, and that they would Sages. When Rebbe Yochanan ben On his deathbed, Rebbe Yochanan
be banished, just as Avraham banished Zakkai’s students went to visit him on ben Zakkai worried that perhaps sub-
Yishmael and Yitzchak banished Esav. his deathbed, he began to cry. His stu- consciously he had not asked for the
In their view, Yosef was a rodef, a pur- dents asked him why he was weeping. Temple to be spared out of a fear there
suer who threatened both their phys- He answered that if he were brought would then be no clear proof he had
ical existence and eternal roles as the before a mortal king who could been right. And he suspected that his
founders of the Jewish people. The be appeased or bribed, and whose own honor – offended by the zealots’
brothers were so convinced they were decrees extended only as far as the refusal to heed his decision – might
justified, they sat down to eat bread grave, he would wail. How much more have influenced his request. If that
without any pangs of guilt after sell- so now he was soon to face the judg- were true, and as a consequence, the
ing Yosef. Their common meal was in ment of G-d, Who cannot be appeased Temple was destroyed, would he not
effect a celebration of their unity and or bribed and Whose punishment is have merited eternal death?
harmony now unhindered by Yosef’s eternal. The Talmud tells us that Rebbe
evil designs. Even years later, when When Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai Yochanan ben Zakkai’s suspicions
they searched their pasts for any sins went out to meet the Roman general were unfounded. He was innocent; the
that could explain a series of appar- Vespasian during the siege of Jerusa- Temple was destroyed by a Heavenly
ently tragic events, they could not lem, he was allowed to make certain decree. Yet we can learn from Rebbe
come up with anything other than requests. He asked that: (1) the San- Yochanan’s concern as to the power of
their failure to be more merciful.
hedrin be permitted to continue in subtle traces of honor, desire and jeal-
Though the brothers felt fully justi- Yavne, (2) Rabban Gamliel be spared ousy in distorting one’s decisions.
fied, the Torah reveals to us that their (and hence the line of the Nesi’im be
misperception concerning Yosef was preserved), and (3) a doctor be pro- It is incumbent upon us to learn the
not simply an innocent mistake. Col- vided to heal Rabbi Tzaddok, who had devastating effect of jealousy and
oring their judgment was a slight trace fasted 40 years to avert the destruction hatred from the sale of Yosef, even
of jealousy. The Sages tell us that jeal- of the Temple. in its subtlest forms and even in the
ousy removes a person from the world. Before his death, Rebbe Yochanan ben greatest of people, so we can strive to
This means, in part, it removes one conduct ourselves in a manner befit-
from the world of reality and causes Zakkai was beset with doubts as to ting the Jewish people, and may we
one to view people and incidents in a whether he had acted properly. In his merit seeing the ultimate reunion of
distorted fashion. rigorous self-scrutiny, another expla- Yosef and his brothers when Mashiach
nation of why he erred came to him. ben Yosef will be sent as a harbinger of
Since the brothers’ deed was tainted He had opposed the zealots, who led Mashiach ben David.
by jealousy, both they and future the rebellion against Rome. But the
generations had to suffer the conse- zealots had ignored his opinion and
quences. Rabbeinu Yona finds an echo forced the issue by burning all of Jeru- Rabbi Zev Leff serves as the Rav of
of the hatred of Yosef’s brothers in the salem’s food supplies. The destruction Moshav Matityahu.

The only adequate response to the fear and hatred of
difference is to honour the dignity of difference.
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