Driving Out Discord: Unity Reveals Hashem's Glory

1“Moshe said, ‘This is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do, and the glory of Hashem will appear to you.’”¹ The holy Ohr HaChaim raises the question: what is this “thing” that they were commanded to do?²

2The Sifra, the early Midrash on Vayikra, explains Moshe's words: “Moshe said to Israel: Remove that yetzer hara from your hearts, and let all of you be of one fear and one counsel in serving the Omnipresent. Just as He is the only One in the world, so let your service before Him be one and undivided.”³ But we need to understand where this verse hints at the yetzer hara.

3aLet us begin with the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the verse “And Aharon lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.”⁴ He explained the verse through Chazal's teaching on “You shall love your fellow as yourself”: “This is a klal gadol, a great principle, of the Torah.”⁵ His point is that even a person great in Torah, who has been privileged to make his soul whole through Torah and avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, must still include himself in the klal, the community as a whole. True perfection comes only through the strength of the klal. With this he explained Chazal's saying “If you have learned much Torah, al tachzik tovah le'atzmecha, do not claim credit for yourself, for that is what you were created for.”⁶ He read the words al tachzik … le'atzmecha as “do not hold on to yourself alone”: even if you have been privileged to learn much Torah, do not keep to yourself, but join together with the many.

3bThis is the meaning of “And Aharon lifted up his hands toward the people.” Aharon the Kohen stood on the level of nesias yadayim, the lifting of the hands, which points to lofty levels; yet even he reached it only through the strength of the people. The verse hints at this when it calls him “the Kohen who is great from among his brothers”:⁷ the Kohen's greatness comes from the strength of his brothers. And this is “toward the people”: Aharon was raised on high because he stood together with them. Those are his holy words.

4We can explain this more fully through what the holy sefer Noam Elimelech writes on the verse “And the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh together will see that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.”⁸ “Flesh,” he explains, stands for the very lowest level among Bnei Yisrael. [Bnei Yisrael are called by other names as well, such as adam and ish, both meaning “man,” or Yisrael and Yaakov. But “flesh” points to the soul as it is clothed in flesh, the lowest level of all.] Yet when they join “together” in unity, even they can reach the point of seeing Hashem's glory revealed. Those are his holy words.

5aThis explains Chazal's words on the verse “This is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do, and the glory of Hashem will appear to you.” At first glance, how could even the simple people see the glory of Hashem? That takes many preparations and great avodah. To this Moshe answered, “Remove that yetzer hara from your hearts, and let all of you be of one fear and one counsel in serving the Omnipresent.” When you live in love and unity, then “all Israel are guarantors for one another,”⁹ and each one helps his fellow gain merit through his kavanos, his inner intentions, and through his keeping of the mitzvos. In this way you will reach “and the glory of Hashem will appear to you,” just as we saw in “and all flesh together will see.”

5bMoshe Rabbeinu also hinted to them at a sound way to reach this. Every Jew, even the simplest, should keep the mitzvos, even without kavanos, simply because “this is the thing that Hashem commanded.” His mitzvah will then join the mitzvos of people of stature, who know the proper intentions and have them in mind. Through them the mitzvos will be completed with the proper, special kavanah, and so, all together, they will be privileged to see the glory of Hashem. A teaching quoted in the name of the Chiddushei HaRim, the first Rebbe of Ger, zy"a, [whose yahrzeit, the anniversary of his passing, is today], runs along the same lines. “That yetzer hara” which Moshe told them to remove from their hearts, he said, is the familiar yetzer hara of hatred and strife. About this the verse says, “This is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do”: make peace and unity among yourselves. Those are his holy words. This is especially true in our generation, the generation of “the footsteps of Moshiach,” the era just before the redemption, for we see how badly we fall short here. As is well known, the same yetzer hara of baseless hatred that brought about the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash still runs rampant among us.¹⁰ This above all must be set right, so that the Shechinah can dwell among us.

6[¹¹We can explain why the command to be united, all of one fear and one counsel, came right after they had set up the Mishkan. When the Mishkan was set up, Bnei Yisrael reached very lofty levels and a very high grasp, and they might have mistakenly thought that they had reached perfection, the goal they were striving for. So Moshe Rabbeinu came and taught them that no one can fulfill his duty to Heaven on his own. Only through unity and the strength of the many can a person reach perfection, for what one lacks, his fellow makes up. That is why he told them, “Remove that yetzer hara from your hearts, and let all of you be of one fear and one counsel in serving the Omnipresent”: the way to perfection is only through unity. This is what makes a person's stature complete, and this is the meaning of “one counsel.”]

7aAlong the same lines we can explain the verse “Vayehi, and it was, on the eighth day.”¹² Chazal teach that vayehi is an expression of distress.¹³ Why distress here? The whole purpose of setting up the Mishkan was to bring His Shechinah to dwell among us, as the verse says, “And they shall make Me a Mikdash, and I will dwell among them.”¹⁴ But the Shechinah rests in the Tent of Meeting only when Bnei Yisrael are united in heart. My holy great-grandfather of Biala, zy"a, wrote about this in his sefer Divrei Binah, on the verse about the keruvim, the golden figures over the Ark: “And the keruvim spread out their wings upward … with their faces one toward the other …”¹⁵ Chazal said that the keruvim had the faces of children,¹⁶ to teach that Hashem's love for Israel is like a father's love for a small child: even when the child does foolish things, he is still his father's delight. But all this holds only on the condition of “their faces one toward the other,” that they live in unity with one another. If they quarrel, then, Heaven forbid, the father has no choice but to step in and scold them. That is the gist of his words.

7bThe very fact that Moshe Rabbeinu had to ask them to remove that yetzer hara of strife from among them shows that it was still present among them, and if so, the Shechinah could not dwell in the midst of Israel. That is why the verse says vayehi, an expression of distress. As long as this yetzer hara had not left, there was great distress that at so great a moment the Shechinah would be unable to dwell in Israel. And the Shechinah's dwelling is the very purpose of creation: that Hashem should have a dwelling place in the lower realms.¹⁷ This is why Chazal compared the day the Mishkan was set up to the day heaven and earth were created:¹⁸ the world was created above all so that His Shechinah would dwell in the lower realms. So Moshe Rabbeinu asked Bnei Yisrael to remove this yetzer hara, for only then could they be privileged to see “and the glory of Hashem will appear to you,” with His Shechinah dwelling in Israel.

8May Hashem help us attain love, brotherhood and friendship, and through them bring near the redemption of our souls, as Chazal said, “Israel will not be redeemed until they are all one band.”¹⁹ The days of the month of Nissan are now arriving.²⁰ As is well known, Chazal said that at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, Bnei Yisrael made a covenant to do kindness with one another.²¹ Just as they were redeemed then in the merit of their unity, so may Hashem grant that this be a favorable time for us to unite. “In Nissan they were redeemed, and in Nissan they are destined to be redeemed”:²² may it be speedily in our days, with abundant kindness. Amen, may it be His will.