Thoughts
on The Parsha
Parshas
Bamidbar
Mind
Over Matter
By: Daniel Listhaus
זֹאת
עֲבֹדַת בְּנֵי קְהָת בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד
קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים
“This is the work of the
sons of Kehas in the Tent of Meeting: the most Holy.”
אַל
תַּכְרִיתוּ אֶת שֵׁבֶט מִשְׁפְּחֹת
הַקְּהָתִי מִתּוֹךְ הַלְוִיִּם
“Do
not cut off the tribe of the Kehas families from among the Levi'im.”
-Bamidbar 4:4;18
After
having counted B'nei Yisroel and
describing the positioning of the the B'nei Yisroel around
the aron (ark) in the
midbar (desert), the
Torah continues to relate the tasks of the Levi'im.
As the cloud and fire representing the shechina of
Hashem traveled, the B'nei Yisroel followed.
There was no itinerary that they knew of which outlined how their
time in the midbar would
be spent. The B'nei Yisroel never
knew if they would be pitching tent for the night, week, or month. If
this itself did not display a true devotion to Hashem, then certainly
the fact that every time they moved, the mishkan had
to be taken apart and brought with them to reconstruct at their new
location, did. The passuk (verse)
in our parsha states
that the descendents of Kehas from Levi had the greatest
responsibility. They were charged with carrying the Holliest keilim
(vessels) – the aron,
the shulchan (table),
the menorah, the two
mizbe'achs (alters),
the paroches (curtain
partition), and the k'lei shareis
(utensils of sacrificial service).
The
Medrash1
says that it was known to those carrying the various keilim
of the mishkan
that the individuals who would be privileged with carrying the aron
would be rewarded tremendously.
So, they would all fight over who would get to carry the aron.
Each person would be standing over the aron shouting,
“I called it” like a kid racing for the front seat of a car. This
led to kalos rosh (light-headedness)
and a big chillul Hashem.
The
ironic thing is, however, that of course if you would ask any member
of the crowd arguing for the opportunity of carrying the aron
why he was doing such a thing, he would without a doubt respond that
he is showing kavod haTorah (honoring
the Torah) by fighting
for the chance of carrying the aron of
Hashem containing the luchos. If
this is not worth fighting for, what is? Yet, Hashem obviously viewed
the situation quite differently. He commanded Moshe and Aharon to
secure the position for Kehas by setting rules as to who is in charge
of each keili in order
to ensure that no one would die as a result of improperly fooling
around the aron.
The
obvious question on this Medrash is
what exactly went wrong. Indeed those who were fighting to carry the
aron had only the best
intentions in mind. How could so many people make such a big mistake
that instead of showing kavod haTorah,
exhibit kalos rosh and
b'zayon haTorah
without even realizing?
In
order to understand their psyche, we must be willing to admit to a
fault into which many people fall. Often times, we start a project
with the right intentions however, as issues come up and others
perhaps disagree with the way we want to carry out the project, we
could get so carried away trying to back up our side and show that we
are right that we lose focus of the bigger picture. We become biased
and so emotionally attached to our opinions to even realize that we
have ceased to think rationally.
In the 1950's, France, England, the United
States and the Soviet Union were each thinking of creating a
supersonic airplane. France and England eventually joined together
and both governments invested a tremendous amount of money developing
what would be later known as the Concorde. The Concorde got its name
as being a word which in both French and English means “in
agreement”. The interesting thing about the lifespan of the
Concorde is that each year proved to be a complete failure. Whether
it was unforeseen costs, issue in construction, or unrealistic plans
to make a profit, the Concorde project was a constant headache that
all around did more harm than good. Yet, both governments were
extremely stubborn and had become so emotionally attached to their
project that they were unwilling to let it go for a very long time.
If one would have asked during the early years of the Concorde's
development why they were doing it, the response would have been that
they were trying to drive the economy. Jobs were created and the
government was investing a lot of money into it, obviously hoping to
get back a substantial amount to make it worth the risk. So why is it
then when these seemingly rational people were asked this exact
question years down the road after putting effort into the project
did they say that granted they saw that their cause was failing but
they wanted to continue anyway? The answer is that they fell into the
trap of what, thanks to them, is now known as the Concorde Fallacy.
They became so emotionally attached to what they were doing that
their opinions, perspectives, and future projections of the project
were all falsified based on their unwillingness to think rationally
and keep in mind what the objective purpose was – to generate a
profit.
This
is something that is part of human nature and effects each of us
whether we realize it or not. We often allow our decisions to be
emotionally driven and in turn the real purpose of what we were
trying to accomplish falls by the wayside. This is exactly what
happened with the Levi'im
in the midbar.
They were so emotionally attached with a desire to carry the aron
– a feeling which originally came from the right place but was
taken too far – that they lost sight that their real inner desire
was and should have continued to be – a desire to bring about
kiddush
Hashem,
not the opposite.
We must train ourselves to form preventative
measures which will be able to stop us from making irrational
decisions in order that we remain in control with our minds over the
matter at hand, and not our emotions. It is just not enough to know
what one is doing, one must think and then know what he is doing.
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