Q:
Dasan and Aviram are making trouble again this week by leaving over from the mann when they were told by Moshe Rabbeinu not to. So my question is why were Dasan and Aviram allowed to remain alive at Makkas Choshech? They were allowed to live and they went out of Mitzrayim and were saved at the Yam Suf, and meanwhile they agitated and made trouble. Shouldn’t they have perished in the yemei hachoshech?
A:
And the answer is, don’t be smarter than Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And if He said they shouldn’t perish, they didn’t because they deserved to live.
And the answer is, they were very good people. They were very good people! They had natures that were troublesome natures but they were very good people.
There are lot of good people who are troublesome. Only, it depends with whom you start up. The Gemara says, if you want to start up with somebody, start up with somebody that Hakadosh Baruch Hu won’t take up for him.
The Gemara (Shabbos 11a) says it’s better to be under a goy who is your employer than under a talmid chacham. Don’t work for a talmid chacham if you’re a troublemaker. Now, a talmid chacham is actually the best boss to have because you can learn good things from a talmid chacham. But suppose you’re an agitator, a troublemaker? Then you should leave that job. Because if you make trouble for a boss who’s a talmid chacham, it’s a very dangerous thing to do.
Then the Gemara says that it’s better to work for a talmid chacham than to work for a widow or an orphan. If an orphan has a store, a young boy has a store that his father left it to him, and you work for him, if you’re a troublemaker, look for something else. Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes up for orphans. תחת תלמיד חכם ולא תחת יתום ואלמנה! It’s dangerous to make trouble for widows.
So let’s say the widow is a nuisance. She’s always bothering you. She sees you’re taking a rest for a minute so she thinks she’s wasting her money paying you for resting a minute now and then. She’s bothersome. So either swallow it down or look for another job.
And so, we see that even good people sometimes when they feel in a mood to be mean, you have to know with whom to be mean. Don’t be mean against people for whom Hakadosh Baruch Hu will take up! Don’t be mean with talmidei chachamim!
By the way don’t be mean with am ha’aratzim either. If you’re mean with an am ha’aretz, you’ll have a different problem – he’ll never forgive you. You come to him erev Yom Kippur and he’ll reject you. You’re out of luck. If you’re mean with a talmid chacham, at least he’ll forgive you. But up to the time you come to ask for mechila, you’re in danger; you’re in very great danger. An am ha’aretz however, although the danger is not that great, but he’ll never forgive you. So don’t start up with anybody.
And so people who have troublesome natures, they have to watch out. And a lot of people have troublesome natures. Good people! Dasan and Aviram were tzaddikim. They stood at the Yam Suf and they sang the shira with Moshe Rabbeinu together. Everybody sang together.
They stood at Har Sinai and they shouted na’aseh v’nishma at the top of their voices, at the top of their neshamos! They meant it!
But now they came to a very great nisayon, the acid test, the bitter test that most people are not able to withstand. And that’s the test of jealousy. Jealousy! That’s the test of fire. It’s like jumping in a fiery furnace. Kin’ah is a fiery furnace. And they were jealous of Moshe and jealous of Aharon. That caused their downfall.
That doesn’t mean they were bad people. The best people sometimes fall prey to the terrible test of jealousy.
And therefore, there’s no question why they survived. They survived because they deserved to survive.
(March 1983)
