Rabbi Howard Siegel’s
Weekly D’var Torah
Tzav: Risk Peace Not War!
Rabbi Meir, a renowned Talmudic sage, taught his students about the ancient Temple’s sacrifices as described in the Torah. The final sacrifice was the zevach shelamim, or “peace offering.” Rabbi Meir concluded it was not by accident this sacrifice was mentioned last. “Great is peace,” he taught. “For the sake of peace, a person may even humiliate himself.”
The Midrashic literature (Jewish legends based on the Torah) tells the following story of Rabbi Meir: There was a particular woman who was fond of listening to Rabbi Meir teach his students. Once, when the rabbi’s lesson lasted a long time, she was late in returning to her home. Angrily her husband asked, “Where have you been?” When she told him she had been listening to Rabbi Meir’s lesson, he refused to believe her, saying: “I will not allow you into this house until you have spit in Rabbi Meir’s face!”
Friends of the couple, who learned what had happened, suggested they go with her for counsel to Rabbi Meir.
When Rabbi Meir heard what happened, he said to the wife, “I have a favor to ask. Since the time you left my lesson, I have developed a serious eye infection that can be cured only with the spittle of your mouth. Therefore, please spit in my eye seven times.” After the woman had done as Rabbi Meir requested, he told her, “Now go and be reconciled with your husband. Say to him, “I have spit in Rabbi Meir’s eye.”
After the woman left, Rabbi Meir said to his students, “Great is peace. You may suffer shame to make peace between friends, between a wife and a husband.” (Leviticus Rabbah 9:9)
Today, we recognize the husband’s actions as certainly less acceptable than in the past, but Rabbi Meir’s lesson is that maintaining peace can require setting aside even one’s personal dignity.
Many lives have been lost by those who believe military power ensures lasting peace. Leaders like Rabbi Meir, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King, teach posturing is a disguise. A lasting peace requires one possess the moral strength to step out from the shadows of guns and missiles. In doing so, be willing to expose vulnerabilities. . . in the pursuit of peace. As a 1960s bumper sticker said: “Risk Peace, Not War!”
Hag Pesach Sa’mayach. . . . May you enjoy a happy & fulfilling Passover!
Rabbi Howard Siegel
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March 6 – Ki Tissa:Oh My God!
February 27 – Purim: Villains and Heroes
February 13 – What’s the Deal with Jews and Valentine’s Day?
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January 2 – The New Year
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January 2 Vayigash – What’s In A Name?
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