There are few experiences more horrifying than watching a machlokes close-up particularly if one is close to either of the parties involved. Once one joins the battle winning becomes everything.
Chazal teach us “Acquire for yourself a friend” and the commentators explain that means even a friend who may not be at your intellectual or spiritual level. Why is that? Because on any important question about which you seek his advice he has one huge advantage that outweighs any innate superiority you may possess: He is not nogei’a b’davar — i.e. he has no personal interest and you do. Personal interests cloud all judgment and cause one to forget his principles.
In the throes of machlokes people seem to suffer from temporary insanity. People of stature for example may contemplate going to arka’os (a non-Jewish court) in order to achieve the most ephemeral advantage. And the ability to make even the most basic cost-benefit analysis disappears. Parties to a dispute will sink sums into litigation far larger than the monetary value of the matter under dispute for “the principle” involved.
Rabbi Berel Wein relates in Vintage Wein the story of heirs to a huge fortune — more than enough to maintain at least two generations in luxury — who became so embroiled in litigation that they couldn’t sell their real estate holdings which were all being held in escrow by the court when real estate markets went down. By the time they were done they were left with almost nothing besides their huge legal fees. I do not think the parties to that dispute were Torah Jews but we do not have to leave our world to find parallel examples.
Create a free account to keep reading.
