One Stone Is Enough

In thinking about kana’us — zealotry for the sake of sanctifying G-d’s name — two seemingly polar opposites come to mind. One is the Brisker Rav’s explanation for why Iyov was punished with physical torment for remaining silent when Pharaoh asked his advice on dealing with the Jews. Iyov the Rav explained could readily have justified his silence with the claim that a defense of the Jews would have fallen on deaf ears. Hence the parallelism of the punishment with its implicit message for Iyov: When one suffers from pain crying out helps not a whit to remove the source of the pain but one cries out nonetheless because “az s’tut vay shreit mehn” (when it hurts one screams).

Across the apparent spectrum stands the story of Rav Aryeh Levin donning his Shabbos finery and entering a Jew’s shop in Yerushalayim a half hour before candlelighting taking a seat and observing the flow of customers which each Friday afternoon would unfortunately continue on long into Shabbos. After the shopkeeper had endured several anxious minutes of Rav Aryeh’s presence he worked up the courage to ask him what he was doing there. Clasping the fellow’s hands in his Rav Aryeh responded: “For some time now I’ve wanted to give you tochacha for chillul Shabbos but I said to myself ‘How can I do so without understanding the magnitude of the nisayon that foregoing your Shabbos customers must present to you. These last few minutes showed me that it is indeed no small matter for you to close up shop before sundown … but mein teihre what can I say? Shabbos is Shabbos …”

But in essence while poles they may be there is no conceptual dissonance between them. The Torah’s concept of kana’us presupposes a deep-seated ahavas Yisrael and an oheiv Yisrael of Rav Aryeh’s caliber was surely deeply pained by the Shabbos desecration witnessed. Indeed one might say he opened his mouth to scream but being Rav Aryeh what emerged were soft albeit pain-filled words. Or perhaps the Brisker Rav’s dictum applies where all avenues of effective action have been exhausted and all that remains is to shrei whereas Rav Aryeh found a way to do something that had a chance of effecting change.

Rav Mattisyahu Salomon shlita once observed that the Rambam in Hilchos Matnos Aniyim (10:2) sources the concept of Jewish brotherhood in the verse “You are children of Hashem your G-d” rather than in any of the many psukim that directly refer to all Jews as brothers. The reason said the Lakewood mashgiach is that the kinship we all share is not something independent of our relationship with the Divine but instead stems from it. It is our common Father that makes us brothers; by extension love of our brothers and the love of our Father that we call kana’us are inextricably linked.