“Hashem spoke to Moshe after the death of Aharon’s two sons, when they approached before Hashem and they died.” (Vayikra 16:1)
There are several opinions in Chazal regarding the actual sin of Bnei Aharon. (Rav Dessler actually brings 15 opinions.) But whatever their sin was, the pasuk emphasizes that it was “when they approached before Hashem.” They weren’t distanced from Hashem, but the opposite. It was only due to their extreme closeness to Hashem that He saw fit to punish them. Hashem deals more strictly with those close to Him. Why?
Picture a pile of scrap metal. Do we care if there are scratches or deficiencies? In contrast, when dealing with gold, aren’t we exact to the slightest gram? Hashem doesn’t deal strictly with the wicked because they’re like scrap metal. The tzaddikim, on the other hand, are precious (Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl).
I was driving down an unfamiliar street in Yerushalayim when suddenly my lane disappeared. Drivers in Israel are used to this and I quickly glanced in my rearview mirror and managed to get into the next lane. A loud horn blasted me from behind.
Sorry. But hey, this is standard practice over here. You don’t count on lanes continuing. Nor do you count on the car next to you staying in its lane.
Shrugging it off, I continued driving until I reached a traffic light. (We do stop at red here… for now.)
During Sefirah, we mourn the deaths of Rabi Akiva’s students. Here, too, the reason they were judged so harshly was because they were students of Rabi Akiva. But what exactly was their sin? Did they physically harm or curse each other? No! Rather, they didn’t act with mutual respect.
Suppose one of the chairs in your home didn’t stand completely upright? It would be of little concern. Imagine what would happen, though, if a spaceship left its launchpad at the slightest wrong angle.
The tzaddikim are a “ladder set earthward with its top reaching heavenward.” The slightest blemish at the bottom has great ramifications at the top.
To my surprise, a car pulled up on my right, and the driver began screaming at me through her open window. While my window was closed and I couldn’t hear every word, her finger circling her temple in the classic gesture for “Nuts!” made it clear she thought I was at fault for cutting her off earlier.
