Middos are like heavy artillery positioned on a
mountaintop, like cannon with mouths opened wide, aimed in
all directions. This is how HaRav Y. Leib Chasman
ztvk'l imagined them. He added that if a shell strikes
stone, it is blown to pieces. If it hits iron, the iron
breaks. If a man finds himself in its path, he is blown to
bits. It makes no difference what the cannonball impacts --
everything in its path, be it animal, vegetable or mineral --
invariably disintegrates to pieces and shards. Big or small,
weak or strong -- nothing can withstand its blow.
This same fact applies to a person's attributes. They need
only be aroused from dormancy and activated for them to have
the impact of bombshells, regardless whether they belong to a
common person or a great man.
Therefore, even though Korach was an exceptionally clever
person and numbered among the bearers of the Oron,
because he became consumed with jealousy over the princehood
of Elitzofon ben Uziel, he deteriorated from one level to
another until he sank to the point of inciting two hundred
and fifty heads of the lesser Sanhedrins to join him -- in
eventually perishing from this world! This measure of envy
brought on the terrible punishment of those who were
swallowed up into the ground, consumed by internal fire and
destroyed by the plague (Ohr Yahel III 198).
The Vilna Gaon (in Peninim miShulchan HaGra p. 69)
compares undesirable attributes to snakes and scorpions. He
comments on: "And the pit was empty; it contained no water"
and on Chazal's insight that while it had no water, it did
have snakes and scorpions, in a homiletic manner.
Water is compared to Torah, as it is written, "Oh, all you
thirsty ones, go to the water." Chazal say specifically that
this refers to Torah (Taanis 7a). Nature abhors a
vacuum. Wherever Torah is lacking, he says, the void is
filled by `snakes and scorpions.' If a person does not have
the refinement of character which Torah cultivates, he will
be filled with loathsome traits. Equally, if he does have a
nature of loathsome traits, these will be refined by Torah,
as it is written in Pirkei Ovos, "...and it conduces
him to become a tzaddik, chossid, upright and
trustworthy etc." The Gra adds: parents are to be blamed for
not having trained their children and raised them in the
Torah way. Therefore, they are punished if their offspring go
astray.
We learn from both the words of the Gaon and of R' Leib
Chasman how despicable evil traits are and how much damage
their venom can cause. The Mashgiach, HaRav Yechezkel
Levenstein ztvk'l, adds another dimension to evil
traits: there is the danger that their germs may lie dormant
within a person. If a person is not aware of it, these germs
can do untold damage and cause him to deteriorate. He writes
in Ohr Yechezkel as follows:
"It is only natural that when a person discerns an
unfavorable trait in another person, he will examine and
compare himself. In measuring himself, he will see that he is
not so bad after all, and will become complacent. He will not
feel the need to improve himself, since his condition is
better. This is a false sense of security, for everyone must
be on guard lest he succumb to any evil trait even in lesser
measure. In fact, seeing to what depths a person can fall
should activate an alarm and cause him concern: because he
does possess that trait, he might fall to such a level.
In viewing the evil traits of Homon, we must fear lest those
selfsame tendencies, which we may have in much lesser degree,
develop to greater proportions. But weren't his evil
characteristics altogether abominable?
On second look, his desire to annihilate the Jews stemmed
from the personal insult he felt whenever he encountered
Mordechai, who refused to bow down before him. It was a
question of pride taken to an extreme. He did not suffice
with seeking revenge against Mordechai alone; he wished to
avenge his stricken ego against all of his people. To what
extremes can this trait lead! Could we possibly entertain the
thought of murder and genocide in retaliation to a blow to
our pride? Surely, not. Why, then, study Homon's evil traits?
Why does the gemora in Megilla instruct us to
learn from Homon's bad middos?
We must infer that this is because they are probably
contained within us, albeit in a far less measure, and we
must take care lest matters get out of hand and reach
dangerous proportions.
When the father of the mussar movement, R' Yisroel
Salanter zy'o, began investigating the spiritual
status of Jewry, he discovered that all was not well. Along
with widespread faults and shortcomings among the people,
there was also rampant neglect of a vast sector of Torah --
bein odom lechavero -- that is, self improvement in
personal interaction through character refinement.
His movement was created upon the theme of revising the
complacent attitudes and social norms and turning one's
attention inward to a strict, ongoing and consistent
introspection, a reawakening of the heart and mind and a
wholehearted return to a full practice of Judaism in its full
halachic scope and aspects.
During this very period, a terrible event occurred in Vilna,
where R' Yisroel was residing at the time. It shook the
community to its very roots since it showed to what lowly
spiritual depths one could fall when one gave evil traits a
free rein.
Among the wealthy circles of Vilna it was common to celebrate
weddings in a very lavish, extravagant manner. A nouveau rich
shoemaker who was marrying off a child decided to hold the
wedding in the same city square, in the same public pompous
style. This irked the high society and the rich folk decided
to teach him a lesson and put him in his `rightful' place.
As the shoemaker was leaving the chuppah, accompanied
by the wedding family entourage, a wealthy man approached
him, stopped him and took off his shoe. He held up the worn
sole and asked how much it would cost to repair it. One can
imagine how shamed and abused the shoemaker felt at the
height of his simcha to be thus insulted.
We are not lacking of examples and stories from distant
periods to bring this point home in modern times and to prove
how evil traits can infiltrate and destroy, how their
cannonballs can shatter everything within their wide ranging
radius. Their comparison to snakes and scorpions and to the
evil Homon on the one hand, and their repercussions in modern
times, are all too clear.
Is there any hope? Any respite? In such times it is the duty
of every person to engrave upon his heart the words of the
Gra in Evven Shleima: 1) one's whole avodas
Hashem depends on character improvement, since the
middos are the very garments of the mitzvos, their
measure and shape. All of the rules, teachings and practices
of the Torah on the one hand, and all of the sins, on the
other, are rooted in middos and these, in turn, are
rooted in four basic elements. 2) The prime purpose of man is
to constantly strengthen himself in breaking his evil
tendencies, for if he neglects this, for what does he need
life?
All of the wise council and aids in breaking one's bad traits
and acquiring good and proper ones are written in the works
of mussar by the Rishonim and Acharonim.
These are reorganized into systematic fashion in the
mussar movement founded by R' Yisroel Salanter, which
molded and produced legions upon legions of gedolei
Yisroel and ranks of upright, G-d-fearing Jews, leaders
and disseminators of Torah to the masses, men of sterling
character who love Torah and pursue good works, who illumined
and continue to illumine the heavens of Jewry with the aura
of their pure Torah and devout piety.
It makes no difference whether a religious person spends
three years, one month, or a single day in the Israeli army.
As things stand today, even one second is much too long.
