Have you ever been so annoyed at someone that you just want to get that person out of your life? How about if that person didn’t just annoy you, but they actually tried to destroy you? Imagine if that person is someone that you gave a job to, and now is trying to steal it away from you … wouldn’t you just want to use any tool at your disposal to get rid of that person? If you are still angry but not outraged, then imagine that the person is a family member or someone that you not only gave a job to, you actually saved the person’s life from certain death? Now imagine that G-d himself tells you that you are right, and that He will step in and get rid of this person. Wouldn’t you thank G-d for helping you after the act is committed? Finally you can go back to your peaceful life.
Yet, when we read the age-old story in this week’s Torah portion, Korach, where Moses’s nephew, two others (his foes Datan and Aviram, who owe their lives to Moses), as well as 250 more men, challenge Moses’s position of leadership and want to steal it away from him, G-d steps in to help Moses by telling him, “I will open up the earth and swallow them alive!” You would expect Moses to be relieved, yet on his way to fulfill G-d’s mission, he makes a detour to the home of Datan and Aviram, to see if perhaps he can persuade them, at the last minute, to change their ways.
From this story we can learn the lesson of loving your fellow as you love yourself. Moses was not at all judgmental of the people who tried to destroy him, and instead reached out to them to see if he could be of any help.
To truly love someone is not to judge them, but to help them.
This is something that the Rebbe, whose 22nd Yahrzeit is observed this Shabbat, lived by. The Rebbe’s unconditional love to every Jew and his non-judgmental attitude toward everyone he met, was his trademark. The Rebbe didn’t stop there. He wanted every single one of us to act as he did. This is not a trait that is reserved only for a “leader;” it is a personality trait that each and every one of us should cultivate and nourish.
This weekend, in honor of the Rebbe, let’s work on being non-judgmental.