To wear black or not to wear black? When is a compliment appreciated and when is it harassment? Our world is walking on eggshells. How do we recognize people’s individuality, yet celebrate equality? When you address a couple, who do you list first? If you choose the husband before the wife, are you making a statement? If you choose the wife before the husband, are you making a statement? Can’t we just live our lives without tripping over ourselves?
Is this even a new phenomenon? In this week’s Torah portion, we see that G-d himself goes back and forth when addressing Moses (the younger brother but the leader) and Aaron (the older brother but the helper to Moses). Sometimes G-d addresses Moses before Aaron and sometimes Aaron is addressed before Moses. Is this because G-d is walking on “eggshells” and doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings? Is G-d wishy-washy?
There must be a deeper message here. “Equality” doesn’t mean “the same.” Equal in value yet different in talent. Moses and Aaron were each celebrated for who they were, for their individual strengths, albeit not for the same ones. Yet, at the same time they each recognized within themselves that they were not perfect and that they each needed the other to fill in for the weaknesses that they possessed. What they did focus on was who they were, and not who they weren’t.
There are times when it is important to emphasize Moses‘s strengths over Aaron’s, and there are times to emphasize Aaron’s talents over Moses’s.
Our approach to life must be sensitive, yet balanced. There are times when “Moses” comes first and there are times when “Aaron” comes first.
The main thing is to see the positivity that everyone brings to the world we live in.