Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Avraham Moeinzadeh
We are all familiar with the story of the Dor Hapelagah and what occurred to them. Rashi tells us that their punishment should have been worse since their sole intention was to go against Hashem’s will. However, because of their unity they were only punished with being scattered throughout the world.
This seems to contradict what Pirkey D’rabi Eliezer says – that the people of Dor Hapelagah had mercy on the bricks but not on the people. If a worker fell from the top of the tower while working, none of the other workers paid attention to him. But if a brick would fall and break, they would mourn for it. If this is so, how does Rashi say that they had great unity among themselves?
Rabbi Frand answers as follows: originally the people during Dor Hapelagah started the tower for unity and protection. However, as time passed they lost the sight of the original goal and the means to achieve that goal. Rabbi Frand further explains that this can be something that our generation deals with in our daily lives. For example, two people in the Shul have a Yartzeit and they both want to be the Shaliach Tzibur or get an Aliah to the Torah. If they get into an argument over who should get that Kavod, instead of doing a Kiddush Hashem, they are in fact doing a Chilul Hashem and causing pain to the soul of the NIftar. It’s like mourning over a brick instead of the worker. My we be Zocheh to emulate this lesson in our lives and not to lose sight of our real goals in life.
Shabbat Shalom