Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily. This past week’s Parasha, Baha’alotcha, speaks about Aharon lighting the candles of the Menorah. Rashi asks, what the connection is to the previous Parasha, which spoke about the Nessi’im, the 12 princes that brought daily offerings for the first 12 days of Nissan, starting off the Mishkan.
Rashi says that Aharon Hakohen felt bad. He says Aharon had Halishut HaDaat/weakness of mind, which means he felt deflated. He thought he'd be part of the dedication and he wasn't. And he stayed deflated until God Himself came and said, “Don't worry, yours is greater than theirs.” We see a very important point here. Even the greatest of the great can experience this Halishut Hadaat, which we're not holding Aharon HaKohen responsible for.
This is a normal, natural feeling- when you are at a certain level, you want to remain at that level, or keep that involvement, and you feel left out. It happens to the best of us. The question is, how do you react and what do you do when that happens?
Rav Wolbe used to say that every Parasha has a theme. And the theme of this Parasha (although it has passed) is this concept of feeling deflated.
Just to clarify, it's not jealousy. Jealousy is when I see someone else, and I want what they have. This Halishut HaDa’at feeling might be triggered by jealousy, but it’s a feeling that my own whole self worth, so to say, just gets dropped. The air is let out of my balloon. The wind is let out of my sails. It’s like if a person has been working in a company for a few years and he makes $200,000 a year in sales, and then some new kid walks in and one month in, he's already sold a half a million. It’s not so much a jealous feeling, it’s more of What's going on with me? I'm worthless. Why can't I get my act together? There’s a dent in your armor, or whatever image you want to conjure, that's what Halishut HaDaat is.
That's really what caused Korach to go off. He came home and his wife told him, “Moshe is the king, his brother Aharon is the Kohen Gadol, your younger, first cousin got another job, and they're waving you back and forth and they shaved your hair!?” That's what triggered Korach’s Halishut HaDa’at. But rather than deal with himself or take responsibility, he decided to turn against Moshe, and eventually against God, and suspected God of choosing Moshe and Aharon when they really weren't worthy.
It’s a question of, What do you do after you find that dent?
There is another story in the Parasha, of the two men that felt left out. Everyone was bringing the Korban Pesach, but they were contaminated and couldn’t bring the offering. So, what did they do? They went to Moshe and Aharon, and in a vulnerable state, they said, Lama Nigara, what happened? Why did we get left out? What do we do wrong? Because of that, God created Pesach Sheni, a makeup date for the Korban Pesach that forever we can bring, because these people yearned and wanted. They felt lacking and turned it into something good.
So, Lama Nigara is the right way. The Imre Emet invokes this term of Halishut Hadaat on Kayin, whom we spoke about previously. He comes up with the idea of a korban, his brother copies him, his brother's offering is accepted, and his is not. The air is let out of his balloon. God says to him, “Kayin, what's wrong? Why are you down? Pick yourself up. Im Tetiv Se’et/ Do good and pick yourself up.
So you got a dent to your armor? Okay, do something about it.
We have to be aware of this dangerous point. When people have Halishut Hadaat, they might do things out of character. And even great people can fall when they have that feeling of Halishut Hadaat. It's something to be aware of in our human nature.
Later on, we will discuss how careful we have to be, to boost other people and not cause them Halishut Hadaat, not cause them to be deflated, because it's a terrible feeling.