Throwing out the Baby with the Bath Water

16 Teves 5782

“There went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi” (Shemos 2:1)

The Talmud in Sotah 12a explains, “Where did he go? He went in the counsel of his daughter. Moses’ father, Amram, was the greatest man of his generation. When he saw that the wicked Pharaoh had decreed, ‘Every son that is born you shall throw into the river,’ he said: We are laboring for nothing! He went and divorced his wife. All the Israelites followed suit and divorced their wives. Said his daughter to him: ‘Father, your decree is more severe than Pharaoh’s. Pharaoh decreed only against the males; you have decreed against the males and females. Pharaoh decreed only concerning this world; you have decreed concerning this world and the world to come.’”

Sometimes we also have the trait to see something we don’t like and immediately turn to the exact opposite. This behavior certainly allows you to distance yourself from evil, however, it risks also forsaking the remaining good. No matter how concealed it is, most things in the world still have a remaining kernel of goodness. Often uplifting this remaining goodness is better than abandoning it entirely.

“Now, this level — that of the ‘incomplete tzaddik’ who ‘knows evil’ — is subdivided into myriads of levels, consisting of [varying degrees in] the quality of the minute remaining evil [deriving] from [any] one of the four ’evil elements’”

Here, the Alter Rebbe describes a quantitative subdivision, depending on the degree to which the evil loses its identity within the good. In one tzaddik, the vestigial evil may be such that the proportion of good to evil could be described as 60:1; the evil in another tzaddik may be more minute so that it is overwhelmed by a proportion of good that is 1000:1; and so on. Similarly, in Kashrus there is also such a quantitative subdivision, where in certain cases of error, the rule is that even a preponderance of 60 parts (kosher) to 1 (nonkosher) is sufficient to render the entire mixture kosher.

The analogy to the above described is obvious.

“O Lord, G-d of Hosts, return us; cause Your countenance to shine that we may be saved.” (Tehillim 80:20)

We must strive to resist our instinct to throw out the baby with the bath water, when something looks less than ideal. The way of Hashem is that of beauty and shining light. Becoming mired in conflicts and boycotts, can only distract us. Increasing the amount of goodness, warmth, and beauty is the surer way, and will ultimately lead to G-d returning us in the final and complete redemption.