[Avodah] The Right Way to Give Tochachah

[Marty Bluke]

R' Yaakov Kamenetsky made a similar point. After Shimon and Levi
destroy the city of Shechem Yaakov is very angry with them and asks
for exposing their family to danger, they answer,"hachzona yaaseh es
achoseinu". Yaakov Avinu does not respond at that point but does
respond when he gives the shevatim their berachos in Vayechi. Yaakov
says about Shimon and Levi, klei chamas m'cherosehem, clearly negative
and then he says afitzeim b'yaakov achalkem b'yisrael, that they will
be spread around. However, Rashi comments that Yaakov was saying that
they will be the teachers and sofrim for the Jewish people.

R' Yaakov Kamenetsky asks why should they be the klei kodesh? Yaakov
Avinu was not happy with their actions. He answers that to be a klei
kodesh you need to be a kannoi. Things have to bother you and you have
to act on it.

R' Yaakov then pointed out that Levi fulfilled the beracha while
Shimon did not. Levi rallied to Moshe Rabenu's side when he said מי
לה' אלי by the עגל, however, Shimon did not. In fact, Shimon used his
kannaus for bad in the maaseh of Zimri where the Nasi of Shimon was a
kannoi against Moshe Rabenu and acted out his desires. And in fact,
who killed Zimri, Pinchas from Shevet levi.

What was the difference between Shimon and Levi? R' Yaakov answers,
Torah. Levi learned torah in Egypt and was therefore able to harness
his kannaus to torah while Shimon was busy working and therefore his
kannaus was not bound by torah and turned out to be a terrible thing.

The Chazon Ish once commented on the Kannoim in Yerushalayim that they
were pre-matan torah Jews, meaning that their actions were not guided
by torah but by emotion. This is a very bad thing which leads people
to do terrible aveiros.

Unfortunately, this is the case of today's kannoim as well. They are
pre-matan torah Jews like Shimon. Their kannaus is causing them to
violate very serious aveiros for which they cannot do teshuva. They
have been mazik and stole from who knows how many people, an aveira
from which there is no kappara until you return the stolen/damaged
property. There is absolutely no heter whatsoever to destroy public
property to make a protest, it is simply stealing from the public. In
addition, they have created a terrible chillul hashem, again an aveira
with no kappara. Why? because their kanaus is not defined by Torah but
by their emotions.

This is exactly the problem today, everyone is a kannoi but how many
kannoim have their kanaus defined by the Torah?
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