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In this week’s Torah portion of Korach, Moshe and Aharon had to deal with a rebellion that was getting a bit out of control. At some point, after the main rebels were miraculously swallowed up by the earth and burned to a crisp, the Torah relate: “The entire assembly of the Children of Israel complained the next day against Moshe and Aharon saying, ‘You have killed the people of Hashem!’ And it was when the assembly gathered against Moshe and Aharon, they turned to the Tent of Meeting and behold the cloud had covered it, and the glory of Hashem appeared. Moshe and Aharon came before the Tent of Meeting. Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, ‘Remove yourselves from among this assembly and I shall destroy them in an instant!’ They fell on their faces. Moshe said to Aharon, ‘Take the fire-pan and put on it fire from upon the Altar and place incense and take it quickly to the assembly and provide atonement for them, for the fury has gone out from the presence of Hashem; the plague has begun'” (Bamidbar 17 6-11)!
When the Torah says that Moshe and Aharon fell on their faces, the Baal HaTurim Hashalem points out that in pasuk 10 they didn’t pray to Hashem as they did earlier in perek 16, pasuk 22. The reason being is that the prayers weren’t flowing from their mouths. Therefore, the next pasuk (11) says ‘For the fury has gone out’, just as it says in the Mishna in Brachos 34b, that Rebbe Chanina ben Dosa, when he was praying for the sick, would say: ‘If my prayers aren’t flowing from my mouth, I know that he is destined to die.'” [Rashi there say that ‘flowing from him mouth’ means that Rebbe Chanina ben Dosa is saying that if normally my prayers are coming out in an orderly, desirable manner and I don’t hesitate, and the pleas are flowing from my heart to my mouth, all that I desire I am able to elongate my prayers about.] (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The Baal HaTurim Hashalem links what he just said with a Ramban on the following pasuk: “take yourself out of this assembly.” The Ramban asks, “I don’t understand the reason for this pasuk and the earlier pasuk, ‘they should separate themselves from within the assembly ‘ (Bamidbar 16:21), because G-D has the power to kill many by way of a plague, around one righteous person he would be left alone, just as we find by the plague of the firstborn in Egypt? It would seem that the fury specifically went out to kill everyone in order to kill these sinners, by the opening of the earth and in the fire, because they were driven after them, and the plagues were in general to kill anyone standing together around there, unless there was another miracle to allow people to escape, or Hashem says [there are special exceptions who won’t be killed] in honor of the righteous, that as long they are among them they can’t touch anyone of them. The intent of this and in similar cases is to inform them that they need to ask for mercy and atonement and Moshe quickly (בזרירות) did this.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The situation was dire to the point that they were deserving of unconditional wrath and fury to come down from Heaven, sparing no one, good or bad. The mishna in Brachos 34b even says it is a bad omen, an ayin hara, if prayers for mercy weren’t naturally flowing from the leader’s mouth. An indication, a sign from Heaven, that all is lost and hopeless. And this assembly was in fact evil and rebellious, especially against Moshe himself. If that was the case, then how did he have the drive to make the choice to act and help them, with speed and alacrity, when everything says that they didn’t deserve it, and it even got personal?
We see from here that a person has the ability to overcome personal interests, credible signs of hopelessness, and even logical reasons not to act and help, in order to care of others and take action to stop a danger from getting out of hand. Indeed, this applies not only to taking action, but to acting with great speed and decisiveness to ensure danger is stopped in its tracks, even when it means forcing another miracle to happen.
This is a true care and compassion for others.