Parshas Tzav
Weigh It First!
“The kohain shall dress in his linen garment… and he shall separate the ashes when the fire consumes the burnt-offering on the altar and place it next to the altar.” (Vayikra 6:3)
One of the avodos, tasks, performed by the kohanim in the Beis Hamikdash was the removal of the ashes that had accumulated on the mizbayach. The ashes were placed on the floor of the courtyard, on the side of the mizbayach.
What determined which kohain would do this avoda? The Talmud (Yoma 22A) teaches us that initially, any kohain who wanted to do this avoda would join others in a race towards the top of the ramp leading to the mizbayach. The ramp was 32 amos long. There is a difference of opinion if it was 48 or 60 feet long. Whichever kohain “won the race” by reaching the top 4 amos, received the privilege of doing this avoda of removing the ashes.
One time, two kohanim who were vying for this privilege were racing to the top of the ramp. They were both close to reaching the top of the ramp. A terribly sad incident occurred in which one kohain purposely pushed the other kohain who then fell off the ramp and broke his leg. The kohain who did the pushing did not intend to cause harm to the other kohain. He was motivated by a strong desire to do a mitzvah, yet his actions caused physical harm to another kohain. Not only that, but the other kohain was prohibited to do other avodos in the Beis HaMikdash until his leg healed.
When Beis Din realized the danger involved in this process, they changed the process. From then on, a lottery system determined who would be picked to do the avoda of removing the ashes.
Rabbi Avraham Pam zt”l (Shabbos with Rav Pam by Rabbi Sholom Smith) learns a beautiful lesson from this incident. Sometimes when a person has a strong desire to do a mitzvah, while he is trying to fulfill it he may accidentally violate a law of the Torah.
This is obviously not what Hashem wants. One must carefully weigh his actions to make certain he is not inadvertently sinning or harming someone else. The Mesilas Yesharim (Chapter 20) by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto zt”l warns that sometimes a person thinks he is doing a great mitzva while in reality he is sinning. Other times, he may be doing a mitzva, but the consequences of his actions are causing hurt or pain to others, undermining and disqualifying the mitzva. For example, the Torah tells us (Vayikra 19:17) to rebuke our friend if we see that he is sinning. However, rebuking must be done in a way in which you are not sinning. As Rashi explains, do not rebuke and shame him in public for then you will be sinning. The Mesilas Yesharim continues that many great tzadikim would not do their accustomed unique acts of tzidkus, saintliness in public. They did not want to appear as if they felt that they were better than others. They did not want to be the cause of leading others to sin by gossiping or mocking their unusual actions.
We must weigh our actions carefully to ascertain that what we are doing is truly a mitzva and to make sure that we are not causing anyone pain in the process. That would turn the mitzva into a sin.
