Parshas Bahaloscha 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Jun 5
- 1 min read
ויהושע היה לבש בגדים צואים ועמד לפני המלאך ... (זכריה ג-ג)
While the Haftorah opens with a vivid depiction of the joy that will prevail when the Shechina finally returns to Yerushalayim, the tone soon turns as Zechariah HaNavi begins to describe the frightful scene that will take place in the Heavenly Court of the incriminating angels who sought to implicate Yehoshua Kohen Gadol. Yehoshua’s sons had married non-Jewish wives and since he had failed to reprove them properly it was as though he had committed a sin and his clothes became “soiled.”
R’ Chaim Volozhiner zt”l points out that although originally the Kohen Gadol was wearing “dirty clothing” because of his childrens’ sins, when they later divorced their wives and repented, Hashem rebuked the angels and ordered that the dirty clothing be removed thereby exonerating the Kohen Gadol of his sins.
Says R’ Chaim, Chazal tell us, “There is no righteous man who has never sinned in his life.” Each and every person walks around with some measure of soiled clothing and though he may feel remorse for his misdeeds he may feel it is too hard to repent.
The lesson from Yehoshua Kohen Gadol is that we need to remember that a person’s soul is inherently clean deep down - it’s just clad in a dirty exterior. Though it’s not an easy feat, all one needs to do is just shake off the dirt and clean up his act a bit and Hashem will wash away the rest revealing his pure Jewish soul.