I had a chavrousa who used to always get himself out of a jam. His 'thing' was to talk his way out of a problematic situation. He was once asked to study a topic and when the Rabbi came to orally pop-quiz him, he always knew what to say and when to say it.
I asked him after the surprise quiz how on earth he was able to answer the Rabbi when he had no idea of what he was talking about. He told me he had a gift of getting around the actual answers. He told me he didn't need to study. Honestly, I am still not sure what he is talking about, but hey, it worked for him.
Sometimes when people don't know what to say, they either make it up (like my friend does) or they have the humility to say, “I don't know.”
This week's parasha talks about Tzaraas. Most people who know me would guess I'd be writing about guarding your tongue - one cause for leprosy (sorry guys, maybe next year.) This year, however, I want to talk about something else.
The Torah puts the kohanim in charge of declaring who stays pure and who doesn't based on the coloration they have on their skins. “If it is a snow-white spot in the skin of the flesh and it does not appear deeper than the skin and the hair did not turn white, the Kohen shall confine the plague for seven days.”
Rashi, the most popular commentary on Chumash, admitted that he did not know the interpretation of the posuk when talking about “And it does not appear deeper than the skin.”
I was interested in this Rashi, because he doesn't comment on every single word in the Torah. There are many psukim he skips. In this posuk, however, he didn't have to say “I don't know the interpretation,” he could have just skipped it.
It shows that Rashi didn't care of what other people thought about him. He wasn't afraid to tell people he was unsure of something instead of making up the closest definition he could think of.
When I read this Rashi, in addition to asking myself the above questions, it also reminded me of that story that happened with my friend.
May we come to do the avodas Hashem with honesty and humility.
Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Nisso
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