This
morning while watching the Today Show, fashion editor Zanna Roberts Rossi
showed the new trend in longer gowns for Spring events like warm weather
weddings and parties. http://www.today.com/video/today/51239122/#51239122.
In this clip Rossi commented that a high waist/empire waist in a dress “covers
a multitude of sins.” (On an aside, I’ve been mistaken for being pregnant
when wearing an empire waist dress, but that is for the fashion blog that I’ll
need to start).
When
working with a career consultant to rewrite my resume, the consultant noticed
that I had written, “Manages complex relationships in a political
landscape.” She said, “I like that—it covers a multitude of sins.”
Imagine my surprise then, on the very morning I heard the phrase on TV, to see
the phrase “cover a multitude of sins” show up in Vayikra Rabbah on
this week’s parasha, Tzav. I certainly did not know that the
phrase was from scripture, but we are taught in the midrash:
AND THE LORD SPOKE UNTO MOSES,
SAYING]: COMMAND AHARON AND HIS SONS, etc. (VI, 1). This is explained by the
verse, “Hatred stirs up quarrels; but love covers all sins.”(Prov. X,
12). “Love” refers to the prayer which Moses offered up for him [i.e.
Aharon]. How did Moses pray for him? R. Mani of Sheab (in Galilee ), and R. Joshua of Siknin in the name of R. Levi
said: From the beginning of the Book [of Leviticus] until this passage, (Lev.
VI, 1) it is written, “And the sons of Aharon shall present the blood,”
etc. (Lev. I, 5), “And the sons of Aharon shall put fire,” etc. (ib. 7),
“And the sons of Aharon shall lay the pieces,” etc. (ib. 8). Said Moses
to the Holy One, blessed be He: “Can it be that the well is hated while its
water is beloved? You have accorded honor to trees for the sake of their
offspring, [i.e. God has accorded special treatment to certain trees in
consideration of the role which future trees of those kinds would play in the
economy of the Land of Israel
In
this Midrash, the rabbis wonder why the Torah mentions Aharon
first and his sons second in our parasha when in previous
chapters Aharon’s sons are mentioned without mentioning Aharon at all?”
Aharon’s sons receive preferential treatment over Aharon because of Aharon’s
participation in the sin of the egel hazahav (golden calf),
but why all of the sudden is Aharon mentioned first here? The answer
given is that Moshe argues with God on Aharon’s behalf, claiming that honoring
the sons and not the fathers would be like honoring water but not the well from
which it came. So “love covering all sins” in this case seems to mean
that Moshe’s love for Aharon was able to override God’s previous neglect of
honoring Aharon. Elsewhere in the same Midrash “love”
refers to God’s love for bnai Yisrael (the people of Israel ).
Rashi’s
interpretation of “love covers all sins” is taken from the portion of our
Midrash I did not quote here and focuses on God’s love for bnai Yisrael,
Hatred stirs up quarrels: Even a sin that was forgotten is remembered through
additional iniquities. The final hatred comes and arouses them, for Ezekiel
reproved Israel for the transgressions of Egypt (Ezek. 20:7), “And I said to
them, ‘Every man shall cast away the abominations of his eyes, etc.’” How many
(years was) this hatred hidden, that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not
mention it to them until now, when they added transgressions to their
sins. But love covers all sins: When Israel improves
their deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, conceals their transgressions.
There
seem to be two different meanings of the pasuk (verse)
from Mishle. One is that our love for one another, like
Moshe’s love for his brother Aharon, can help God to overlook a previous
sin. The second interpretation is that when we love God by doing mitzvot,
God conceals our previous sins.
The past
is the past. We all sin in our relationships with God and in our
relationships with each other. How do we move on from these sins to make
the future brighter and to forget about the past as much as possible? The
verse in Mishle suggests that we do this through love and not
hatred. Hatred will only stir up trouble, but love can “cover” or
“conceal” all sins. The interpretations in our Midrash focus on both the
love of God for us and our love for one another.
When
someone we love has sinned, we can choose to act like Moshe did for his brother
Aharon. In other words, if we see our loved one being treated unfairly,
we can advocate on their behalf. It is not always easy to look past
another’s sin, but Moshe was able to do this for Aharon, even though it pained
Moshe deeply when bnai Yisrael and Aharon participated in
the chet ha-egel (sin of the calf). It was a great
betrayal of trust in both God and Moshe for bnai Yisrael to
commit this sin. But Moshe was able to look at the whole picture of who
Aharon was- to see that he was not all bad but rather that he was good and had
produced righteous sons, and to argue on his behalf to God. Treating his
brother in this way required generosity of spirit and led to God “covering” the
sins of Aharon. Sometimes we say to one another when we want to express
support, “I’ve got you covered.” In this way, Moshe continued to be by
Aharon’s side even after the chet ha-egel.
It’s
really not enough, though, to simply have others advocate on our behalf.
Our Midrash also teaches that it is through our love of God embodied in our
actions that we actually “cover” our sins. It’s sort of like they never
were once we outweigh them with mitzvot. When we focus on anger and
fighting, however, we can amplify previous sins. And to end on a lighter
note, next time you are trying to cover up a gluttonous Shabbat and its
effects, don’t hate your body, just embrace it with a big sweater!
Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love covers all sins!
Remember voicing the Mishlei text?
ReplyDeleteGiusep