Rabbi Yisrael Lifschitz’s Tiferet Yisrael commentary on tractate Kiddushin (at 4:14) tells a story that deserves our attention at a time when Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, is fast approaching. This story, as told by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski in Visions of the Fathers, runs as follows:
Upon meeting Moses, the king saw that his artists had indeed captured
every minute detail, and he could not understand how his physiognomists could
be so far off course. Moses explained to him, “Your physiognomists can
interpret only the innate characteristics with which a person was born. All
they said of me was true insofar as those were the traits that I was born with.
However, I struggled to overcome them and to transform my character”.
In terms of
Pirkei Avot, the story illustrates the following:
- The
association of power with self-discipline and control of one’s yetzer hara
(evil inclination) rather than physical prowess (4:1);
- The danger
of judging by appearances (4:27);
- The importance of admitting the truth rather than denying it (5:9).
The story
additionally reflects the notion that self-control goes further than making
sure one does the right thing and forbears from doing the wrong thing. True
self-control goes further because its proper exercise can help a person to
change even his or her inclinations and inherent middot, personal
qualities.
We
generally assess people by reference to the way they behave. This can be
misleading since humans tend to do their good deeds in public and commit their
bad ones when they are out of the public eye (sadly the media have reported a
string of examples in recent years of public benefactors who were also private
predators). We never however see a person’s private desires and inclinations.
These are the province of God alone, and it is He alone who judges us as the
sort of individuals we aspire to be.
