Education On the Way

"Remember what Hashem has done to Miriam on the way when you have left Mitzrayim."

Why does the Torah tell us when Miriam's punishment took place?

Wouldn't it have sufficed to just remind the Yidden of the punishment alone?

***

The Chofetz Chaim was once travelling in a train. He watched a woman get up and open the window near her seat. A minute later the woman's daughter got up to close the window. The woman got up again to open it, and her daughter came shortly thereafter to close it.

"Didn't you see me open the window?" the woman asked her daughter after the third time.

"Yes." the daughter answered smugly.

"So, then why did you close it?" the woman asked.

"Because I was cold," came the daughter's reply.

"But I was hot and I am your mother..." the woman demanded. 

"But I was cold..." the daughter interrupted.

The Chofetz Chaim watched as the woman stood there in silence.

"When we get home, I will take care of this," the woman said, and sat back down in her seat.

When the Chofetz Chaim related this story to his Talmidim he said "surely there is a reason why Hashem has shown this to me..."

The Chofetz Chaim then shared the tremendous lesson in education that he learned:

All too often, we react on instinct or impulse to things our children or students say or do. What this woman has shown us is that no matter how uncomfortable, inconvenient, or personally annoying the matter may be, there are times when the issue can, and should wait to be addressed "till we get home", and not on the moment.

***

There are times when we must respond in the moment, and times when we must wait...

In teaching us "what Hashem did to Miriam on the way when you have left Mitzrayim", the Torah reminds us two things:

Firstly, Lashon Hara is so detestable to Hashem that it could not wait till the Yidden got to Eretz Yisroel to address it. It had to be addressed right away - "on the way".

Secondly, remember that Hashem made the determination to address Miriam "on the way"...

May Hashem give us the insight to know when to respond "on the way", and when to wait "till we get home". And may He give us the strength and patience to transcend any personal disappointment or anger, and respond with integrity, in a Torah way, and B'Darchei Noam.



Based on a Dvar Torah by Rabbi Shmuel Kuperman.