By: Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui
When G-d created the world in the six days of creation, G-d said at the end of each day, it was good, except for Monday. That was because on Monday, the bottom waters, ocean and rivers where separated from the top waters as well as the heaven and atmosphere. Since there was division, this could not be called, as good. If this is true in a splitting up, that was done for the benefit of the world, how much more so when an argument brings misunderstanding and discord, this is certainly not good.
Argument and fighting are considered so severe, that while the tribunal in heaven punishes those over the age of 20, and a tribunal here, judges a person at 13, when it came to the squabble caused by the nephew of Moses- Korach, even little children where punished.
Argument is the byproduct of an over inflated ego, where one person is unable to tolerate another person, for no other reason, but that the other person has an opinion different than his own. Unity is possible when one can see and respect life from the opposite spectrum of where he finds himself at this moment.
The power of impurity found in quarrelling is so great that arguing fighting, and quarrelling dulls the vision and mind of even the greatest people, and takes away from them common sense.
An argument that is for G-dly purposes and is intended for purely positive and constructive intentions is guaranteed to bring positive results, but when the arguing is for personal ego purposes, it never brings any good. How can a person know what the real motivation is to his arguing? We must judge the way we feel towards the other. If we can love him entirely, not withstanding the disagreement, it is most likely for good intentions.
The Talmud says that when discussing the Torah, people can appear as fierce opponents of each other, yet they bear no hard feeling for each other, and in the end, they reconcile. The house of Hillel and Shamai intermarried and lived peacefully with each other even though they strongly disagreed with each other in most opinions.
Peace is so great that regarding idol worshippers who live peacefully G-d says, it’s as if he can’t touch them. There is a Chassidic saying, better to be with friends in hell than to be all alone in paradise. In the generation of King David, although his soldiers where great men, they would fall in battle because of the arguments they had with each other. While in the time of the wicked King Achav, they succeeded in battle because there was unity. A house of argument will eventually be destroyed.
Before Jacob passed away he said to his children, “Gather and I will tell you what will happen in the end of days”. He was telling them, to make sure they where always gathered together and that would prepare them for the end of days, the ultimate good.
When a person is tempted to argue, he must consider what he is arguing about and whether it is worth it, since argument is such a serious initiator of major evil.
Rabbi Ilo-o said, that the world exists in the merit of a person who closes his mouth during an argument.
To read more articles from Rabbi Ezagui visit him at http://koshercaffeine.blogspot.com
