The beginning of our Torah portion deals with the special commandment to Moses’ brother, Aaron the High Priest, to prepare the candles to light the Menorah in the Mishkan, in the Sanctuary.

And so we read in the Torah:

Rashi brings the words of the Midrash (Sifrei) to the verse "Aaron did so, toward the face of the Menorah he kindled its lamps, as Hashem had commanded Moses": This –says Rashi- is stated in order to praise Aaron, that he did not act differently (from what he was told to do). (RaSHI to Numbers 8:4)

What is so special about doing what you are told to do? My daughter most of the time does the same. Even my son is learning to do what he is told. Teenagers are a different story. To tell a teenager what to do and to expect that he or she will do so, is not so easy. And why is this so? Because the more a person knows and the more a person can handle things by himself or by herself, the more one tends to do things in an independent way. If we tell a teenager: "Don’t stay awake so late at night because you have a test tomorrow," he may reason the following way: "I will stay awake late, and still do well tomorrow,". Regardless of the outcome of the test, the teenager of our story did not do what he was told to do.

What about adults? The same principle is generally true. People don’t like to be told what to do, and the higher their knowledge and the higher their position, the greater the disposition for innovation and deviation from the strict commandment. It is easier to tell a simple painter; "Paint this wall pink," than to tell the same thing to an interior designer with 5 years of college. I always like to tell the story about when I was hired in my last year of Rabbinical School to clean and shelve books in one of the most fascinating libraries in Jerusalem: the Schoken Library of rare books and manuscripts. Each book that passed through my hands was opened by me with great care, and I spent at least a few seconds admiring the book, reading its title and finding out when and where it was printed. After all, I was almost a Rabbi and these books were very meaningful to me. One day, my boss, a young non-Jewish librarian from Germany called me to her office and told me: "You see, Manes, we pay you to clean and shelve books, not to read them! I was given a specific and simple task, and I failed to do it, not because the job was too difficult, not because I wasn’t capable to do it, but because I was too smart.

When Rashi tells us that Aaron did not act differently from what he was told to do, he is indeed praising Aaron. He was smart, he knew Torah, he had nobility, he was rich, he was the High Priest and the brother of the most important leader the people Israel have known and will know ever, and still he did exactly what he was told to do.

How do we know that this is a big accomplishment? Because in the same book of the Torah, next week and in further weeks, we will also find great leaders (the spies, Korach and Bil’am among others) who will not be capable of doing what they are told to do. And the same is true in the rest of the Tanach and in the rest of Jewish history.

It sounds easy and simple to do what you are told to do, especially when you know that the Commander is not one of "flesh and bones", especially when such a Commander is as close to you as He was to our fathers in the desert. However, as easy as it sounds and looks, it is not so, and it especially becomes a true challenge when you are smart and wise and wealthy and knowledgeable like all of us are.

That is why Rashi bothers to tell us of Aaron’s merit, that he did not change anything from God’s commandment. Aaron was smarter and wiser and wealthier and more knowledgeable than we are, and still he did what he was told by his youngest brother and by God.

May his merit sustain us and may we be able to be as the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them closer to the Torah" (Avot 1:12)

Shabbat Shalom!