A man and his wife got into a fight.  The woman asked her husband to take out the trash.  He refused.  He said, that it was beneath his dignity to take out the garbage.  She said that it was the mans job to take out the trash and that she was busy with other things.  They could not resolve their dispute, so they went to their rabbi to ask for advice.

The rabbi listened to their case carefully and nodded in thought.  “You both make important  points that cannot be ignored,” he said.  “This is a very difficult case.”

The rabbi paused and stroked his beard.  “Go home, and tomorrow I will send a solution to you.” 

The husband and wife nodded and left.  Each happy that they had been heard, and confident that the rabbi would ultimately side with them.

The next morning, the couple heard a knock on the door.  They opened it to see the rabbi standing there.  He smiled at them and said, “I am here to take out your trash.  It is beneath your honour and you are too busy with other things, but the trash cannot be allowed to overflow, so I have come to solve the crisis for you.”

The couple, horrified to imagine their rabbi taking out their trash, each dropped what they were doing and rushed to do it themselves.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Nasso, the Torah describes a conflict that could take place between a husband and wife. 

Without getting into all the details, the solution involves destroying a parchment with G-d’s Name on it. 

We are usually very careful and reverent with any document with G-d’s name on it (to the extent that I’m even putting a dash instead of an “o” in “G-d” so if someone prints this and throws it in the trash, they won’t have denigrated G-d’s Name).  We only dispose of sacred texts by burying them respectfully. 

But in this one scenario in the Torah portion, G-d actually commands us to destroy His Name.  Why?  Because He is willing to let go of His honour in order to restore peace between a husband and wife. 

Honour is often the one thing holding us back from peace.  “They should apologize to me, I was the one who was wronged.”  “I’m literally right, why should I say I am wrong?” 

If even G-d’s honour is something that can be sacrificed for the sake of peace, maybe we should forgo our own honour sometimes too.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi A and the JET Team