אחדות: A Sefira Reflection…
During the sefira we mourn. By the Mekubalim this starts at the beginning and goes until the end the the exception of a single day, Lag B’Omer. Why do we mourn? For the loss of 24,000 Torah Scholars that died in a plague as a result of Sinat Chinam(baseless hatred.
What is this baseless hatred for which they died? Did they call each other names? Did they say derogatory things about one another? Did they make insults and crack wise in the comments on blog posts? No. They did none of these things. What they did do was they failed to treat each other with the proper respect, to view their fellow students as greater then themselves.
Rav Shalom M. Hedayya ZTzUK”L used to say that ahdut was the greatest force in the world, and that if we could all simply keep that one single commandment to love one another, even for a single hour, Mashiah would come. Without fail this 
would always elicit the reaction of, “Yeah look at those ______ they make a fight with everybody.” Which is when the Rav would simply smirk and hold out his hand with a pointing finger and say, ” When you point one finger at someone else, three more are pointing back at yourself.”
Truly it is easy to see the faults in others while we justify our own actions. All the more so on the internet, where anonymous ID’s give us the ability to say things that we would never say in real life. I have thought about this a lot in recent days, especially my own posting and commenting. How have I held back geula? Maybe we should all think about that.
Nice Post, I love it.
Wasnt it 24,000 students?
Fixed.
Observing all the bickering on RDE’s blog, I’ve been thinking about some of these quotes from the chapter in Likutei Eitzot on controversy. Sorry for the long comment, but they’re all potentially relevant for those caught up in disputes:
“A person who is involved in a controversy can be thrown down from his level. He has to be very determined and pray profusely and plead with God not to let him stray from his path because of this.”
“The whole world is filled with quarreling. Nation disputes against nation. Every city has its factions. Each household is locked in arguments with the neighbors. Within the household the husband argues with his wife, with the children and the servants. And so on and so on. Nobody thinks about what the ultimate goal of the world is. Every day man dies — because the day that has passed will never come back, and each day he draws closer to the day of his death. How can he waste his time on arguments? Anyone who has any sense should understand this and win long life for himself. Let him not waste his life on quarrels, big or small. He should control himself, hold his anger in check and live peacefully with everybody”
“If you find yourself in the middle of a dispute, it is very good if you can remain silent and pay no attention to the abuse which people throw at you. When you can hear what is said against you without answering back this is true repentance. It is the remedy for all past sins. Someone who achieves this can truly be said to be wise. He will receive a share in the glory of God and a goodly portion in the World to Come. He will be merged in the figure of the Man on the Throne which is the source of all the judgements passed on the inhabitants of the world.”
“One who restrains his impulse to take part in disputes will be worthy of being quoted by name for his legal rulings.”
“Arguments and in-fighting make it difficult for a person to pray and speak words of holiness. This is why before we begin our prayers we must take upon ourselves the mitzva of `love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18) in order to draw love and peace into the world. Peace is the root and source of speech”
“The deeper a person’s understanding the more detached he will be from in-fighting and controversy. The main reason for factionalism and anger is lack of understanding. Torah is the source of all understanding. Therefore the study of Torah brings peace to the world and causes factionalism to disappear.”
“A potent reason for factionalism and quarreling is because people lack sufficient faith in the Sages of the Torah. Someone who finds himself at the center of an argument, with people raising all kinds of questions about him, should take it as a sign that he does not have sufficient faith in the Sages. He should think about the implications of the argument and use it as a stimulus to help him correct the deficiency in his faith.”
http://www.azamra.org/Advice/controversy.html
חזק