July 11, 2026|כ"ו תמוז ה' אלפים תשפ"ו Matos Masei 5786 - Shalom Above All By Rabbi Beni Krohn

The Torah does not typically tell us the date of the death, the yahrtzeit, of individuals. We are never told the yahrtzeit of Avraham, Yitzchak, or Yaakov. We aren't told the yahrtzeit of the Imahos. Even Moshe Rabbeinu's yahrtzeit is not written in the Torah, it is told to us by Chazal.

This is true with everyone with one exception: Aharon HaKohein. Aharon's yahrtzeit is told to us this week:

וַיַּעַל אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן אֶל־הֹר הָהָר עַל־פִּי ה' וַיָּמׇת שָׁם בִּשְׁנַת הָאַרְבָּעִים לְצֵאת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַחֲמִישִׁי בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ׃

Aharon went up onto Hor HaHar by command of Hashem, and he died there in the 40th year after Bnei Yisrael left Egypt, on the first day of the 5th month.

And I would like to ask two questions this morning:

1. Of all the people who could have their yahrtzeit mentioned, why specifically Aharon? Why not Miriam? Why not Moshe?
2. If you've decided to mention Aharon's yahrtzeit, why mention it here in Parshas Masei, when it is listed as an aside, almost as a footnote? We're discussing how Am Yisrael passed through Hor HaHar, and in that place, by the way, Aharon died on the following date.

If you wanted to tell me Aharon's yahrtzeit, tell it to me when the very elaborate story of his death is described back in Parshas Chukas!

The Lubavitcher Rebbe offers a very unique, very beautiful answer which addresses both of these questions:

As we know, Aharon HaKohein is always described as the Rodeif Shalom, the Pursuer of Peace.

The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos 1:12 tells us:

הלל אומר הוי מתלמידיו של אהרן אוהב שלום ורודף שלום אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה:

Hillel would say that we should all be like the students of Aharon HaKohein, who was a Rodeif Shalom.

When the Torah describes Aharon's death and the response of the people, it says:

(כט) וַיִּרְאוּ כָּל הָעֵדָה כִּי גָוַע אַהֲרֹן וַיִּבְכּוּ אֶת אַהֲרֹן שְׁלֹשִׁים יוֹם כֹּל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל: ס

And the entire nation saw that Aharon had died, and they cried for him for thirty days, the entire house of Israel.

When Moshe Rabbeinu dies, the description is as follows:

(ח) וַיִּבְכּוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת מֹשֶׁה בְּעַרְבֹת מוֹאָב שְׁלֹשִׁים יוֹם וַיִּתְּמוּ יְמֵי בְכִי אֵבֶל מֹשֶׁה:

The Jewish people cried for Moshe in the Plains of Moav for thirty days.

Why the distinction? Explains Rashi:

בני ישראל - הזכרים, אבל באהרן מתוך שהיה רודף שלום ונותן שלום בין איש לרעהו ובין אשה לבעלה נאמר (במדבר כ, כט) כל בית ישראל, זכרים ונקבות:

"Bnei Yisrael" refers to the men, but because Aharon was constantly involved in making shalom between husbands and wives, it says he was mourned by Kol Beis Yisrael, men and women alike.

The Avos D'Rebbi Nosson goes even further, describing that by the time Aharon died, thousands of young men had the name Aharon. And those young men came to give hespedim to eulogize Aharon after he passed away.

Why were so many boys named Aharon? Because these were the children born from families who had trouble in their homes. Aharon had helped save their marriages. And when these couples had children afterward, they named them Aharon after the person who had brought shalom to their homes.

With all this, we can start to understand why specifically Aharon's yahrtzeit is mentioned in the Torah, and why it's mentioned specifically now.

Because what is the yahrtzeit of Aharon HaKohein? As we mentioned, the Torah tells us that Aharon died b'chodesh hachamishi be'echad lachodesh, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.

What is the fifth month? In Judaism, the fifth month, of course, is the month of Av. Aharon's yahrtzeit was Rosh Chodesh Av! And of course, there could be no month in which we need the power, the midah of Aharon HaKohein, more than the month of Av.

The Gemara in Megillah 13b tells us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu always provides the refuah before the makkah, always provides the remedy before the disease. Meaning, that before any challenge comes to the world, Hakadosh Baruch Hu already provides the energy to remedy that problem.

And we know the yahrtzeit of a person, the day when they leave this world, is a day in which their energy, their midah, the thing that was unique about them, is most potent in the world.

And so, on the first day of Av, when we begin the nine days, and we mourn not just the loss of the Beis HaMikdash, but the cause of that destruction, the tremendous discord and fighting amongst Klal Yisrael, the lack of Ahavas Yisrael, the Torah reminds us not to give up hope of remedying that problem, because that very day is the yahrtzeit of Aharon HaKohein, the person who brought the hope of shalom to those who thought they could never find it again. A person who, when people thought their issues with others could never be resolved, showed that there was, indeed, a way forward.

And it also works out very beautifully that the Torah places the day of Aharon's yahrtzeit not in Parshas Chukas, which we read many weeks ago, but in Parshas Masei. Because Parshas Masei is always read the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Av, the time when we need the energy, the positive model of Aharon HaKohein so desperately.

But shalom is difficult. And the reason it's difficult is because usually when we have an issue with someone else, it isn't because of something silly or meaningless - don't get me wrong, sometimes it is - but usually it's because of something real. The person really hurt you. And yet, we are told that if we can't find a way to mend fences, if we can't find a way to make shalom, then we'll find ourselves back here year after year, lamenting all of the terrible consequences of the Churban.

And we are taught that if we can find a way to let go, to move on with life even though the other person was wrong and did hurt me, but to realize it's not worth holding that pain and anger forever, then we will merit to see a different future for our people.

Yocheved Goldberg is the Rebbetzin at the Boca Raton Synagogue, and a number of years ago she shared the following story about her grandfather.

Many years before, her grandparents and parents had come to see her on visiting day at a summer camp. At one point during the day, Yocheved's grandfather and father were walking along the path when they passed another elderly gentleman. The two older men nodded to one another and kept walking.

The son asked his father who the other person was. His father replied, "He was my best friend and chavrusa before the war, growing up in Satmar."

If so, the son asked his father, why had he confined himself to a simple nod of recognition and kept walking? Can you introduce me to him?

It wouldn't be a good idea?

Why not?

"Before the war," his father answered, "I succeeded in procuring exit visas for myself and for my wife and children. The time had not yet come to use them, so I hid them. I didn't tell anyone the hiding place - not my parents, not my siblings. Only one person knew where I had hidden them: my chavrusa.

"Finally the time came to use the visas. I went to retrieve them, but they weren't there. My best friend had taken them. With those visas, he saved himself and his family, while my wife and children were murdered by the Nazis."

The answer to the first question left the son with an even bigger question: "So why did you nod to him? How can you even look at him?"

"Those were different times," his father replied. "You can't understand the pressure people were under. It's over, and it's time to move on."

The very last Mishnah in Shas, the last Mishnah in Maseches Uktzin, says as follows:

אמר רבי שמעון בן חלפתא לא מצא הקדוש ב"ה כלי מחזיק ברכה לישראל אלא השלום שנאמר (תהלים כ"ט) ה' עוז לעמו יתן ה' יברך את עמו בשלום:

Hashem could only find one vessel that can hold blessing, and that is shalom, as the pasuk says, "Hashem gives His nation strength, Hashem blesses His nation with peace."

And the question, of course, is why does R' Yehuda HaNasi believe that of all the messages that should conclude all of Shas, it should be this message?

And I'll answer with another question: What does it mean that peace is the only container for bracha? There are so many other mitzvos in the Torah that are so precious and valuable!

And I once heard an answer from my good friend Rabbi Moskowitz from Boca Raton: he gave a mashal of an expensive bottle of wine. Imagine you spend $200 on this beautiful wine, and then as you're about to drink it, you notice a little hole on the bottom of the bottle, and the wine is slowly spilling onto the floor. You would be so upset. And if someone said, "What do you mean? It's all still there. You have that beautiful wine on the floor," you would laugh: "What do you mean? If I can't hold onto the wine, if it's just going to spill out, then what value does it have?"

That's what the Mishnah means. After you've learned all of Shas, and you know every single halacha that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants from us - how to daven, put on tzitzis, keep kashrus, taharas hamishpacha, etc. - says Hakadosh Baruch Hu, astonishingly, all of that beautiful Torah is amazing, but it needs something to hold it all together. It needs a container, a bottle. And that container, that which holds it all together, is shalom, the ability for Am Yisrael to show respect and regard for each other, even when it's really difficult. Because when we do that, then everything else falls into place.

And so, as we find ourselves approaching Rosh Chodesh Av, I implore you to consider one small way to elevate your Ahavas Yisrael:

1. Send a text or email to someone with whom you need to make amends.
2. Consider changing the way we speak about Jews who are different - sometimes very different from us.
3. Start learning one halacha of hilchos lashon hara each day.

Because if we are able to find a place for more Ahavas Yisrael, to increase shalom in our lives, we are showing Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we are, indeed, ready to begin forging a brighter future for ourselves and for our people.