Student Spotlight: Aharon Karni
Mic Drop
In this week's Parsha, we find Yaakov is cooking a red lentil soup when Eisav walks into the house. He was so exhausted from the field, that he told Yaakov to pour the soup straight into his mouth. Yaakov made a business deal with him for the sale of the bechor. Eisav agreed. It was for this reason that he was called Edom (meaning, red). The Gemara in Shabbos explains to us that Eisav was born under the red star, which is why he was red-headed, and so blood thirsty. It was part of his DNA. Why is it Eisav's fault that he was a bloodthirsty murderous person? He was born under the red star! His genetics forced him to be like that! How can we blame him that he was this way? We can answer this by understanding who else was born like this. The Gemara teaches us that Dovid HaMelech was also born under the red star. He also had that drive for blood. However, he used it for good. He used it to be a Shochet, a mohel, and help with cases of Niddah, and going to war with Israel's enemies. Eisav didn't have to be that kind of person where he needed to fulfill his drive by murdering and robbing people. He could have used his strengths from the "red star" for the good, and not for evil. All of us have a bad side to us, maybe even an aggressive side. We feel like we might want to do something bad, but we need to hold ourselves back. Dovid HaMelech also had this drive, but he redirected it to bring good into the world, and not bad. When sometimes we have an aggressive side to us, instead of using it for the bad, we have to push it for the good. With my time in Yeshiva, I would like to finish my unfinished business. I want to finish with highschool. I want to understand who and what G-d is. I want to be a truly good person. I want to learn better life and social skills. If I can channel that powerful energy and drive into good things in my life, and begin to realize that I can accomplish a lot more than I thought I could, I know I will begin to master my talents and skills like Dovid HaMelech, and not let them turn into my weaknesses like Eisav. (Mic drop) Much love, Aharon Karn ~ Aharon is a first year student in Lev Zion, and is from Far Rockaway, NY.
