A vort of the Rebbe on this week's Parshah, Parshat Vaera. One of the things it says in Parshat Vaera is that Hashem told Moshe and Aharon to take the stick and throw it in front of Pharaoh, and that it'll turn into a snake. And Aharon did it, and then the chartumim, the magicians, did the same and their sticks also turned into snakes. But then the pasuk says, ויבלע מטה אהרן את מטתם, that the stick of Aharon swallowed their sticks. And Rashi explains that when did it swallow? After it turned back into a stick. Not when it was a snake, but when it turned back into a stick, that's when it swallowed theirs. And the Rebbe asks a question: We see that Hashem told him, throw down the stick in front of Pharaoh and that it'll turn to a snake. It doesn't say that there'll be another miracle, the miracle of turning into a snake. Here it seems like there was a really another miracle, that his stick swallowed the snakes of the chartumim. Now, that's not written in the original statement that Hashem made.

So the Rebbe explains it didn't have to say, it's obvious, because Rashi says that the purpose of this miracle is, as Rashi uses the לשון, להודיע שיש צורך במי ששלח אתכם, to prove that there is a tzorech, a need in those that sent you, which Hashem who sent you. And the mefarshim say tzorech what it means here is not just a need, it means the control, to show that the Oibershter is in control. So the purpose of this is not to show that the Oibershter is able to do miracles. That didn't prove it. The best thing, the proof is that it didn't prove it is because the chartumim, the magicians, could do the same, so it didn't prove that it from Hashem. The purpose of this was to show that Hashem is the ruler, Hashem is in control. And that could only be done if Aharon's swallows theirs, that shows the control. So obviously, it's included in what Hashem meant that should happen. And this is why it did it after, before it after it turned into a stick, because a stick represents control, memshalah, rulership. So you wanted to show that the Oibershter is the ruler, the Oibershter is in control, so when it was a stick, which represents control and rulership, swallowed theirs, and that showed the chartumim and Pharaoh and the Mitzrayim that the Oibershter is in control.

Now, al pi Chassidut, in פנימיות ענינים, the Rebbe says there's a lesson here for a Yid. When a person wants to have hashpaah on somebody else, and a good influence, whether it's on a student, on students, or on a mekurav, someone to be mekarev, someone to Yiddishkeit, obviously the right way to do it is through דרכי נועם, which means through love, and through positive discussions, which is through מידת החסד, through kindness, called ימין מקרבת, you got to use your right hand, so to speak, to be mekarev. Nevertheless, sometimes the situation is that the only way you could do it is if you go a little bit harsh, that in order to accomplish what you want to accomplish, the good influence, you have to be sometimes harsh. Now that being harsh is hinted in the idea of swallowing. You have to swallow in this guy's ego and be harsh on him, and be mevatel him, so to speak, and then he'll be a keli to accept what you're trying to influence him with. And that's hinted in the inyan of being swallowed. So here we have a lesson that if it does ever come to a time that you have to swallow in that person, there are two conditions here. Number one, it has to be through the stick of Aharon. Aharon represents the greatest kindness. It says in פרקי אבות, אהרן, אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, he loved peace and ran after peace, אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה, he loved all the people, and he was mekarev them to Torah. So only a person like Aharon could do this inyan of swallowing somebody else, so to speak, going in a harsh way. That means if a person's Ahavat Yisrael, then if you have to be harsh, have to be hard on the person, you will do it, but it won't be because chas veshalom maybe that's a bad midah that you have and here you're using your bad midot to be strict on the person. You are a kind person. If you have to do it, then you do it with Ahavat Yisrael, even that is because of your Ahavat Yisrael, because you're like Aharon. And the second thing is it has to be, when do you swallow it in? Only after it's a stick. A stick has no feeling. You can't do it when you have a feeling of anger or things like that. Then the person feels it and it won't accomplish. You have to do it just because that's the right thing to do, but the person shouldn't think, shouldn't feel that there is some personal anger that you have, a certain feeling you have against the person. No, that won't work. Has to be like a stick. And if you do that, you do it because you love the person. But just that the situation is that in order to bring out the the love and accomplish what you want to accomplish, it is only if you go in this derech, then you will accomplish. So it has to be number one, a stick of iron, and number two, you have to do it without any personal feeling of anger, etc., etc., then you will accomplish and you will see the פירות טובים, is the good fruit in your work.