Ponder this: “Every person can be as righteous as Moses”. Sounds profound, right? Is it true though? Is it possible for you and I, regular old people to be as righteous as the greatest leader of the Jewish people?

The words are not my own, but rather a statement made by Mimomodees. But what does he mean that every person can be as righteous as Moses? He was the greatest prophet to ever live. He spoke to God face to face. Who am I?

The Torah tells us that while Moshe was the leader of the Jews he was not a man of words. Therefore, he partnered with his brother Aharon to lead the Jews out of Egypt. Moshe was the leader, Aharon did the talking. It is curious though that throughout the Torah when Moses and Aharon are mentioned together sometimes Moses name comes first and sometimes Aharon is mentioned first. Rashi, one of our foremost commentators, explains that this is done to show that Moshe and Aharon were equals. Really? Aharon was great but equal to Moses? The Torah clearly tells us that Moses was the leader of the two.

The truth is that Moses was indeed “greater” than Aharon but they were on a mission together and on that mission Aharon did exactly what was asked of him to the best that his abilities would allow him to. He realized his role, accepted his role and filled it with maximum effort. Although he may not have been on as high as a spiritual level or possessed the same traits as Moses, it was Aharon’s approach to his role that made him considered as great as his brother.

We will never be Moses, and truthfully we are not expected to be. We can though attain our own level of greatness. We learn from Aharon that if we search for who we are, realize our own strengths and weaknesses,  and strive to reach our potential, we may be surprised to see how great we really can be.