Did you ever dream of being a superhero?
Maybe you wanted to be Spiderman who can cling to nearly any surface by his hands and feet?
Or maybe you wanted to be Wonder Woman who can fly and talk to animals?
Or just maybe you secretly wanted to be like the Hulk whose strength grows along with his anger?
The thing is, you don’t have to be a fictional superhero to have super powers.
Moses’s brother Ahron, our first High Priest, was known to have a super power — he was a super peace-maker.
His peace-making super power didn’t require a special suit of armor, super agility, or mutant strength. In fact, it was really just a super skill set.
The Mishnah describes Ahron as someone who loved peace and pursued it.
If Ahron saw two people having an argument — and neither was willing to apologize to the other — Ahron would get involved.
He would go to each one of them and tell them how badly the other one felt about their argument. He would say, “Oy vey! So-and-so feels terrible about the fight you’re having. They really want to make up with you.”
And then, he’d go and say the exact same thing to the other person.
The next time the two people saw each other, they would immediately apologize and forgive one another. The argument was over. The relationship was repaired, and shalom was restored.
You, too, can be a shalom superhero like Ahron.
When there’s an argument at work, get involved. When there’s a fight in the family, try to help settle it. Take initiative and try to restore shalom when there’s conflict.
Yes, you might get a few bumps and bruises along the way. People involved in a dispute can be angry and difficult.
But that never stopped any other superhero, and it shouldn’t stop you from using your super shalom skills to restore peace.
Try this today: If you see people getting into an argument, do something!