An interesting phrase: “The people were like murmurers, which was evil in the ears of the Lord” (Num. 11:1). It doesn’t say they actually were murmurers but they were like murmurers.
We seem to have here a parallel to a verse we read a few weeks back about a possible plague in a house. The Torah says, K’nega nir’ah li babayit – “Something like a plague appears to me (to be) in the house” (Lev. 14:35). When we see something that looks unacceptable, we should not be in too much of a hurry to pass judgment. We can say, “It appears to be a plague”, not, “There is definitely a plague”.
Let me illustrate this with a memory of a member of my first congregation. He told me that at a company directors’ meeting he was rather certain that the chairman was not telling the truth. But instead of saying, “Mr Chairman, you are a liar!” he said, “Mr Chairman, you appear to have permitted yourself to be misinformed”. The Torah does not say, “The people were murmurers”, but “The people were like murmurers”.
http://www.oztorah.com/2008/06/grumblers-or-not-bhaalotcha/
The Torah thought by Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple about not being quick to pass judgment really hit home when I read about a confession of a 96-year-old woman to a 1946 murder.
"Atie Ridder-Visser wrote a letter to the mayor of Leiden on Jan. 1 acknowledging she killed Felix Gulje after World War II in the mistaken belief he was a Nazi collaborator.
....During the war, Gulje had been rumored to have worked with the Nazis and had been targeted in the underground press.
In reality, Gulje had sheltered several Jews and allowed a banned Catholic association to hold secret meetings in his home."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/06/09/2011-06-09_a_96yearold_dutch_woman_confesses_to_unsolved_1946_murder.html
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