True Mesiras Nefesh

Aharon had a part in the Chet HaEgel, and in Parshas Terumah the Midrash Tanchuma connects his appointment as Kohen Gadol to that very sin, so that he would know Hashem had forgiven him. But the Gemara says a sin never brings a reward. How can that be? A Midrash Rabbah on what Aharon feared for Klal Yisrael shows what the act revealed about him. It points to a trait that every person is born without and has to build. A story of two boys in Poland and a pair of shoes puts it at a child's size.