Their are two instances in this week’s parsha where good people suffer or are accused along with the wicked.  Sometimes one is caught in the crowd, amidst circumstances beyond one’s control and then takes the hit.

In Chapter 15 verse 5, the Torah tells us the Pharoh’s charioteers and soldiers went to their watery depths like a stone. Famously rashi points out that these are the “kosher” ones amongst the army and they died quickly.  What?  They are “kosher” and yet they were in the wrong army. They are on the losing team in an unjust war. Yet Rashi still  calls them “Kesharim” or kosher.  Strange. If they are kosher why are the killed?  Answer: Life is not fair. A drafted soldier in a unjust cause. Kosher or not.. Life is not fair.

Secondly  Gd instructs Moshe to tell the people not to collect Manna on Shabbat. Sure enough (Chapter 16, verses27-30) some people go out collecting. What is Hashem’s response? Hashem is angry at Moshe.   Hashem says to Moshe: “How long will you refuse to watch my commandments. What again? Moshe did not, the people did.Here Rashi quotes a parable of a thorn getting hidden in a lettuce.  The good get mixed up in the wicked.

What’s the lesson. You can try to be good, honest, careful… however forces beyond your control push you into the wrong army, get mixed up in the wrong crowd or simply get blamed for somone else’s mistake.

What is the antidote: Pray to Hashem every day that He  not kick you in the head, that he not lead you in the path of the landmine, be humble,  be modest and recognize Life is not fair.