Hillel taught: "Be of the disciples of Aaron — loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to the Torah." But what did Aaron actually do?
Rabbi Meir explained. Whenever Aaron walked along the road and encountered a wicked man, he would stop and greet him warmly. Just a greeting — nothing more. But the next day, when that man was about to commit a transgression, he would pause and think: "How can I raise my eyes and look Aaron in the face after what I have done? He greeted me with such kindness." And the man would hold himself back from sin.
Aaron's method with feuding neighbors was even more striking. When two men had quarreled, Aaron would visit the first and say: "My son, you should see your friend. He is beating his breast and tearing his clothes. He keeps saying, 'How can I face him? I am so ashamed — I was the one who wronged him.'" Aaron would sit with the man until every trace of enmity drained from his heart. Then he would walk to the other man and say the exact same thing: "Your friend is sick with regret. He is tearing his clothes, saying he was the one at fault."
Neither man knew what Aaron had told the other. So when the two eventually met, they would embrace and kiss each other, each believing the other had been consumed with remorse.
This is why, when Aaron died, "all the house of Israel wept for him thirty days" (Numbers 20:29) — not just the men, but the women and children too. When Moses died, only the men are mentioned as mourners, because Moses was a judge who rebuked the people when they strayed. Aaron never rebuked. He tricked people into loving each other.
Hillel added a warning that balances this sweetness: "He who makes use of the Crown will perish." The sages explained: anyone who exploits the Expressed Name of God — pronouncing it to work wonders — forfeits their share in the World to Come.