matot
5770 פרשת מטות - מסעי
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes to us the commandment that God told Moshe to take revenge on the nation of Midyan for causing Bnei Yisroel to sin via adultery and idol worship. The Torah describes that Moshe sent Pinchas to fight the battle with 12,000 soldiers which was 1,000 from each shevet.
The Torah when commanding Moshe to battle the Midyanim did not tell him who should lead the soldiers in battle or how many soldiers to send to battle. All God told Moshe was to take revenge on the nation of Midyan and left the rest of the details to him.
The Ohr Hachayim asks that in the prior battles either Moshe or Yehoshua led the forces into battle. Since this time God wanted Pinchas to lead the soldiers into battle, why didn’t God tell that to Moshe specifically instead of Moshe coming to that conclusion himself?
The Ohr Hachayim answers that the reason God did not tell Moshe that Pinchas should lead the troops into battle was that God did not want Moshe to feel that he was not worthy of leading the troops to take revenge on Midyan thereby hurting Moshe, so instead God knew that Moshe would understand himself that Pinchas should lead the troops since he started the revenge by killing Zimri. By letting Moshe come to the conclusion himself God prevented Moshe from getting hurt.
If we look at this Ohr Hachayim a little more closely we can ask the following question. If Moshe made the decision himself that Pinchas should be the one to lead the troops in the battle against Midyan due to the fact that he had already started the Mitzvah, then why would Moshe have felt bad if God told him directly that Pinchas should lead the troops, Moshe would have understood the reason for Pinchas to lead the troops was not because he was not worthy.
The answer could be that just because a person knows something intellectually it might not translate into his emotions. In this case, even though when Moshe analyzed the situation totally using his intellect, he no doubt came up with the correct decision that Pinchas should lead the troops. However, if God had told Moshe directly to send Pinchas, Moshe would not only have been analyzing the situation intellectually but his emotions would also be at play and he might have felt on some level that he was not worthy of leading the troops which could have caused Moshe anguish. It is for this reason that God did not tell Moshe directly that Pinchas should lead the troops.
We can learn a very important lesson from this Ohr Hachayim. When we deal with people, we must realize that even if logically something should be obvious, there are times that people’s emotions will not let them analyze a situation correctly. For this reason before we get involved with a situation we must try to consider how our words or actions might be perceived by a person’s emotions and not only their intellect and if we do this we can prevent ourselves from hurting another person even unintentionally.
5769 פרשת מטות – מסעי
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes to us the command of God to Moshe to go to battle and wipe out the nations of Moav and Midyan for their role in causing Bnei Yisroel to sin which led to the death of 24,000 members of Bnei Yisroel. The Torah tells us that they sent 12,000 soldiers to fight the battle with Pinchas as the leader. The Rabbeinu Bechai asked, why is it that Pinchas went in place of Eliezer who was the Kohein Gadol? The Rabbeinu Bechai answered that the one that started the Mitzvah is the one who should complete it.
The Rabbeinu Bechai, however continues and asks that even if we understand why Pinchas went in place of his father Elazar, the Kohein Gadol, Moshe should have gone along as he was commanded to do in the wars against Sichon and Og. Even if Moshe would have gone, Pinchas would have been able to do the job of the Kohein and Moshe would have done the job that he always did in battle. The Rabbeinu Bechai answers that since Moshe spent many years living in Midyan did not go to battle to destroy them since it would be a lack of Hacaras Hatov.
If we examine this Rabbeinu Bechai a little more closely we can ask the following question. I can understand the importance of treating someone who assisted you well and never harming him. This would surely fall under the umbrella of Hacaras Hatov. However, this case would seem to be different for 2 reasons. First of all, the nation that did good to Moshe wanted to kill him and his people and secondly the people of Midyan probably did not have any great love for Moshe during the years that he lived there since he married the daughter of Yisro who was excommunicated by the people of Midyan for turning his back on idol worship. This being the case, why would it have been a lack of Hacaras Hatov to go fight against the people of Midyan?
We see from here how far the requirement of Hacaras Hatov extends. Even if the people of Midyan did not extend a warm hand to Moshe Rabbeinu the fact that they allowed him to live in Midyan even if he was not liked and not dealt with properly is enough to create an obligation for Moshe Rabbeinu to act towards them with Hacaras Hatov. Obviously, if the Midyanite soldiers were attempting to physically harm Moshe Rabbeinu he would be able to fight back, however, even though the Midyanite soldiers would have liked nothing more than to kill Moshe Rabbeinu since the battle could have been fought by others, Hacaras Hatov dictated that Moshe Rabbeinu should not be involved in the battle.
Chazal tell us that we must thank God for both the things that look to our eyes as good and also those that look to our eyes as bad. Now that we are in the period of the three weeks during which we mourn the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and all the horrible suffering of Bnei Yisroel over the history of our nation, we must always realize that even the things that look bad to us are really for our good. The question is how can we get to that level? One way is to begin to recognize and thank God for the constant good he gives us with our health and livelihood and families, etc. Once a person begins to realize that everything he has in life is only from God, he will begin to realize that God is also running his life when things are difficult and since he is always thanking God for the good he has he will be able to continue to thank God even for what appears to him to be bad.
5768 פרשת מטות
As I am sitting down to write this Parsha sheet, Yerushalayim just experienced another terror attack committed by an Arab resident of East Jerusalem using a tractor from the construction company where he worked to attack Jews. Thankfully no one was killed and most of the injuries were light. I was standing at that spot literally 15 minutes before the attack. As I got into a taxi, I mentioned to the taxi driver, how empty the streets were for this hour. For those that don’t know the area, it is usually very difficult to cross King David Street by the King Solomon hotel. The traffic there is usually constant. Today, I was able to cross the street almost as soon as I got there. When I heard about the attack, I could not help but realize the great miracle, hidden as it was, that there were much fewer cars there than usual. It reminded me of a beautiful explanation of the Radak on the words of Tehillim that say:
And God will redeem us from our enemies.
The Radak explains this Pasuk the following way:
Behold it is God’s great kindness with us in exile that he keeps us alive among the nations of the world.
What we see from the Radak is that if it weren’t for God’s great kindness to Bnei Yisroel, the Goyim would kill us in a minute.
We see this terrorist who wanted to kill Jews in an area that is usually crowded and God kept people away. How great is the abundant kindness God gives to his people.
After the attack, I was thinking to myself what is it that we should be feeling every time a terrorist attack occurs? There is a beautiful Midrash on this week’s Parsha that can give us great chizuk.
The Torah at the beginning of this week’s Parsha tells over God’s commandment to Moshe to take revenge on the Midyanim for their part in causing the Jews to sin in Shitim. The Pasuk says as follows:
Take the revenge of Bnei Yisroel from the Midyanim.
However, when Moshe commanded Bnei Yisroel to take revenge on Midyan, he said:
Take the revenge of God on Midyan.
The Midrash is bothered why Moshe changed the language of the commandment from what God had said. God said that Bnei Yisroel should take revenge for what Midyan did to them, while Moshe told Bnei Yisroel to take revenge on Midyan for what they did against God.
The Midrash explains as follows:
Moshe said to God if we were idol worshippers or deniers of the Mitzvos they would not have hated us and they wouldn’t be chasing after us, it is only because you gave us the Torah and the Mitzvos, therefore the revenge is for you and not for Bnei Yisroel.
If we look at this Midrash, the following two questions arise:
- What about the fact that God gave us the Torah and Mitzvos make the non-Jews hate us?
- Why is that reason considered to be an affront to God that would require Bnei Yisroel to take revenge on Midyan and destroy them for attacking Bnei Yisroel?
If we look at the Midrash closely we can see what one of the reasons is that the nations of the world hate us. The Midrash is putting emphasis on the fact the nations of the world wouldn’t hate us if we were idol worshipers or deniers of the Mitzvos. It is only because God gave us the Torah that they hate us. We see from here a very incredible idea.
Normally, when tragedy occurs to Bnei Yisroel, we assume that it is due to our sins and that is based on what the Torah describes to us in the Tochachah. When Bnei Yisroel rebels against God we are punished.
However, there are times when Bnei Yisroel is on a very high level and yet the nations of the world attack us. Sometimes they are successful and many times they are not as we said earlier. However, they are constantly trying. The reason is that they hate us because we keep the Mitzvos. They try to hurt Bnei Yisroel since we are God’s nation and we keep the Torah that is an antithesis to them. Bnei Yisroel are the flag bearers of everything that is good in the world. They want to live lives of pleasure without conscience and our living by the laws of the Torah inhibits them. This answers both of our questions. Firstly, it is our practicing of the Torah that irks them and makes them hate us, but it is the fact that they want to live without morality and believe and do what they want even against what God wants is why it was an affront to God that needed to be revenged.
Now let us go back and revisit my original thought. When an attack occurs; obviously each one of us must look at our actions and try to correct any flaws we may have, and to think that God took someone more righteous than us as a pardon for us. On the other hand, we have to appreciate that they are attacking us because we have the most precious gift in the world, the Torah and Mitzvos. We should be so thankful that we were born as Jews and have this ability that they don’t have. When we make the blessing every morning “that God did not make us a non-Jew” we should appreciate it all the more and redouble our efforts in keeping the Mitzvos that make us so special.
פרשת מטות – מסעי 5767
In this week’s Parsha the Torah discusses the commandment to go to war with Midyan. The Pasuk tells us the following:
And they gave over from the thousands of Bnei Yisroel one thousand men from each tribe 12,000 fighting men.
The Sifri which is brought down by Rashi is bothered by the question, why does the Pasuk use the language of “giving over” when referring to the soldiers being picked to go to battle instead of a language more appropriate to choosing someone?
The Sifri answers the following way:
Rabbi Eliezer Hamodai said come and see how beloved are the shepherds of Israel (the leaders). Moshe Rabbeinu was told by God that after the war with Midyan he would die. When Bnei Yisroel heard that, they all hid so they could push off the war with Midyan so Moshe Rabbeinu wouldn’t die. This is why the Torah uses the language of “giving over” which is that Moshe had to give them over to the army to fight. Bnei Yisroel did this due to their love of Moshe Rabbeinu.
However, the Sifri while giving his answer, added a very interesting idea which was that before they knew that Moshe Rabbeinu was going to die Moshe Rabbeinu said about Bnei Yisroel the words “a little bit more and they will stone me”. This was said by Moshe Rabbeinu in Refidim when Bnei Yisroel did not have any water to drink. Moshe Rabbeinu felt that if God did not give Bnei Yisroel water quickly, they would stone him.
We can ask the following question on this Sifri.
If Bnei Yisroel loved Moshe Rabbeinu so much, that when they received the commandment from God to go fight Midyan, the potential soldiers hid to delay the war to keep Moshe Rabbeinu alive, how could it be that their feelings could have been so adverse to Moshe Rabbeinu that Moshe felt the need to tell God that “a little bit more and they will stone me”?
The answer is that unfortunately people do not appreciate the people around them on a constant basis until they are faced with the prospect of life without them. Bnei Yisroel always knew intellectually what Moshe Rabbeinu did for them and how Bnei Yisroel would not be around if it weren’t for the prayers of Moshe Rabbeinu. They also knew that he taught them Torah and that his whole life was totally involved with being their leader. However, that was on an intellectual level. When things went wrong, they saw Moshe Rabbeinu as the person to quarrel with since he was their leader. At that point, emotionally their feelings in the moment overrode their intellectual knowledge, that Moshe Rabbeinu loved them ,cared about them and would do whatever he could to help them, to actually reach a point in their feelings toward Moshe where Moshe Rabbeinu could say “a little more and they will stone me.”
What could have prevented Bnei Yisroel from arguing with Moshe Rabbeinu? The answer it seems from the Sifri is that if Bnei Yisroel would have emotionally felt how important Moshe Rabbeinu was to them, this feeling of love for Moshe would always have been at the forefront of their minds and they could never have come to the point of “a little more and they will stone me.”
This idea is something we can take into our own lives as well. As we are getting closer to the 9 days and the onset of Tisha Be’av, we should be looking for advice on how we can improve our relationships between us and our fellow man. Most people that we associate ourselves with, especially as friends, at one time or other did us a favor, made us feel good when we were feeling down or one of a million other small good deeds. If we can look at a person and try to look for the good things they have done for us and try to bring those thoughts to the forefront of our minds, so that if they do something bad to us we should focus on the things that led us to having the friendly relationship with them in the first place. By focusing on the friendship and the good and not the one bad action, we can keep ourselves away from baseless hatred and increase our baseless love. If we can work on this trait we should merit the redemption in our lifetimes.