Dvar Torah for Parshas Devarim

AIMeM would like to thank Uri Kishstein for filling in this week as part of the 'Summer of Subscribers'!

In Parshas Devarim, the first pasuk reads as follows. “אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר משֶׁה אֶל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן בַּמִּדְבָּר בָּעֲרָבָה מוֹל סוּף בֵּין פָּארָן וּבֵין תֹּפֶל וְלָבָן וַחֲצֵרֹת וְדִי זָהָב” "These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel across the Jordan, in the wilderness, on the Aravah plain opposite Suf, between Paran and Tofel and Lovon and Chatzeiros and Di Zahav." This and the following pesukim recount all of the places where the Jewish nation angered Hashem. In order to hide this fact, the Torah only mentions the sins of the Jews in an obscure fashion and doesn’t directly describe each and every place in detail of what exactly happened there. This is in order to insure that the honor of Bnei Yisrael is upheld.

Looking at Rashi’s commentary, we can find several problems with his interpretation of these pesukim. The first, and most obvious question is, why does Rashi have to say that these “places” aren’t really places and that they are just hinting to the sin? The simple reading of this pasuk is to understand that the places mentioned are actually the names of places where the Jews sinned, so how does Rashi know they are not real places? And furthermore, Tosafos adds, not much further on in the Torah, Moshe openly rebukes the Jews for the sins of the Meraglim and the Egel Hazahav very harshly. If Moshe was so concerned about the Jews honor, then why would he give them such harsh rebuke?

To answer the first question all we have to do is to look into Rashi’s next comments. Rashi quotes a Gemara stating that throughout all of the Tanach, the places Tofel and Lovon are never mentioned, so it must be that these places are mere symbolism and not actual locations.

The second question is a little more difficult to answer because if Moshe is going to use logic that applies to some sins, then that logic should extend to all sins! No matter how severe!

Rav Ovadia of Bartenura gives a very interesting answer to this question. When you begin a long mussar-type speech to somebody, how do you start? Do you go all gung-ho in the beginning? No! You need to ease the person into the mussar. You might mention what they need to improve on, but you do it in a subtle, sensitive way. But once you are in the middle of your mussar, there is no need to be nice and sensitive, because after all the whole point of the mussar is to get the person to change his/her ways. This is exactly what Moshe did. When he began he wasn’t going to make Bnei Yisrael feel bad, because after all, they is a beautiful and holy nation. But once Moshe had begun, he felt that there was no need to speak in symbolism, he went right at them so they could clearly understand the message Moshe was telling them.

Shabbat Shalom!

Uri Kirshstein lives in Charleston, South Carolina. He studied at Yeshivas Derech Etz Chaim in Jerusalem and Lander College for Men in Queens, New York. He is a first-time contributor to AIMeM.

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Dvar Torah for Parshas Masei

       In Parshas Masei, Bnei Yisrael stand on the cusp of entering Eretz Yisrael. This parshah discusses all sorts of issues pertaining to when Bnei Yisrael will enter the land, including the borders of the land, special cities set aside for Shevet Levi, additional laws of inheritance, and the expansion of territory to the other side of the Jordan River.

       At the beginning of the fourth aliyah, Moshe names the Nesi’im, the heads of each tribe who will lead their respective tribes into Eretz Yisrael. Most of the pesukim are structured exactly the same, just substituting each tribe’s name by their Nasi. For example, by Shevet Dan, the pasuk reads, “וּלְמַטֵּה בְנֵי דָן נָשִׂיא בֻּקִּי בֶּן יָגְלִי” “And the prince for the tribe of the sons of Dan, Bukki the son of Yugli” (Bamidbar 34:22). However, by the tribes of Yehuda, Shimon, and Binyamin, the title of Nasi, prince, is not written in the pasuk. Why is this so?

       The Ohr HaChaim explains that each tribe has a separate reason why their Nasi is not called so in the pasuk. The Nasi for Yehuda was Calev, who has been well-known to us since he was listed as one of the spies back in Parshas Shelach. Because of this, the Torah did not need to stress his importance by telling us he was the Nasi, we already know how great Calev was. The Chizkuni explains further that because of the way he stood up to the other spies, Calev was confirmed as a true Eved Hashem and continued in that path his entire life. Because of that, the pasuk did not have to confirm that he was special enough to become the Nasi because it is already obvious.

       The reason for Binyamin is an interesting one. Back in Parshas Bahaloscha, two men, Eldad and Medad, were mentioned as men who became prophets. The Ohr HaChaim says that Binyamin’s Nasi, a man named Elidad, is in reality Eldad from before. Since he was a Navi, it would have been degrading for him to be called simply a Nasi, since a prophet is on a higher spiritual level. Therefore, the pasuk instead says nothing.

       Lastly, Shevet Shimon was still paying the price for the prominent role they played in the episode with Midian that ended with 24,000 Jews dying in a plague. While the tribe needed someone to lead them into Eretz Yisrael and take care of their needs, because of the role they played, they did not deserve to have that man labeled with the high honor of Nasi. Therefore, the pasuk refers to him simply as the representative of his tribe without any fancy titles.

Shabbat Shalom!

Chazak Chazak V’Nischazek!

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Dvar Torah for Parshas Matos

       Bnei Yisrael’s conflict with Midian continues in Parshas Matos. In this week’s parsha, Hashem tells Moshe to prepare Bnei Yisrael for war. This is in response to the story at the end of Parshas Balak, when the daughters of Midian caused Bnei Yisrael to sin. Because of this immoral act against Hashem, and because they specifically targeted Bnei Yisrael, Hashem commanded Bnei Yisrael to fight.

       Together with His instructions for the war, Hashem tells Moshe some very important news. “נְקֹם נִקְמַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֵת הַמִּדְיָנִים אַחַר תֵּאָסֵף אֶל עַמֶּיךָ” “Take revenge for the children of Israel against the Midianites; afterwards you will be gathered to your people” (Bamidbar 31:2). Hashem tells Moshe to avenge what Midian did to Bnei Yisrael and upon the completion of this mission, he will die. This battle was to be Moshe’s last act of command for Bnei Yisrael before he passed away and they entered Eretz Yisrael.

         When Moshe gives over the instructions to Bnei Yisrael, however, he gives them over a little differently. “ הֵחָלְצוּ מֵאִתְּכֶם אֲנָשִׁים לַצָּבָא וְיִהְיוּ עַל מִדְיָן לָתֵת נִקְמַת יְהֹוָה בְּמִדְיָן” “(And Moshe spoke to the nation,) Arm from among you men for the army, that they can be against Midian, and carry out the revenge of Hashem against Midian” (31:3). Instead of saying they should take revenge for themselves, as Hashem said to do, Moshe tells Bnei Yisrael to take revenge for Hashem! How could Moshe change from what Hashem told him to say?

       The Kli Yakar adds two more questions to this one. Rashi on Pasuk 3 explains the immediate juxtaposition of Hashem’s commanding Moshe to Moshe’s commanding Bnei Yisrael as praise for Moshe. The fact that Moshe knew he would die as soon as this battle ended did not stop him from happily fulfilling the will of Hashem and informing Bnei Yisrael about the impending battle. In this, Moshe showed he was truly an Eved Hashem. Furthermore, in Pasuk 5, when the soldiers are drafted from each tribe, the word “וַיִּמָּסְרוּ”, meaning “to give over”, is used in its past tense when really the present tense should be used. Rashi explains that this shows how beloved Moshe was to the people. When the nation heard that Moshe was going to die following this battle, they were reluctant to even go and fight! Finally, Moshe had to force them to go.

       While these two explanations show how great Moshe was and how much he was appreciated, they are not exactly written explicitly in the pesukim. It doesn’t say that Moshe was happy to fulfill the word of Hashem in this case; perhaps he did it because he had no choice! Also, where do we see a special love of Moshe from the pesukim here? How did Rashi realize these explanations?

       The Kli Yakar explains that what the Midianites did was a sin against both Hashem and Bnei Yisrael. The sin against Hashem was that they caused Bnei Yisrael to serve Avoda Zara, and the sin against Bnei Yisrael was that because of the Avoda Zara, 24,000 people died. When Hashem told Moshe to avenge Bnei Yisrael, He was saying that Bnei Yisrael were forgiven for those sins against Him, the important thing to do was to avenge the Jews who were killed as a result of Midian’s actions.

        When Moshe heard that he was going to die after this battle, he felt no hesitation in going ahead with it. However, he knew how much Bnei Yisrael loved him and he was afraid that if he told them to fight for themselves, as Hashem had told him to tell them, Bnei Yisrael would have decided that having Moshe around was more important than avenging their brothers. They would have claimed that just as Hashem decided to forgive the insult to His honor, they could forgive the insult to them and delay the war and Moshe’s death! As a result, the people would not have gone to fight for a very long time and not fulfilled the will of Hashem, which was Moshe’s biggest fear.

       Since Moshe was so excited to fulfill the will of Hashem, regardless of the personal importance this battle held for him, he decided to change the instructions Hashem had given him and told Bnei Yisrael to fight in order to avenge Hashem; there was no way they would delay for that! That’s why the pasuk uses “וַיִּמָּסְרוּ” in the past tense, Bnei Yisrael were going to delay the battle and were only reluctantly coming to fight, until they found out it was for the honor of Hashem. This also proves that Moshe acted out of happiness. He could have given over Hashem’s instructions the way he was told and he would have done everything the way he was supposed to. The fact that he gave them over differently in order to make sure Hashem’s will was done immediately, shows how excited and happy he was to have it fulfilled.

       From each aspect of this story, we see an amazing lesson. From Hashem we see that what we take as an offense against ourselves is not as important as compared to the offense taken against people we care about. From Moshe we see how to be a true Eved Hashem, that even when he knew that the faster this mission was done the sooner he would die, he still did not hesitate for a second in fulfilling Hashem’s will. Lastly, we learn from the Bnei Yisrael to appreciate our leaders and tzaddikim, but at the same time, to know that Hashem’s kavod is more important than any of our personal whims.

Shabbat Shalom!      

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Dvar Torah for Parshas Pinchas

       As a follow up to Pinchas’ great act at the end of Parshas Balak, this week’s parshah begins with his reward. At the end of last week’s parshah, Zimri, the leader of Shevet Shimon, committed adultery with the princess of Midian. Following the halacha, Pinchas adopted the attitude of a ‘kanai’, a zealot for the honor of Hashem, and immediately killed Zimri and the woman. For this, he was rewarded by being made a Kohen.

       “ פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן הֵשִׁיב אֶת חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת קִנְאָתִי בְּתוֹכָם ” “Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aharon the Kohen has turned My anger away from the children if Yisrael by his zealously avenging Me among them.” (Bamidbar 25:11). Rashi asks how come the pasuk needs to tell me Pinchas’ lineage back to Aharon, after all we already mentioned it exactly the same way in Parshas Balak! He explains that Pinchas’ grandfather from his mother’s side was not Jewish and worshipped idols. After Pinchas killed Zimri, the people were demeaning him by saying ‘how could someone with such poor ancestry had the audacity to kill one of the nation’s greatest men!’ Therefore, Hashem said his name with the ancestry going back to Aharon to show that Pinchas was indeed from a special bloodline.

       However, this does not fully answer the question. The entire nation knew that Pinchas was Aharon’s grandson and they still made fun of him for his other grandfather! Why would putting Aharon’s name in the pasuk change anything?

       The Sifsei Chachamim gives a different take on this pasuk than Rashi to answer the question. The people weren’t making fun of Pinchas because of his ancestry, rather they believed that Pinchas did not act because of Hashem’s honor; rather, it was because of Moshe’s. Zimri acted out in deliberate disregard for Moshe’s authority as the messenger of Hashem, and as Pinchas was a close student of Moshe’s as well as his great nephew, the people believed that Pinchas was really defending Moshe when he went to kill Zimri. Therefore, the pasuk mentions that he was Aharon’s grandson in order to prove that Pinchas acted for the honor of Hashem. But how does this prove anything?

       The Gemarah in Sanhedrin (82b) says that Pinchas, like his grandfather Aharon, succeeded in quelling Hashem’s anger against Bnei Yisrael. Aharon did it by bringing the incense offering after the story of Korach, while Pinchas did it here when he killed Zimri. Because they shared this quality, the pasuk says that Pinchas is from Aharon. This connection proves that Pinchas acted purely for the honor of Hashem.

       The Ohr HaChaim takes this idea of a connection between Aharon and Pinchas a little deeper. We know that Aharon was at least partially responsible for the building of the Golden Calf. (See Shemos 32:35.) Aharon was therefore, somewhat responsible for the deaths of many members of Bnei Yisrael. However, Pinchas came and redeemed many members of Bnei Yisrael by killing Zimri before Hashem’s anger took over and more people died. The pasuk connects the two of them to show how Pinchas came and rescued Bnei Yisrael in the same way that Aharon had been responsible for them.   

Shabbat Shalom!

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Dvar Torah for Parshas Balak

       In Parshas Balak, Balak, the king of Midian, hires the magician Balaam to curse Bnei Yisrael. The pesukim show that Balaam had a relationship with Hashem as the prophet for the Non-Jewish nations. Chazal teach us that the reason Hashem set up this relationship was because otherwise, the non-Jews could claim that had they had their own prophet, they also would have kept the Torah. Balaam had this relationship and he still used it for evil, thereby taking away any claims from the non-Jews.

       Even though Balaam was a Navi, he was on a lower level than the typical one. Typically, when a Navi received a prophecy, he would be awake and his body would convulse and seize from the force of the extreme holiness coursing through it. It was not necessarily a pretty sight to behold. These convulsions came from the fact that a typical physical body cannot handle such extreme holiness. Balaam, however, only received prophecy in his sleep. He was not holy enough to receive prophecy as a message, it could only be in a dream.

       There was an even bigger difference between a typical Navi and Moshe, however. Moshe, was able to talk with Hashem while he was awake without any convulsions at all. Just as if he was talking with another human being, by all appearances having a normal conversation. In Chazal this is known as “Aspaklaria Hameirah” and no other prophet in history ever reached this level of prophecy.

       Interestingly enough, the medrash lists several differences between the prophecies of Balaam and Moshe that seem to show that Balaam’s nevuah was greater! Balaam always knew when he would speak with Hashem and what they would be speaking about. He also was able to speak with Hashem in any physical position, even when lying down. Moshe on the other hand, never knew when and what he would be speaking about with Hashem, and he also always stood when speaking to Hashem. What is the explanation behind these seeming advantages in Nevuah for Balaam?

       The Ramban explains that Balaam’s advantages are really a result of his lower level of prophecy as compared to Moshe. While it is true that Moshe never knew what Hashem was going to tell him before they spoke and he never knew exactly when Hashem would appear to him, the whole idea of Moshe’s level of prophecy was that these ideas were completely unnecessary! Besides for Moshe having the level of “Aspaklaria Meirah”, or perhaps because of it, he had to be prepared to speak with Hashem at a moment’s notice, literally. Because of this, Moshe had no need for an advance warning of his conversation with Hashem, he essentially had an ongoing conversation with Him for the entire time Bnei Yisrael were in the desert. Balaam, however, only had specific times set up when he could speak with Hashem, and they would only discuss certain topics. As we mentioned earlier, Hashem spoke with Balaam only in order to take away any claims from the nations of the world, and therefore, He made sure Balaam was ready for those conversations in order that they should take place. So Balaam had to be properly prepared for those times and those topics or he would not be able to speak to Hashem at all. For that reason, Hashem gave Balaam advance warning.

       This is also the reason why Moshe always stood in front of Hashem. Moshe’s conversation with Hashem was one Hashem treasured and treated as a real conversation and therefore, He made Moshe ‘stand on ceremony’, the way a person should while talking with Hashem, in order to show that it was a formal and serious discussion. However, His conversations with Balaam were more of a requirement than a desire to speak with him. Therefore, Hashem did not make Balaam stand on ceremony since He did not consider it an important conversation, completely the opposite of Moshe.

       No matter how it appears, our prophets, and especially Moshe, will always be more precious to Hashem. Looking through the parshah, it is easy to pick out the theme, Bnei Yisrael are Hashem’s nation, and we are a pretty amazing people too.

Shabbat Shalom!

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