אלה מסעי – למה נכתבו המסעות הללו, להודיע חסדיו של מקום, שאעפ”י שגזר עליהם לטלטלם ולהניעם במדבר, לא תאמר שהיו נעים ומטולטלים ממסע למסע כל ארבעים שנה ולא היתה להם מנוחה, שהרי אין כאן אלא ארבעים ושתים מסעות. צא מהם י”ד, שכולם היו בשנה ראשונה, קודם גזירה, משנסעו מרעמסס עד שבאו לרתמה. שמשם נשתלחו המרגלים, שנאמר (במדבר יב, טז) ואחר נסעו העם מחצרות וגו’ (שם יג, ב) שלח לך אנשים וגו’. וכאן הוא אומר ויסעו מחצרות ויחנו ברתמה, למדת שהיא במדבר פארן. ועוד הוצא משם שמונה מסעות שהיו לאחר מיתת אהרן מהר ההר עד ערבות מואב בשנת הארבעים, נמצא שכל שמנה ושלשים שנה לא נסעו אלא עשרים מסעות. זה מיסודו של רבי משה הדרשן. ורבי תנחומא דרש בו דרשה אחרת משל למלך שהיה בנו חולה והוליכו למקום רחוק לרפאותו, כיון שהיו חוזרין התחיל אביו מונה כל המסעות. אמר לו כאן ישננו,ד כאן הוקרנו,ה כאן חששת את ראשך וכו’:

These are the travels – Why were these travels recorded? To make known the kindnesses of the Ribono Shel Olam, that although He decreed upon them to unsettle them and move them about in the desert, you should not think that they were moved and unsettled, constantly in-route from one journey to the next for forty years and that they had no rest. That is not the case for there are only forty two journeys, fourteen of which were all in the first year before the decree, and took place from the time that they journeyed from Ra’amses until the time that they came to Rismah. It was from there that they sent the Meraglim, as it says (Bamidbar 12:16) “And afterwards the nation traveled from Chatzeiros…” and immediately thereafter it says (ibid 13:2) “Send for yourself men…” and here it says “And they traveled from Chatzeiros and they camped in Rismah.” This teaches that (during their stay in Rismah) they were in Midbar Paran. Furthermore you must remove another eight journeys that all took place after the death of Aharon, from Hor HaHar until Arvos Moav in the fortieth year. We thus find that throughout the entire thirty-eight years they only traveled twenty jouneys. This is from the work of R. Moshe HaDarshan. Rabbi Tanchuma however expounded a different derasha. This is analogous to a King who had an ill child and he took him to a distant place to heal him. Once they were on their way back his father began to count out all of their travels: “Here we slept, here we were cold, here is where you felt pain in your head…”

Says the Maharal on this Rashi:

כאן ישננו כו’. פירוש, כי לפעמים היו ישראל בנחת ובשלוה, וזהו ‘ישננו’. ולפעמים היו ישראל בצער כאשר היה חסר להם דבר, וזהו ‘הוקרנו’. ולפעמים בסכנה היו, וזהו כמו חולה החושש בראשו. ואם תאמר, וכל זה מה נפקא מיניה שהוא מספר בדברים אלו. יש לומר, שכמו שהאב מספר כמה טורח הגיע לו עד בואו למקום הזה, והודיע לו איך היה מטפל עמו משום אהבתו אליו, כך השם יתברך היה מטפל עם ישראל בשביל אהבתו אליהם, ובשביל כך יזכרו ישראל הטובות שעשה להם, ויעבדו אותו בכל לב.

Here we slept – What Rashi means to say here is that there were times when Klal Yisroel were at ease and in peace – they were able to sleep restfully. At other times Klal Yisroel were in pain due to the lack of something – these are times when we were cold, lacking the warmth that we needed. At yet other times they were in danger – much like a sick person whose head hurts him. One might ask, “what difference does this history make to me?” The answer is that Hashem is doing exactly the same thing that a father does with his children. Just as a father will recount to his children all the difficulty they went through until they got to this point, and he lets them know how he cared for them through it all as the result of his great love for them, so too does Hashem do the same for us. Throughout all of our ordeals he cared for us. Through recounting these incidents to us, we the Klal Yisroel will remember all of the good things that He showered upon us and we will be inspired to serve Hashem wholeheartedly.

A Thesis Confirmed:

Upon seeing these words of R. Tanchuma this week, I became so excited. They confirmed for me something that I used to say many years ago. In the years since I have offten thought back to this and wondered whether I was right, but here in these words of Rashi I see my ideas validated! Let me explain.

Back in the day – and still today as well – Torah U’Mesorah had a wonderful program during the summer months where they provided shiurim to mechanchim to help them prepare for the coming school year. For many years they used to ask me to give a shiur to the Nach teachers. I had at the time a little routine that I used for several years which was quite successful, and it went as follows: During the first session, I would ask the attendees to give their particular school’s Tanach program a grade. “Please rank your particular school on how successful it’s Tanach program is.” Usually, the responses ranged anywhere from B- to D. They were not any particular source of great inspiration. “Okay. To what do you attribute the lack of success in your programs?” Here the responses would vary. Some would suggest that it was due to the timing of the Nach classes, that they tended to be slotted in at a time in the day when the students were already tired. Others might blame it on other factors. I would then ask the teachers “So why are you teaching Nach? What do you wish to impart to your students via teaching them the Nevi’im?”

Here I would almost invariably be met at first by silence. Gradually, responses would begin to accumulate. “We are teaching Nach in order to learn lessons in good middos.”

“Really? In every other perek there is another war and another ten thousand people are killed. Is this the best way to teach good middos? Would it not be better to learn Mesillas Yesharim with them, or some other sefer which focuses specifically on developing good middos?”

That ruled out the middos answer. Another response that would usually come would be “We learn about our history through Nach.” That was not a particularly good answer to me either. “If you ask Torah Umesorah, they could provide you with a list of at least ten titles that present our history in a far more orderly fashion.”

A third favorite was “We teach Nach because it is a part of Torah and we have to learn it.” Again, that was hard for me to hear. “Your students are learning Torah the entire day. It is going to be very difficult to inspire them with the fact that they are simply responsible to know yet another area of Torah.”

This would go on for a little bit until finally someone would ask me “Well, please tell us. Why is it that you teach Nach? What do you hope to achieve from the exercise?”

My answer would be along the following lines. I believe that the correct way to learn Tanach is to read it and learn it in very much the same manner as one would read a set of letters that were exchanged between a Chassan and Kallah during their engagement. What does the new couple write about in these first few exchanges? For the most part they review their history together. “Do you remember how we were standing outside the drugstore and…” “I recall how you said that…” “I was thinking about how we went to…” These letters reveal what it is that the young couple consider to be formative to their nascent relationship. They have not yet known each other for very long, and they are setting out together on a lifetime’s journey. What the Chassan shares with his Kallah in writing shows what aspects of himself he considers to be important and significant. In these letters he describes what he wants their life together to look like, and the same goes for the Kallah!

What is Tanach? It is the long letter that the Ribono Shel Olam wrote to us, the nation he betrothed beneath the upheld mountain of Sinai. In it, the Ribono Shel Olam recollects on all of our shared experiences. Through its pesukim and commentators He reveals to us what He considers to be important and what it is that He wants us to know about Him! When Tanach is taught in this way it becomes such an exhilarating and exciting limud! Each pasuk, every diyuk, is so significant because it is something that the Ribono Shel Olam put there with a specific message for me!

In these words of R’ Tanchuma I found my idea confirmed. Why did Hashem recount the masa’os to us? Because each and every one of these place names signifies to us another aspect of Hashem’s great love for us. It was expressed in Rameses in one way, and in Sukkos in a different one. More and more of these expressions followed in Esam, Pi Hachiros, Marah and Eilim, followed by yet thirty-six more. The love Hashem bears for us is born out so vividly in the tone of His letter to us in this parsha that the Maharal tells us that to read it is more than enough to light a roaring fire beneath us and bring us to serve Hashem with all of our hearts! It is a good feeling to find yourself validated in this way!

Colder Feelings:

Having seen Rashi and its attendant Maharal, it is now time to look up Rashi’s sources. Sefer Mima’amakim quotes the Midrash Tanchuma (Mas’ei 3) in its original form which we present here:

אלה מסעי בני ישראל מלה”ד למלך שהיה בנו חולה הוליכו למקום אחר לרפאותו כיון שהיו חוזרין התחיל אביו מונה כל המסעות ואמר ליה כאן ישננו כאן הוקרנו כאן חששת את ראשך, כך אמר ליה הקדוש ברוך הוא משה מנה להם כל המקומות היכן הכעיסוני לכך נאמר אלה מסעי בני ישראל.

These are the journeys of Bnei Yisroel. This parsha is analogous to the case of a King whose son was sick and He took him to a different place to heal him. Once they were on their way back home his father began to count all of their journeys and he told him “Here we slept, here we were cold, here your head hurt you.” So too did HaKadosh Baruch Hu tell Moshe “Count to them all of the places where they angered me. Thus the pasuk says “These are the journeys of the Bnei Yisroel.”

This reading of the Medrash gives off a very different feel. A cold wind blows over the pages of the chumash as we are made to understand that Rismah refers to the smoldering coals of the spies’ Lashon Hara; that Keheilasah is the place where Korach attempted to lead Klal Yisroel in a revolt against Moshe and Aharon. As we strain our minds further and penetrate to the depths of the rest of the names we shudder twice, thrice and a few times more. We now understand that Almon Divlasuyma is a place where the well of Miriam was concealed – mis’alem – on account of their having separated from the Torah which is sweeter than a cake of dates just oozing honey everywhere – a deveila. We could go on, and anyone who cares to have a look at the Targum Yonasan on these place-names should certainly do so, but for our purposes here that is enough. This is very different from the warm fuzzy take that I received from Rashi and the Gur Aryeh. The language of the Medrash is evocative; the purpose of listing off the masa’os does not seem to be the expression of love that the Gur Aryeh proposed but one of reprimand and rebuke. It is true that mussar can only be given out of true love^[1], but there seems to be a different tone in the voice of R’ Tanchuma as he expresses himself in the Medrash. The truth is that perhaps this understanding of the Medrash can help us understand the incident of the Pe’or that straddles the past three Parshiyos. I had always understood that nothing much happened during our thirty eight years in the midbar, nothing much other than learning Torah and dying. In such a context it is incredibly difficult to understand how Klal Yisroel were brought to their knees so quickly! But R’ Tanchuma gives us a different understanding. In his reading of the parsha of the masa’os there were at the very least twenty different incidents during that time in which we angered Hashem! If that is the case then it is much easier to understand what happened at the Pe’or. Having angered Hashem so many times over, we were not necessarily at the zenith of perfection and therefore were far more susceptible targets!

Let us take a moment to listen into Rav Shamshon Refael Hirsch in his introduction to this parshah (Bameidbar 33:2). What he says there is illustrative and can help us understand this medrash far better:

וַיִּכְתֹּ֨ב מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־מוֹצָאֵיהֶ֛ם לְמַסְעֵיהֶ֖ם עַל־פִּ֣י יְקֹוָ֑ק וְאֵ֥לֶּה מַסְעֵיהֶ֖ם לְמוֹצָאֵיהֶֽם:

And Moshe recorded their decampments for their journeys at the command of God, and these are their journeys for their decampments.

The change in the order of the words is certainly not without significance. God Regarded their travels as מוצאיהם למסעיהם, whereas Israel regarded them as מסעיהם למוצאיהם.

The journey and the encampment were always at God’s command (above, 9:17ff. and Commentary there). Whenever God ordered them to break camp, His intention was that they should attain a new goal, and God’s educative guidance would seek out for them a new resting place which was suitable for the attainment of that goal. Each מסע entailed progress; the מסע was the purpose of the מוצא (decampment). Thus, all of their decampments were מוצאיהם למסעיהם.

To the people, it was just the opposite. Wherever they stayed, they were dissatisfied. When the time came to leave a place, for them the decampment was the purpose. It did not matter to them where they were going next; the main thing was to leave the place in which they had been staying. They journeyed forth in order to leave their place of encampment. Thus, all their journeys were מסעיהם למוצאיהם.

In this light it is easy to understand the reason that Hashem commanded Moshe to deliver this mussar lesson to us, precisely as we are poised to enter the land. Here we are, on the threshold of Eretz Yisroel and we can certainly say that this last journey was going to be a מוצאיהם למסעיהם. Perhaps Hashem’s desire here is that we not fool ourselves and rewrite the history of the past thirty-eight years! If we are to get anywhere in life – especially in the new life of Eretz Yisroel which will be fraught with so many challenges in the area of dealing with our physicality – it is imperative that we know who we are and what our past experiences have been.

The Rambam’s Take on Things:

Now it is time for us to learn a little bit of Rambam. In the Moreh Nevuchim (III:50) the Rambam discusses many of the different stories of the Torah whose functions are difficult to understand. One of the Parshiyos that he discusses there is our parsha of the masa’os which he explains as follows:

וממה שצריך שתדעהו, כי אין בחינת הספורים הנכתבים כבחינת הענינים הנראים, כי בענינים הנראים פרטים מביאים לדברים צריכים מאד א”א לזכרם מפני האריכות, וכשיתבונן האדם בספורים ההם יחשוב שיש בהם אריכות או כפל דברים, ואילו היה רואה מה שסופר היה יודע צורך מה שנאמר, ומפני זה כשתראה בתורה ספורים בזולת המצות, ותחשוב שהספור ההוא אין צורך לזכרו או שיש בו אריכות, אינו רק להיותך בלתי רואה הפרטים המביאים לזכור מה שנזכר, ומזה סדר זכר המסעות יראה מפשוטו של ענין שזכר מה שאין תועלת בו כלל, ומפני זאת המחשבה העולה על הלב אמר ויכתוב משה את מוצאיהם למסעיהם ע”פ ה’, ומקום הצורך אליו גדול מאד, מפני שכל המופתים אינם אמתיים רק מי שראם, אך לעתיד ישוב זכרם ספור, ואפשר שיכזיבם השומע, וידוע שאי אפשר להיות וגם לא יצוייר שיהיה מופת עומד קיים לדורות לבני אדם כלם, וממופתי התורה מן הגדולים שבהם, עמוד ישראל במדבר ארבעים שנה והמצא בו המן בכל יום, והמדבר ההוא כמו שזכר הכתוב, נחש שרף ועקרב וצמאון אשר אין מים, והם מקומות רחוקים מאד מן הישוב, בלתי טבעיים לאדם, לא מקום זרע ותאנה וגפן ורמון ומים אין לשתות, ואמר בהם גם כן ארץ לא עבר בה איש ולא ישב אדם שם, וכתוב בתורה לחם לא אכלתם ויין ושכר לא שתיתם, ואלו כלם מופתים גדולים גלוים נראים, וכאשר ידע השם יתעלה שאפשר לפקפק באלו המופתים בעתיד, כמו שמפקפקין בשאר הספורים, ויחשב שעמידתם היתה במדבר קרוב מן הישוב שאפשר לאדם לעמוד בו, (האדם) כאלו המדברות ששוכנים בהם הערביים היום, או שהם מקומות שאפשר לחרוש בהם ולזרוע ולקצור, או להזון באחד הצמחים אשר היו שם, או שמטבע המן לרדת במקומות ההם תמיד, או שיש במקומות ההם בארות מים, ומפני זה הסיר המחשבות ההם כלם, וחזק עניני אלו המופתים כלם בבאור המסעות ההם, שיראו אותם הבאים וידעו גודל המופת, בעמוד מין האדם במקומות ההם ארבעים שנה.

And among the things that you need to know are that there is a great difference between witnessing something personally and reading a written account of the event. When one sees an event transpire his eyes take in all of the details that are necessary to understand the event. These details are so numerous that it is nigh impossible to repeat them verbally due to the great lengthiness of the story! One who contemplates such written stories naturally thinks that the story could have been written much more concisely, or that the writer repeated himself numerous times. It is not so. Had he seen the event transpire he would know exactly why the writer wrote what he did, and the reason why here and there it was necessary to write at length, as well as the purpose behind the seeming repetitions. This being the case, when you see the Torah recount episodes that are not Mitzvos for no apparent reason, or if the story appears to be overly long, know that it only appears that way because you are unable to discern the details that the Torah is trying to communicate to you!

Among these accounts whose knowledge seems to be not at all necessary is the order of our journeys. And because Hashem knows that this thought is likely to run through the minds of his people He said the following pasuk: “And Moshe wrote their decampments for their journeys at Hashem’s command”. The truth however is, that the need for this parshah is truly great, and that is because all of the wonders and signs are only true to the ones who actually saw them. After these people pass on, their visual proofs turn into mere stories, and those accounts fall prey to the great danger of disbelief. Now it is well known that it is impossible nor will it ever be possible that there should be a wondrous sign that will last throughout the generations for all of mankind. Among the greatest of the wondrous signs of the Torah is the fact that Klal Yisroel lived in the desert for forty years and that in that wilderness they found mon to eat each day. The conditions in that desert were exactly as described in the pasuk “Snakes, fiery venomous serpents, scorpions; a parched wasteland where there was no water!” These places are very distant from settled areas, their conditions are unnatural to man. They are not places that can be planted, there are no figs, grapes, or pomegranates there. There is not even any drinkable water. They are said to be places that no man ever passed through nor were they ever settled.^[2] Furthermore the Torah writes that “[I led you for forty years…] You did not crave bread, nor did you need to distract yourselves with wine or beer.” You were completely undistracted by physical needs! These were all tremendous and openly visible wonders! Now Hashem knew that with the passage of time it would become possible for people to question these wonders, just as all stories are ultimately questioned. People would promote theories that perhaps we wandered close to the desert’s edge, that they were close to human civilization. They would claim that we stayed within areas which are hospitable to human habitation, much like the deserts which the Arabs inhabit to this day. Or, they might decide that our wanderings were in places that could be cultivated, and that our time in the desert was spent plowing and planting, reaping and harvesting; or that we were sustained by the natural vegetation that grew in the desert; or that the mon fell naturally in those places on a consistent basis; or that there were natural springs there. To forestall all such speculations, and to strengthen the power of these wonders to us^[3] Hashem laid out the exact itinerary of those journeys so that the coming generations could see the places we had been and could know for themselves the enormity of the wonders that were necessary to sustain humankind in these places for forty years.

So here we have laid out for us three different ways to understand the purpose for which Hashem recorded the masa’os:

1) Rashi and the Maharal understand that R. Tanchuma uses them to display Hashem’s great love for us by pointing out the significance of the different things that occurred during our stay in the desert.

2) The plain reading of the Medrash Tanchuma, as well as R. Shamshon Refael Hirsch use them to instruct us as to our failings and where we need to make amends.

3) The Rambam understands them to be a means of authenticating the Torah’s account of the wonders that Hashem performed for us in the desert.

Now, I have a problem with the way that Rashi and the Rambam understand this parshah, and that is as follows: These places and the names they were given were surely quite significant to the people who experienced them. Surely not even the passage of many, many years could stop their memories from being jogged by the mere mention of these names. Mention any of them to the people who first left the desert and began settling the land and his or her mind would suddenly flood with images as they were transported directly to that place in the desert. They would palpably relive the passionate feelings of love that they felt flow upon them from Hashem. This would keep the memories of those feelings from fading and so, as far as the first generation is concerned it is a wonderful thing to hear them each year as we lein. Perhaps the same could be said for the second generation who heard these But what about the coming generations? They did not experience those affectionate moments with the Ribono Shel Olam. How will these hints well up the founts of emotion in their hearts? These generations don’t even know where to attach these place names to. How will they be able to visit places which they cannot identify?

The Dangers of Static:

These questions were very bothersome to me, and through an unbelievable stroke of Hashgacha Peratis I came across a mehalech towards answering them as I travelled in the car the other day on a trip to Lakewood. I had with me a recording of one of the shiurim of HaRav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro zt”l and as always it was truly an incredible experience listening to his Torah. In this shiur he asked the following question on the pasuk that we say during the Shabbos day kiddush.

כִּ֣י שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים֩ עָשָׂ֨ה יְקֹוָ֜ק אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם֙ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֔ם וַיָּ֖נַח בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֑י עַל־כֵּ֗ן בֵּרַ֧ךְ יְקֹוָ֛ק אֶת־י֥וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֖ת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ:

For [in] six days Hashem created the Heavens and the Earth, the sea and all that is in them and He rested on the seventh day, therefore Hashem made the day of Shabbos the source of blessing^[4] and He sanctified it.

You will notice that the second word of the pasuk is ששת and literally should be translated “for six days Hashem created the world”. Rav Moshe zt”l asked the question that we patched in with brackets. Why does the pasuk not read כי בששת ימים עשה ה’? In his answer which was both deep and profound, my eyes were opened to an essential truth which can hopefully assist us in our parshah of Masei. He explained the pasuk to be saying as follows. “For [as a unit of] six days Hashem created the Heavens and the Earth… and He rested on the seventh day…” This world was created with two discrete conceptual units of time. There are on the one hand the six days of Creation. These days are transient, one flows into the next and so on and so forth. One after another they lead us towards a very specific destination, that is the Seventh day, Shabbos the day of rest. That day is not transient at all. Of course, in this world it passes as does everything else, but unlike the sixth day that led into it, Shabbos does not lead into the first day of the next week. It is simply a destination, a microcosm of the purpose of the entire world. A similar concept exists with the Mitzvos of Shemittah and Yovel. Seven Shemittah cycles of forty-nine years bring us to their own end-destination, that is the Yovel year. This is the way that the Ribono Shel Olam created His world, in a way where many units of transience lead up to a permanence. But that permanence does not end there. It simply positions me in the right place to step on the next escalator of transience which in turn lands me on yet another platform of permanence and so on and so forth. Life in Olam Hazeh is thus meant to be a perpetual journey of movement, and nothing could be worse than to hit a patch of static ice in which one is not accomplishing any growth.

Upon hearing this, something in my head clicked. I went back to the website to see what I had said in previous years on Parshas Masei and found there a shiur from two years ago in which I had elaborated upon a statement of the Ramban. In that shiur we were very bothered by the presence of two seemingly interjected Parshiyos that pop up just as we are settling down into the narrative of Klal Yisroel’s vendetta against Midian. There was the parshah of the Musafim at the end of Parshas Pinchas. There was the parsha of Nedarim at the beginning of Parshas Matos along with its close cousin, the parsha of the Shevua. In that shiur we explained a very important yesod which will help us out here as well. That yesod is this fact that life in the Midbar was in a way far closer to the ideal than the life which we would live in Eretz Yisroel. In the Midbar we were in the very close and intimate environs of the Shechina’s presence! The first thing we saw each morning upon opening our eyes was the Anan resting upon the Mishkan! The big question each morning was not whether I would be going to the Mishkan to hear the Levi’im sing and to watch the Avodah. That was a given! The only question was whether there was anything that I needed to take care of that might cause me to have to miss watching a part of the Avodah! In the Midbar there was no such thing as simply pulling out a grill and firing up some fleishigs for dinner! Basar taavah was forbidden. If I wanted to put some distance between myself and milchigs there was nothing for it but to bring a korban shelamim to the Mishkan and make the beracha of Al achilas zevach! It was impossible to escape the scent of the korbanos emanating from the fires of the Mizbeach and the sweet melodies of the Levi’im permeated the air all around.

All this was a constant feature in the life of every Yid – so long as they lived in the Midbar. Once we began settling the land we would no longer be in such intimate confines with the Ribono shel Olam! How would we manage? In a world that is so overwhelmingly physical who would keep us from getting sucked into it all? On the very doorstep of Eretz Yisroel, Hashem sent us these Parshiyos to provide us the tools we would need to handle all of this physicality. We explained there that Nedarim help us to put a little bit of space between ourselves and all pleasures physical. Shevu’os remind us that we are standing in the presence of the King constantly! Last but not least, the Musafim allowed us to connect to the Mishkan from long distance, by learning about the korbanos that are currently being offered up in the Mishkan or Beis Hamikdash.

With this knowledge now in our heads let us head back to the parsha of the masa’os. We wanted to know why it was that Hashem recorded them and what exactly they are supposed to mean to outsiders such as ourselves. With Rav Moshe Shmuel’s yesod in hand we can understand the following:

Life, as we have said before, is meant to be an ever extending upward spiral of growth. In the Mishkan this was easy to accomplish. Everything was facilitated for me to grow, and lest we grow too complacent and sedentary in our lifestyle, on average we were picked up and moved to a new spot once a year (save for the nineteen years spent in Kadesh)! That facilitated growth and movement would be coming to an abrupt halt upon our entry into Eretz Yisroel! Once we entered the land, we would be confronted with the new life of first conquering and then settling and building up the land of Eretz Yisroel. There we would encounter conditions of Menucha and of Nachalah. These present a grave danger! It is all too easy to settle into life beneath the Fig Tree and the Grape Vine, to become at home in the state of static. Though Yovel is a built in safeguard to this, telling me as it does precisely when rov yoshveha are aleha that this land is not mine, that כי לי הארץ כי גרים ותושבים אתם עמדי, the land belongs to Hashem and He apportions it as his will, we must deal with the fact that ultimately the Mitzvah of Yovel did not work for us in this way! What then can we give Klal Yisroel that will rescue them from this new menace of complacency?

Enter the masa’os. Reading through them we can see how we were constantly moving in the Desert, and we can remind ourselves that movement, nonstop and incessant is what life is all about! We wondered how the expressions of love revealed in these pesukim talk to us? Perhaps we can suggest that although we may have difficulty initially in tapping into this well-font of love, once we take it at the level that does talk to us – namely as a map that details to us this fact that life is about movement, not static – we will be able to merit hearing the loving voice in which that pasuk speaks! Thus we understand a new purpose for the masa’os. They are presented here to prepare us for the life we will soon enjoy upon entering into Eretz Yisroel. Their very presence beckons to us, shaking us out of the complacent revery of the shade beneath the Fig Tree and the Grape Vine. Grabbing us by the lapel they shout in our collective ear: “Get up! Do something about life! Don’t just sit there and nosh on the fruit. Accomplish! Grow! Move on to the next stage in this great dance called life!”

1. Perhaps we could try to suggest just such an intersection between Rashi and the Medrash. It is important to note that this Medrash is the source for Rashi’s comment here. As such it would be troubling indeed to say that Rashi is suggesting an entirely different understanding of the parshah than that of R. Tanchuma and such an intersection might very well be called for [ZB] ↑
2. Yirmiyahu 2:6. See Berachos 31a and Sotah 46b where this pasuk is expounded to mean that only those lands which Adam determined would be settled ever were. Thus because the man, that is Adam, never decreed that these places be settled, no man ever had reason to step foot in this desert. Consequently no one ever did. Klal Yisrael were the first to ever traverse this particular piece of real estate. (Maharsha to Sotah 46b) ↑
3. By allowing us to physically visit those places and see where ↑
4. See Ramban Bereishis 2:1 ↑

What underlies this story? We know its details so well – but are our eyes opened to its true motifs? I can only speak for myself, but there is so much here that I would really love to understand. The questions abound and we must pick somewhere to start and so we will start somewhere basic. It appears that Bilam’s plot was to pack in a one-two punch. The immorality of the women was calculated to tow in its wake the sin of Avodah Zarah, most specifically the worship of Pe’or. What is the relationship here? What did Bilam want to accomplish by twining these two sins together?

Let us read through some of the pesukim here together and see where we can get (Bamidbar 25:1-5):

וַיֵּ֥שֶׁב יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בַּשִּׁטִּ֑ים וַיָּ֣חֶל הָעָ֔ם לִזְנ֖וֹת אֶל־בְּנ֥וֹת מוֹאָֽב: וַתִּקְרֶ֣אןָ לָעָ֔ם לְזִבְחֵ֖י אֱלֹהֵיהֶ֑ן וַיֹּ֣אכַל הָעָ֔ם וַיִּֽשְׁתַּחֲו֖וּ לֵֽאלֹהֵיהֶֽן: וַיִּצָּ֥מֶד יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְבַ֣עַל פְּע֑וֹר וַיִּֽחַר־אַ֥ף יְקֹוָ֖ק בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל: וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְקֹוָ֜ק אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה קַ֚ח אֶת־כָּל־רָאשֵׁ֣י הָעָ֔ם וְהוֹקַ֥ע אוֹתָ֛ם לַיקֹוָ֖ק נֶ֣גֶד הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ וְיָשֹׁ֛ב חֲר֥וֹן אַף־יְקֹוָ֖ק מִיִּשְׂרָאֵֽל: וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶל־שֹׁפְטֵ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל הִרְגוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֲנָשָׁ֔יו הַנִּצְמָדִ֖ים לְבַ֥עַל פְּעֽוֹר:

And Yisrael settled in Shittim and the nation allowed themselves to stray after the daughters of Moav. And they invited the nation to partake of the offerings to their idols and the nation ate and prostrated themselves to their idols. And Yisrael sealed themselves onto Baal Peor, and the wrath of Hashem flared in Yisrael. And Hashem said to Moshe, take the leaders of the nation and let them hang the perpetrators before Hashem in the view of the sun and Hashem’s wrath shall withdraw from Yisrael. And Moshe said to the Justices of Yisrael, let each man kill those of his constituents who have sealed themselves onto Ba’al Pe’or.

What is astonishing about this parsha is the nonchalant manner in which the Torah seemingly rattles off yet another piece of Desert news! Klal Yisrael has just emerged from their thirty-eight year holding pattern of Desert life. We saw what happened the last time we were here with the Meraglim and we are determined that it not happen again. We are on the cusp of entering Eretz Yisrael and everything is just perfect – and then what?! Zenus? Avodah Zarah? Not just any Avodah zarah but the Pe’or? Every single person who gets to the end of Parshas Balak in the course of shnayim mikra should suddenly turn very pale, our knees should start wobbling and we should at least grab a chair, if not faint outright!? How in the world can we just sit here and simply absorb the smashing wallop that this parsha delivers?? Is there something wrong with us?

The Ramban on B’nos Moav:

Such a parshah does not afford us the luxury of saying “צריך עיון”. It is one which demands a reaction, the ghastly shock of its import cannot simply slip us by! We need some help here, and we must give a tremendous yasher koach to Hashem for having sent us the Ramban to illuminate this dark, scary and gloomy parshah (Bamidbar 25:16-18):

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְקֹוָ֖ק אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר: צָר֖וֹר אֶת־הַמִּדְיָנִ֑ים וְהִכִּיתֶ֖ם אוֹתָֽם: כִּ֣י צֹרְרִ֥ים הֵם֙ לָכֶ֔ם בְּנִכְלֵיהֶ֛ם אֲשֶׁר נִכְּל֥וּ לָכֶ֖ם עַל־דְּבַר־פְּע֑וֹר וְעַל־דְּבַ֞ר כָּזְבִּ֨י בַת־נְשִׂ֤יא מִדְיָן֙ אֲחֹתָ֔ם הַמֻּכָּ֥ה בְיוֹם־הַמַּגֵּפָ֖ה עַל־דְּבַר־פְּעֽוֹר:

And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying: Attack the Midyanim and kill them. For they were a source of affliction to you through the deception that they wiled against you in both the affair of Pe’or as well as on the account of Kozbi, princess of Midian their sister, who was killed on the day of death on the matter of Pe’or.

וטעם בנכליהם – כאשר פירשתי (לעיל כה א) כי זקני מדין חשבו המחשבה הרעה הזאת, כמו שנאמר (לעיל כב ד) ויאמר מואב אל זקני מדין, כי בהם נתיעצו מתחלה והם נתנו עצה זו למואב שתזנינה בנותם עמהם ויצמידו אותם לבעל פעור להדיחם מעל השם, ואם לא נזכר שם. ועוד ששלחו להם בת מלכם לזנות עמהם, וזה טעם ועל דבר כזבי בת נשיא מדין אחותם – כי לולי מדעת יועצי המלכות נעשה, כבודה בת מלך במדין מה תבקש בשטים בערבות מואב לבא אל מחנה עם אחר, כי ישראל בערבות מואב בשטים היו, ומאין תבא שם המדינית הזאת. אבל היתה יפת תאר מאד, ושלחו אותה זקני מדין שם כי אמרו בתואר אשה יפה רבים הושחתו (יבמות סג ב)^[1]:

The meaning of “b’nichleihem” – As I have already explained, it was the Elders of Midian who schemed up this horrible idea, as the pasuk says “And Moav said to the Elders of Midian.” For – although this is not mentioned at the outset – Moav initially consulted with these Elders, and they were the ones who gave counsel to Moav that they should have their daughters first seduce Klal Yisroel to have relations with them, by way of which they would cement them to Ba’al Pe’or and thus sever Klal Yisroel’s connection to Hashem. Furthermore, the Midianites even sent their princess to seduce them, thus the meaning of the pasuk “And on account of Kozbi the princess of Midian their sister.” For, were it not for the advice of the royal advisors, what would Her Majesty, Princess of Midian be doing in Shittim, in the camp of a foreign nation! For at this time, Yisroel were in the Plains of Moav in Shittim, and how did this Midianite come to be there?! But, she was exceedingly beautiful and the Elders of Midian sent her there, saying “Through the form of a beautiful woman, masses have been destroyed.

Almost as an aside, the Ramban throws in a nugget of information that speaks volumes. “והם נתנו עצה זו למואב שתזנינה בנותם עמהם ויצמידו אותם לבעל פעור להדיחם מעל ה’ – and they were the ones who gave counsel to Moav that they should have their daughters first seduce Klal Yisroel to have relations with them, by way of which they would seal them onto Ba’al Pe’or. Thus would they sever Klal Yisroel’s connection to Hashem.”

It is clear from the Ramban that the attachment that Klal Yisrael developed to the Pe’or was not happenstance and a quick look at the pesukim confirms this:

וַיִּצָּ֥מֶד יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְבַ֣עַל פְּע֑וֹר…

And Yisroel were attached to Baal Peor…

…הִרְגוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֲנָשָׁ֔יו הַנִּצְמָדִ֖ים לְבַ֥עַל פְּעֽוֹר.

… Let each man kill those of his constituents who were attached to Baal Peor.

Each time that the pasuk describes Klal Yisroel’s attachment to the Pe’or it uses the nifal form of the word. It was others who sealed them onto its lavatorial protrusions. This would never have happened, were it an outside pressure not exerted upon them, and that pressure was the zenus generated by the advice of the Elders of Midian. Why did they give this advice? What did these Elders want to accomplish? Says the Ramban it was להדיחם מעל ה’! They wanted to cut the bonds that tie us fast to the Ribono Shel Olam! The hatred that the Elders of Midian display here is unbelievable! For the sole purpose of undoing the special bond that exists between us and the Ribono Shel Olam they made peace with their age-old enemies^[2], sent their own delegation to Bilam and even made a prostitute out of their princess! They were not afraid of the Bnei Yisrael! They had nothing to fear, as their lands were nowhere near the future conquest of Klal Yisrael, so what did they want this for? Their was no reason other than an irrational hatred of Klal Yisrael and everything that we stand for!

But it was not only the Elders of Midian who were in on this plot. Chazal have a kabbalah that a significant hand was lent to the plot by Bilam whose involvement from beginning to end was also a product of Midianite counsel. Their intimate knowledge of Moshe’s power of tefillah caused them to first seek a similar weapon against Klal Yisroel in Bilam who also possessed a special relationship with the Ribono Shel Olam. But that did not pan out and so they resorted to Plan B which was this two step process of first toppling the morality of Klal Yisrael through the prostitution of the Moabite women, and then delivering the knockout punch through the Pe’or. This is a summary of what we are taking away from the words of the Ramban.

Midian’s Confidence:

There is something here that bothers me. What made the Midianites so sure that their plan would work? Let’s think about the people whom they are targeting for a moment! These are people who not five minutes before were just described by Bilam as being “teruas Melech bo”, dear and close friends of the Ribono Shel Olam! On the morning of this whole sordid affair they got up and ate mon for breakfast. Do we have any idea of what the mon was? The pasuk in Tehillim (78:25) describes the mon as follows:

לֶ֣חֶם אַ֭בִּירִים אָ֣כַל אִ֑ישׁ…

Bread of mighty ones was eaten by man…

Rashi explains that the mighty ones that this pasuk refers to are the angels! Angels are purely spiritual beings, and what sustains them is purely spiritual sustenance. The cheerios that Klal Yisroel mixed with their milk that morning was a chunk of spirituality incarnate! We can only imagine the exalted level of the Klal Yisrael as they recited the blessing of “Borei Lechem min Hashamayim!” How in the world could anyone dream that they would be successful at crashing down people who stand at the top of the world through such a plot? But we know that they did entertain such a dream, and we know even further that they were not wrong! They snared 157,200 people at minimum, and not only did they snare them but they firmly cemented them to the Pe’or! How could they have known? Where was their confidence rooted? How did they know that their gamble would pay off?

The truth is that I don’t have a good answer to this question. I have no idea how people who were flying at such an altitude could have had any sort of desire for these women. But I do think that we can understand a little bit of what took place. Let us think back to Parshas Chukas. There, in the wake of Aharon’s passing we encounter the following shocking pasuk:

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר הָעָ֗ם בֵּֽאלֹהִים֘ וּבְמֹשֶׁה֒ לָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֙נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לָמ֨וּת בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר כִּ֣י אֵ֥ין לֶ֙חֶם֙ וְאֵ֣ין מַ֔יִם וְנַפְשֵׁ֣נוּ קָ֔צָה בַּלֶּ֖חֶם הַקְּלֹקֵֽל:

And the nation complained to Hashem and to Moshe “Why did you take us up from Mitzrayim to die in the desert, for there is no bread and no water and our souls are disgusted by the nutrient-lite bread.

Chazal tell us that this bout of complaining was not simply a case of the doldrums expressing themselves. It was a very calculated decision to take themselves down a notch in the level of their Ruchniyus before entering Eretz Yisroel. They did not want to enter the land as Ochlei HaMon! They felt that it was too much for them, they just wanted to be normal people! Sure, they would keep the mitzvos and sure they would learn Torah! They would be kovei’a itim, they would daven three times a day, but to maintain this level of bitachon where they would go to sleep each night with not a morsel in the cupboard, knowing that the slightest misstep would result at the very least in a good long walk the next morning – and at the worst who knows what – they felt that that was too much for them. They just couldn’t handle it, and so they drew back. They rejected the mon and in so doing they rejected the Ribono Shel Olam himself! This was a disaster of epic proportions! Although they did teshuva through the episode of the nechash hanechoshes, the ripple effects of that decision were still to be felt for quite some time and it is in the light of that decision that we must understand what occurred here.

It would appear to me that this catastrophic decision that Klal Yisroel made to worship the Pe’or was a very ehrliche one, if such could be said. It is possible that we might even be able to understand it once we understand a very important hashkafa about physicality.

The Spirituality of Physicality:

One of the most oft recited Berachos in our lexicon is the beracha of Asher Yatzar. In this beracha where we thank Hashem for making our body function so incredibly smoothly we say something that we say nowhere else. It is a phrase that is just absolutely terrific and goes as follows:

ברוך אתה ה’ אלקינו מלך העולם אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה וברא בו נקבים נקבים חלולים חלולים גלוי וידוע לפני כסא כבודיך שאם יפתח אחד מהם או יסתם אחד מהם אי אפשר להתקיים ולעמוד לפניך ברוך אתה ה’ רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות.

You are the source of blessing, Hashem our G-d, Ruler over the entire world, who has formed man with wisdom and created in him many openings and many cavities. It is revealed and known before Your Seat of Glory that if one of them were to be opened or one of them were to be blocked, it would be impossible to exist and to stand before You. You are the source of blessing, Hashem, healer of all flesh and doer of wondrous things.

Did you notice something unbelievable about this beracha? No? Go back and look again. Watch the phraseology and the person in which it speaks. We begin the main text of the beracha in the third person. “who has formed man with wisdom and created in him many openings and many cavities.” So far this is just like the beracha of Hamotzi or Shehakol or just about any other beracha. But then we switch! Suddenly we come face to face with the Creator of the world and we speak directly to Him! “It is revealed and known before Your Seat of Glory!” There is no other beracha to my knowledge in which we do this^[3]! What is the purpose of interjecting this soliloquy to the Creator in the middle of what seems to be a birkas hashevach?

I believe that the answer to this question will become self-evident once we contemplate the purpose of the beracha of Asher Yatzar. Let us think about what we are doing over here. Earlier this day, or perhaps yesterday we ate a meal. Whatever it was that we ate then was made out of two parts, both intimately and intricately intertwined: ochel and p’soles. Ochel is that which the body can absorb, and p’soles is that which it cannot. To survive, the body must be able to split the two from each other. Somehow, calcium and vitamin B, potassium, iron, magnesium and all sorts of amino acids must be extracted from unabsorbable cellulose housings. To accomplish this vital task Hashem has devised an unbelievably complex series of chemical, hormonal and mechanical processes, and He personally supervises each and every single one of literally millions if not billions of reactions to direct each and every last molecule of nutrition to the precise place in the body that needs it. Every single movement of our bowels in the Beis Hakisei is coordinated and choreographed directly from the Kisei HaKavod by the Ribono Shel Olam! This is absolutely incredible! Is there any place more lacking in kavod than the lavatory? That’s what we would think! Yet that is the one place where we are told that Hashem watches over it precisely from His Kisei HaKavod!

Why are we so incredulous? Because we ourselves are very distant from the true understanding of reality. The truth is that the Ribono Shel Olam is the one who keeps the entire world in existence, in every single one of its infinitely infinite details, at every single second! There is no one else! There are no other forces delegated to deal with the uncomfortable details of life. Everything is the Ribono Shel Olam, and lest we forget that fact, and think that in our most debased moments we are somehow disconnected from Hashem, along comes the beracha of Asher Yatzar to remind us in the most powerful way that it just is not so! “It is revealed and known before your Kisei HaKavod!” Right there, in the exact same setting as the most exalted spiritual creations, the Seraphim omdim mima’al lo, the Chayos yishoreiru, Keruvim yaronu, v’Erelim yevareicho, concepts that are so lofty that we dare not even translate them here; that exact setting is where Hashem decides the precise details of our bowel movements!

What we are hitting upon here is that the entire chasm that separates between the lofty and the mundane is completely a figment of our imaginations. Our second nature is to imagine the Ribono Shel Olam as completely above and removed from this world. There couldn’t be a more false notion than that! Each and every one of the physical aspects of our lives are as intimately and intricately interwoven with the spiritual as are the nutrient and waste components of the predigested food in our stomachs! There is no great divide! Physicality and spirituality are not strangers to each other, and they most certainly are not supposed to be enemies! They are partners in life! When one lives in the way that Hashem wants us to they are married together in a most lovely and harmonious fashion!

An Error in Perception:

This is a concept that escaped those people who rejected the mon. Their desire to backtrack from their relationship with the Ribono Shel Olam, to live mundane lives where they could have lived sublime ones, showed that they had not absorbed the lessons of Asher Yatzar! They did not realize that a mundane life of subsistence on physical fruits is no less sublime than a spiritual life of subsistence on mon! Had they understood this then they would have understood that all of their grumbling was absolutely pointless!

But they didn’t understand. Blocked off as they were from the world of Asher Yatzar, they lost touch with this reality, that it is the Ribono Shel Olam who cares for the physical in the exact same way that He cares for the spiritual! Numb and out of touch, overwhelmed by the real feel of physical existence – and most importantly, confronted by the powerful desire for the Moabite women – they were prime targets for the Pe’or and its blandishments. “Turn to me for your physical needs. I can help you. You have a whole physical life that needs tending to. Hand that job off to me. The Ribono Shel Olam is much to lofty to be bothered with your puny physical needs!” This was a terrible chink in our otherwise impregnable spiritual armor, and with his knowledge of it, Bil’am felt that he had a sure bet. Unfortunately, he was not wholly wrong. Baruch Hashem Klal Yisroel survived, but the cost was unbelievable!

The Meaning of Kana’us:

Into this terrible breach stepped Pinchas. With a deft and miraculous thrust of his spear, he impaled Zimri and Kozbi and brought their terrible offence to a sudden halt. This incredible act of zealous kana’us took the place of what by all rights should have been the jealous kana’us of the Ribono Shel Olam and stopped the decimating plague that had begun to wreak such havoc in Klal Yisroel, most particularly the Shevet of Shimon. To fully appreciate the kana’us of Pinchos it would be instructive to first appreciate the kana’us of the Ribono Shel Olam himself in this matter. Let us turn to the Ramban back in Parshas Nasso (Bamidbar 5:15):

וְהֵבִ֨יא הָאִ֣ישׁ אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ֘ אֶל־הַכֹּהֵן֒ וְהֵבִ֤יא אֶת־קָרְבָּנָהּ֙ עָלֶ֔יהָ עֲשִׂירִ֥ת הָאֵיפָ֖ה קֶ֣מַח שְׂעֹרִ֑ים לֹֽא־יִצֹ֨ק עָלָ֜יו שֶׁ֗מֶן וְלֹֽא־יִתֵּ֤ן עָלָיו֙ לְבֹנָ֔ה כִּֽי־מִנְחַ֤ת קְנָאֹת֙ ה֔וּא מִנְחַ֥ת זִכָּר֖וֹן מַזְכֶּ֥רֶת עָוֹֽן:

And the man shall bring his wife to the Kohen and he shall bring her offering for her, one tenth of an eiphah of barley flour; he shall not pour upon it oil nor shall he place upon it frankincense for it is a mincha of kina’os, a mincha of remembrance to recall sin.

Says the Ramban:

ועל דעת כל המפרשים “כי מנחת קנאות הוא” לומר בעבור שזאת המנחה מנחת עונש היא גרועה להיות שעורים בלא שמן ולבונה, כי המנחה אשר אזכרתה לרצון לה’ באה סלת חטים בשמן ולבונה. ולפי דעתי, טעם “כי מנחת קנאות הוא” יחזור אל ראש הפסוק, יאמר שיביא האיש את הקרבן על אשתו כלומר במקומה, כי מנחת קנאות היא להזכיר עונה ואיננו ראוי שתביאנו היא משלה, אבל הוא יקריב מנחה לשם שיקנא את קנאתו וינקום את נקמתו ממנה. וטעם השעורים, שתהיה סערת חמת ה’ חמה יוצאה סער מתחולל על ראש הרשעה יחול, וכענין צליל שעורים האמור בגדעון (שופטים ז יג) שפתרו אותו לסער ומהומה רבה. וכן בכלי חרס, סימן שתשבר ככלי יוצר, וכן העפר, כי עפר היא ואל עפר תשוב.

The opinion of all the commentators is that the words “for it is a mincha of kina’os” come to say that because this mincha is of a punitive nature that it is degraded to consist of barley without oil or frankincense, for it is only the mincha whose purpose is to arouse Hashem’s “good-will” that is comprised of fine wheat flour with oil and frankincense. In my opinion however, the meaning of the words “for it is a mincha of kina’os” hearkens back to the beginning of the pasuk and it means to say as follows: In this case, it is the man who brings the mincha “upon his wife” that is to say in her stead, for since it is a mincha of kina’os, it is not fitting that she should bring it of her own and on her own. Rather he brings the mincha to Hashem in order that He take up his (the husband’s) jealousy and avenge from her his own vengeance. Accordingly, the reason this mincha consists of barley, “se’orim”, is to bring about a “se’aras cheimas Hashem”, that a whirlwind tempest of Hashem’s wrath should fall furiously upon the head of this evil woman, (in a similar vein to the cake of se’orim in the story of Gide’on^[4] where the meaning of the barley in the dream was interpreted to be a storm of terrible upheaval). It is in a similar vein that it is brought in an earthenware container, as a sign that she should shatter like a piece of pottery. So too does the procedure call for earth, for she is made of earth and it is to there that she will return.

Such fury! Such rage! Do you hear the Ramban’s phraseology?! The jealous wrath of the husband is so violently strong that the Torah directs him to call forth a whirlwind tempest to shatter his faithless wife and turn her back into the dust that she came from! His bitter hatred drips from every single word in the parsha with merciless venom! This is what jealousy looks like when a woman betrays the trust of her husband.

Klal Yisroel is married to the Ribono Shel Olam. Our chuppah took place beneath the held-aloft mountain of Sinai, and ever since then we have enjoyed the closest doting relationship possible with the Ribono Shel Olam. To turn now to the Pe’or was a terrible breach of faith with Him, an exact equivalent to the married woman who seeks the attentions of a man who is not her husband and it aroused an equivalent wrath by the Ribono Shel Olam! That fury poured out in a rolling wave, a veritable tsunami of plague and death. But suddenly it all stopped.

How did it stop? It was held back singlehandedly by Pinchas who poured out his entire self in one furious and vengeful thrust of the spear for the vengeance of Hashem’s honor! His fury and hatred for what Zimri had done was equal to the fury of the Ribono Shel Olam and stood in its place. What was to have been accomplished by the deaths of many thousands more was instead achieved by the dying gasps of Zimri and Kozbi as they were held aloft, impaled at the top of Pinchas’s spear.

It is crucial that we understand what is going on here. The Sefer Mima’amakim explains that this terrible hatred of the husband for his wayward wife is the result of the incredibly intimate relationship that they had enjoyed together. She is him! Etzem mei’atzamai, basar m’besari! By entertaining the affections of someone else she is taking a knife and cutting deep, deep into the very being of who he is! He is wounded to his very core and through the minchas kina’os the husband lets forth his anguish at what has happened to him! “Let the gale storm winds completely smash and shatter her! Let them return her to the dust from which she was formed!” And so it is in our relationship with the Ribono Shel Olam. When Klal Yisroel tells the Ribono Shel Olam that they are not interested in his jurisdiction over their physicality, that the Pe’or is just a fine substitute who can care for their physical needs, they are, k’vayachol cutting into their relationship with the Ribono Shel Olam in a caustic way! Yisroel v’Oraysa v’Kudsha Brich Hu chad hu! We and the Ribono Shel Olam are one entity and this rejection of the Ribono Shel Olam’s dominion eats away at our union in a most palpable way. Though we cannot possibly “injure” the Ribono Shel Olam Himself in the way that the Sotah slashes into her husband, the Ribono Shel Olam cherishes his relationship with us far more than any mortal husband could care for his mortal wife. His reaction to our betrayal is thus many times more severe. “Smash them!” “Shatter them!” “Let their smithereens revert to dust!”

But the Ribono Shel Olam is not alone in His rage. Someone else is fueled by its flames and that is Pinchas. His visceral reaction to the chillul Hashem caused by Zimri showed that he identified completely with the Ribono Shel Olam! By Pinchas there was absolutely no separation between himself and the Ribono Shel Olam. The union of Hashem and Klal Yisrael remained complete within himself. When he took action it was the Ribono Shel Olam taking action, and through that action he was able to reunite the rest of Klal Yisroel with the Ribono Shel Olam once more.

1. תשלום לשון הרמב”ן ותרגומו:

   וקרוב הוא שהיה גם בלעם בעצה הזו, כי בשובו מארץ מואב עבר במדין כי דרכו משם והיה ביועצי המלכות, ואולי נתעכב שם לדעת מה יהיה בהם, לפיכך מצאוהו ישראל במדין והרגוהו שם (להלן לא ח). ויהיה פירוש ויקם בלעם וילך וישב למקומו (לעיל כד כה), שהלך לו לשוב אל ארצו. וכן נראה, כי ישראל לא יהרגו המתנבא רק ברשות התורה, אבל כאשר נאמר להם כי צוררים הם בנכליהם אשר נכלו לכם וגו’, הנה כל המתנכלים מחוייבי מיתה, ולכן המיתו גם בלעם כי ידעו שהוא בעל העצה הרעה הזאת:

   It is likely as well that Bilam was involved in this plot, for upon his return home from Moav he passed through Midian, for his path led through there and he was one of Midian’s royal counselors. Possibly, he tarried there to find out what would be the result of their plot. Thus it was that Klal Yisroel found him there in Midian and killed him there (Bamidbar 31:8). The proof to this thesis (that Bilam was the source of this horrible plot) is that Klal Yisroel would never kill a Navi without the permission of the Torah. When they were told “For they afflicted you with the plot that they schemed against you…” all those who were in on the plot were liable to die, and therefore they killed Bilam, knowing as they did that he was the one behind this evil plot. ↑

2. See Rashi to beginning of Parshas Balak. ↑
3. Although in the beracha of Borei Nefashos we seem to say something similar “You are the source of blessing, Hashem, Ruler of the world, Creator of many souls and their deficiencies, for everything that You have created in order to sustain the soul of all living beings, the source of blessing is He who vitalizes all the worlds”, the truth is that there are many, myself included who follow the ruling of the Gaon to recite the word שברא rather than שבראת thus rendering the blessing’s translation to mean “for everything that He has created in order to sustain the soul of all living beings…”, keeping this beracha in the third person throughout. ↑
4. See Shoftim 7:13 where Gide’on is commanded by Hashem to listen in to the conversation of two Midianite soldiers in the vast Midianite army that had invaded Eretz Yisroel. There he heard one recount to the other his dream in which he had seen a cake of barley flour strike a tent in the Midianite camp: it pierced the tent and flipped it over, after which the tent collapsed. His friend interpreted the dream as a reference to the impending defeat of the Midianite army by the hand of Gide’on. ↑

כָּל־זֹ֖ה נִסִּ֣יתִי בַֽחָכְמָ֑ה אָמַ֣רְתִּי אֶחְכָּ֔מָה וְהִ֖יא רְחוֹקָ֥ה מִמֶּֽנִּי:

I have tested every wisdom; I said that I would become wise but it is distant from me.

Says the Midrash (Midrash Zuta, Koheles 7:23):

כל זה נסיתי בחכמה. ר’ יצחק פתח כל זה נסיתי בחכמה, אמר שלמה לא הנחתי חכמה בעולם שלא עמדתי עליה, וכיון שהגעתי לפרשת פרה אדומה, אמרתי אחכמה והיא רחוקה ממני.

I have tested every wisdom – R. Yitzchok opened his exposition “I have tested every wisdom – Shlomo said “There is no wisdom in this world that I did not learn and fully understand – until I got to the Parah Aduma. Then I said ‘I will be wise [i.e. add this wisdom to the list of all the others] but it is distant from me.’”

So this one is a tough call for us. If Shlomo Hamelech didn’t understand it, then it would seem to be a futile endeavor for us to even think about trying to get a handle on it. However, the truth is that we need not throw in the towel right away. Although we are guaranteed by the Torah not to understand this mitzvah, we need to first understand what it is that we cannot understand. After all, there is a lot that we do understand about it! There are many areas in Shas which deal with the Parah Adumah and those are of course sugios which each and every single Jewish man is obligated to learn and expected to know! Obviously those issues discussed therein are not concealed from us and do not fall under these words of Shlomo Hamelech. This is an issue which we shall return to soon with the help of Hashem.

Let us try to first get a handle on the opening salvo of the Torah (Bamidbar 19:2):

זֹ֚את חֻקַּ֣ת הַתּוֹרָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה יְקֹוָ֖ק לֵאמֹ֑ר דַּבֵּ֣ר׀ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֣וּ אֵלֶיךָ֩ פָרָ֨ה אֲדֻמָּ֜ה תְּמִימָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר אֵֽין־בָּהּ֙ מ֔וּם אֲשֶׁ֛ר לֹא־עָלָ֥ה עָלֶ֖יהָ עֹֽל:

This is the legislation of the Torah that Hashem has commanded to say: “Speak to the Bnei Yisroel and they shall take for you a red cow that is perfect that has never borne a yoke.”

Chukah as used here is a language of legislation, one which denotes the creation or formulation of a law. Thus, this mitzvah that we are about to learn about is a “legislation of the Torah”; that is to say, it is a legislation whose creation is demanded by the precepts of the Torah itself. It is that which separates between us and the nations of the world which demands this mitzvah, and those dwelling on the other side of the fence do not miss that fact. Let us bend an ear to Rashi:

זאת חקת התורה – לפי שהשטן ואומות העולם מונין את ישראל לומר מה המצוה הזאת ומה טעם יש בה, לפיכך כתב בה חקה, גזירה היא מלפני ואין לך רשות להרהר אחריה:

This is the legislation of the Torah – because the Satan and the nations of the world taunt Klal Yisroel saying “What is this Mitzvah and what reason is there for it?” Therefore the Torah wrote it in the language of a chukah, to say “This is my command, you have no permission to question it!”

One thing that should hit us squarely in the face is the fact that Rashi voices this question through the mouths of our antagonists. What about our own questions? We also want to understand this mitzvah, why not allow us to ask it in our own context? Rashi’s choice to do the opposite seems to indicate that our respective questions are of a different sort. Let us take a look at the Midrash Rabbah where this is illustrated vividly (Bamidbar Rabbah 19:8)

שאל עובד כוכבים אחד את רבן יוחנן בן זכאי אילין עובדייא דאתון עבדין נראין כמין כשפים אתם מביאים פרה ושורפין אותה וכותשין אותה ונוטלין את אפרה ואחד מכם מטמא למת מזין עליו ב’ וג’ טיפין ואתם אומרים לו טהרת, אמר לו לא נכנסה בך רוח תזזית מימיך אמר לו לאו, ראית אדם שנכנסה בו רוח תזזית אמר לו הן א”ל ומה אתם עושין לו אמר לו מביאין עיקרין ומעשנין תחתיו ומרביצים עליה מים והיא בורחת א”ל ישמעו אזניך מה שאתה מוצא מפיך כך הרוח הזו רוח טומאה דכתיב (זכריה יג) וגם את הנביאים ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ מזין עליו מי נדה והוא בורח לאחר שיצא אמרו לו תלמידיו רבינו לזה דחית בקנה לנו מה אתה אומר אמר להם חייכם לא המת מטמא ולא המים מטהרין אלא אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא חקה חקקתי גזירה גזרתי אי אתה רשאי לעבור על גזרתי דכתיב זאת חוקת התורה

An idol worshipper once asked Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai “These actions that you do look very much like sorcery! You take a female cow, you burn it, grind it down, and take its ashes – then, when one of you becomes contaminated by the dead, you sprinkle two or three drops of this concoction on him and you say “You are now purified!” He [Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai] said back to him “Have you never been possessed by the spirit of Tezazis?” He [the idol worshipper] replied “No”. “Have you ever seen someone who was possessed by the spirit of Tezazis?” “Yes.” “And what do you do for him?” The idolater responded, “One brings herbs and causes them to smoke, then they spray water over it and the spirit flees.” Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai responded “Let your ears hear what is coming from your mouth! It is precisely the same with the Parah Aduma. This spirit is one of impurity as it is written “And the prophets as well as the spirit of impurity I shall remove from the land.” We sprinkle on it the waters of the Parah Aduma and it flees.” After the idolater left, his students said to him “Rabbeinu! This one you pushed away with a cane. What are you going to tell us?” He answered “By your lives, it is not the dead body that contaminates, and it is not the water that purifies. Rather, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, “A statute I have legislated, a decree I have decreed, you are not allowed to violate My command, as it says “This is the legislation of the Torah!”

Here we have held side by side, the answers to the respective questions of Klal Yisroel and the nations of the world. From them we can clearly see that there is a world of a difference between the way that we view death and the way that they view it. The way they see it, death draws down a ghastly spirit of impurity. Just pass through their neighborhoods come October time and you can see the associations that they make with the concept of death! Every form of ugliness and cruelty rears its head in various nylon and vinyl forms!^[1]

We however know that the truth is very different. Though impure spirits are very real – we wash negel vasser every morning in order to rid ourselves of the Bas Melech – they are not a product of death! It is not the dead body that contaminates, and it is not the water that purifies! Rather, Hashem has decreed that tumah come into existence when one dies. Any spirit of impurity which is hanging around is only due to the fact of Hashem echad! All of creation is held in existence by the one Ribono Shel Olam, and everything that exists, whether spiritual or physical is interconnected. The physical world that we inhabit is in reality only the most shallow layer of the infinite spiritual world that overlays it.

Thus, the physical reality that we experience is reflective of the spiritual reality that underlies all physicality and therefore, once Hashem imposed a spiritual decree of tumah upon the deceased body, we witness the effects of that decree in the form of the ruchos of tumah that are in fact present. But death itself is not impure and does not of itself cause any of this tumah to come about.

This weltanschauung gives for a very different set of questions! The nations of the world look at what is going on as belonging to the netherworld which they imagine to be opened before them – hence they can only conclude that we are practicing sorcery! But we know that death does not open the chasm to ghouls and ghosts. It is merely a very sad parting of two dear friends who have worked together for a lifetime. What room is there in such a setting for sorcery! What takes some work at understanding is why such a parting requires this interesting shower, but questions of sorcery? There couldn’t be a more ridiculous notion than that!

What’s not to Understand?

Let us go back to the part of the chukim that we don’t understand. What is it that we don’t understand? We pointed out earlier that there are many, many mishnayos about the Parah Adumah which we do understand! In what sense is this halacha such a chok?

כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְקֹוָ֔ק אִם־לֹ֥א בְרִיתִ֖י יוֹמָ֣ם וָלָ֑יְלָה חֻקּ֛וֹת שָׁמַ֥יִם וָאָ֖רֶץ לֹא־שָֽׂמְתִּי:

So says Hashem, [just as] it is not possible to annul my covenant with the day and the night; nor is it possible to undo the statutes of heaven and earth^[2].

In this pasuk the Navi refers to the laws of nature as chukim. He does not mean to say by this that we don’t understand the force of gravity or the laws of motion. Modern science understands a tremendous amount about these laws and their application, just as we understand vast and profound insights into the Parah Adumah. The status of chok does not mean total obfuscation! What it does mean is that the reason it must be that way is hidden from us. There is no professor alive who can explain to you why objects fall down. That there is a force known to us as gravity which pulls them down can be explained, and we can tell the exact rate and speed at which any given object will fall. But why did Hashem make such a force? Why did Hashem make every action have an exact equal and opposite reaction rather than a half of one? No one can explain that, just as no one could possibly explain why the mazeh and tamei are tahor while an outside party who touches the waters becomes tamei. With this knowledge we can better understand the meaning of our first pasuk:

זֹ֚את חֻקַּ֣ת הַתּוֹרָ֔ה…

This is the legislation which the Torah demands…

It is not in the human ken to understand the imperative for this halacha, but this much we do know. It’s existence is one which is completely in sync with the precepts and principles of the Torah. The very existence of the Torah demands that this be the halacha! There must be a parsha of tumas meis and Parah Adumah.

Having set forth the issues that are not within our grasp, let us think about what we might be able to understand. As we have explained we are not asking “Why” questions for those are not within the purview of our mind’s ability to understand. What we are asking are the “How” questions. Given the demand of the Torah for such a parsha, how does it work?

A good place to start here is with the Ramban. In the beginning of our parsha he tells us as follows:

זאת חקת התורה – לפי שהשטן ואומות העולם מונין את ישראל לומר מה המצוה הזאת, לפיכך כתב בה חקה, גזירה היא מלפני ואין לך רשות להרהר אחריה, לשון רש”י מדברי רבותינו (יומא סז ב). וכבר כתבתי בענין שעיר המשתלח (ויקרא טז ח) מה טעם לאומות שיהיו מונין אותנו בזאת יותר משאר הקרבנות שיכפרו ויש מהם שיטהרו כקרבנות הזב והיולדת, כי מפני היותה נעשית בחוץ יראה להם שהיא נזבחת לשעירים על פני השדה, והאמת שהיא להעביר רוח טומאה ושריפתה כריח ניחוח בחוץ:

This is the legislation of the Torah – “Because the Satan and the nations of the world taunt Klal Yisroel, saying “What is this Mitzvah?” Therefore the Torah wrote it in the language of chukah, it is a decree from before Me and you have no permission to question it.” This is the language of Rashi, who quotes from our teachers. Now I have already written in regards to the sa’ir hamishtalei’ach why the nations specifically taunt us about this sacrifice; why it is more noteworthy to them more than any of the other sacrifices which atone, or more specifically which purify such as the sacrifices of the zav and the new mother. Their plaint is due to the fact that these services takes place outside of the Beis Hamikdash, and as such they appear to be offered up to the demons out in fields. The truth however is that they serve as an “air freshener”; they remove the spirit of tumah^[3], and their burning is like a pleasing aroma outside the Beis Hamikdash.

This is what the nations of the world simply cannot understand. They have no problem with korbanos. Those are offered up in the Beis Hamikdash, in the four walls that designate the place where Hashem rests in His presence in this world. They understand the concept of bringing a korban and they have no issue with that. But how can one bring a korban out in the fields? A korban is supposed to be makriv oneself to Hashem, to bring oneself into Hashem’s fold as it were – how can that be done in a place where there is no hashra’as haShechina!? It must be that this is no korban at all, rather some sorcerous rite that is used in connection with all that is necromantically associated! So in what way are you, the Klal Yisroel any better than we? We are quite good at necromancy ourselves, you know!

What is the truth? The truth is that the whole big fuss that they make here about the Beis Hamikdash is simply not true! The Ribono Shel Olam is מלא כל הארץ כבודו! His glory fills the entire universe! In the terms of hashra’as haShechina there is not one whit of a difference between my backyard and the Kodesh HaKodashim, save that on my limited level I personally find it a whole lot easier to access the divine when I am in the proximity of the Beis Hamikdash. But should Hashem’s desire be for me to access him out in the field then there is no reason why I cannot do so! Necromancy? Sorcery? Are you out of your minds?!

Turning Distance to Closeness – The Life of the Yid:

But the truth is that it does not end here. What do we do with the Parah Adumah? We slaughter it and collect its blood. The body of the cow gets burned. What about the blood? The Kohen takes it and sprinkles from it seven times toward the Ohel Moed. Remember, all of this takes place outside of Yerushalayim and the blood has no hope of making it anywhere near the Ohel Moed. But that makes no difference to us here because what we are doing is creating kedusha out in the open field! Obviously it is not the same level of kedusha, but by fulfilling Hashem’s will in this mitzvah of Parah Adumah we banish the general miasma of tumah that interrupts between us denizens of this world and Hashem and allow ourselves access to His kedusha, even out here in the wild blue yonder!

This concept is something which we practice every single morning. We mentioned earlier the halacha of washing negel vasser and the effect that it has of banishing the spirit of Bas Melech that rests on our hands when we wake up each morning. The truth is however that there is far more that goes into this halacha. The Mishna Berurah tells us the following in the beginning of Siman Daled (O.C. 4:1:1):

מחבר – ירחץ ידיו ויברך על נטילת ידים

משנה ברורה – יש ע”ז שני טעמים [א] הרא”ש כתב לפי שידים של אדם עסקניות הן וא”א שלא יגע בבשר המטונף בלילה לזה תקנו חז”ל ברכה על הנטילה לק”ש ולתפלה והרשב”א כתב לפי שבשחר אחר השינה אנו נעשים כבריה חדשה דכתיב חדשים לבקרים רבה אמונתך צריכין אנו להודות לו יתברך שבראנו לכבודו לשרתו ולברך שמו ועל דבר זה תקנו בשחר כל אותן הברכות שאנו מברכין בכל בוקר לכן גם דבר זה תקנו בשחר להתקדש בקדושתו וליטול ידינו מן הכלי ככהן שמקדש ידיו מן הכיור קודם עבודתו.^[4]

Mechaber – One should wash his hands [upon arising] and recite the blessing of Al Netilas Yadayim.

Mishna Berurah – There are two reasons for this halacha:

1) The Rosh writes that the reason is because one’s hands rummage around constantly and it is impossible that they did not touch parts of the body that are soiled at any point during the night. Therefore Chazal enacted the blessing of Al Netilas Yadayim when one washes his hands for Kerias Shema and Tefillah.
2) The Rashba writes that the reason is because in the morning, after we have slept, we are rejuvenated and are made entirely anew, as the pasuk writes “Renewed every morning, how great is your trust”, therefore we need to thank Hashem Yisbarach for having created us for his glory, to serve Him and to bless His name, and it was concerning this matter that they enacted all of those blessings that we recite every morning. In the same vein they enacted this matter as well, that each and every morning we sanctify ourselves with His kedusha and wash our hands from a vessel in analogy to the Kohen who sanctifies his hands from the Kiyor before performing his service.

Did you ever think of your morning routine in this light? That you are a Kohen, that your daily grind demands preparation in exactly the same way that the Kohen must prepare himself to do the Avodah!? He washes his hands from the Kiyor and heads off to offer up the Ketores; you wash your hands from the negel vasser basin and head off to Daven, grab a bite of breakfast and then spend the day wrangling with grumpy customers – seemingly there is nothing more different from the Beis Hamikdash’s schedule than that which takes place in my own office – yet the two demand the exact same preparations! Whether I am in sync with this fact or not makes little difference. My little ole’ life is potentially as chock full of kedusha as that of the Kohen doing his Avodah during the days of the Beis Hamikdash!^[5] Thus, the parsha of the Parah Adumah teaches us at one and the same time both what death is all about as well as the purpose of the life that precedes that death as well. Its lessons then are as follows:

1. The knowledge that the administration of its waters is nothing more than a decree that we must unquestioningly obey teaches us that death is merely the separation of the soul from the body, and it is not in any way a degeneration of the person. There is no impure spirit that must be banished! That is the stuff only of the most perverted and idolatrous imaginations!
2. The procedure of the Parah Adumah teaches us that kedusha is not exclusive to the Beis Hamikdash! The fields outside Yerushalayim are just as capable of holding the kedusha required for the avodah of the Parah Adumah as the Kodesh HaKodashim is capable of holding that required for the avodah of the ketores. In much the same vein as the Parah Adumah takes the mundane and ordinary field and transforms and elevates it, so too does the Yid do the same with every single aspect of life in this world. His life is lived this way to such an extent that he must literally run to sanctify his hands before leaving the vicinity of his bed, lest he lose the opportunity to elevate the first moments of his day with the proper preparation!

* * *

The Concept of Death:

Let us take a few moments to think a little bit further into the concept of death. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai revealed to us that there are no miasmas or impure spirits to be associated with death. Death is nothing more than a severely traumatic event in the life cycle of a person. What exactly occurs at and after death? Let us take a look at the Ramban back in Parshas Bereishis (Bereishis 2:7) where he details to us the order of Adam’s creation as follows:

^[6]ואם כן יאמר הכתוב וייצר ה’ אלהים את האדם – יצירת תנועה שהיה האדם נוצר, כלומר בעל תנועה, כי היצירה היא החיות וההרגש, שבהם הוא אדם לא גבול העפר, וכמו שאמר ויצר ה’ אלהים מן האדמה כל חית השדה ויבא אל האדם (להלן ב יט), ואחרי שיצרו בהרגשה נפח באפיו נשמת חיים מפי עליון להוסיף הנפש הזאת על היצירה הנזכרת, ויהי האדם כולו לנפש חיה – כי בנשמה הזאת ישכיל וידבר, ובה יעשה כל מעשה, וכל הנפשות וכחותן לה תהיינה:

והלמ”ד הזו למ”ד הקנין, כמו אדוני המלך לך אני וכל אשר לי (מ”א כ ד), לקונה אותו לדורותיו (ויקרא כה ל), לך אני הושיעני (תהלים קיט צד):

Thus, it emerges that when the pasuk says “And Hashem Elokim created man” it refers to Hashem’s creation of the motion means that Hashem created a being that was capable of motion only, (because the meaning of the word yetzirah is to instill vitality and senses into a person, thus differentiating him as being a human and not a clump of earth). This is similar to how the pasuk says (2:19) “And Hashem formed from the earth all the wildlife of the field and He brought them to Adam”. Then, after having created him with sentience, Hashem blew into his nostrils a living soul from the mouth of the Supreme One, thus adding the speaking soul to the aforementioned creature, and then the Adam became entirely possessed by the Nefesh Chayah – for through this soul he is intelligent and can speak; through its medium he can do all of his actions and all of the lower forms of the soul with their respective abilities are controlled by it.

In this sense, the letter lamed is an expression of acquisition, as we find in the pasuk (Kings I 20:4): My master the King! To you am I and all that is mine!” or (Vayikra 25:30) “To the one who acquired it for his generations. (Tehillim 119:94) “To you am I, save me!”

In the formation of life, we find that man took his first steps on earth in the guise of a humanoid animal. Brutely he ambled about, with all the intelligence of a chimpanzee, presumably eating and drinking – all without the slightest inkling of humanity to him. Then came a complete paradigm shift. “And He breathed into his nostrils a nishmas chaim!” Suddenly a human being winked into existence! This new life force, the nishmas chaim gave the Adam an entirely new existence! What was previously a brute now became a hman, and all of his bodily functions now come under the purview of that speaking and intelligent soul. This is how human life began. How does it end? Let us skip ten pesukim and see how the Ramban explains Hashem’s warning to Adam not to eat of the Eitz Hada’as:

כי ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות…

…ועל דעת רבותינו (עיין שבת נה ב) אלמלא שחטא לא מת לעולם, כי הנשמה העליונית נותנת לו חיים לעד, והחפץ האלהי אשר בו בעת היצירה יהיה דבק בו תמיד, והוא יקיים אותו לעד, כמו שפירשתי במלת וירא אלהים כי טוב (לעיל א ד): ודע כי אין ההרכבה מורה על ההפסד אלא לדעת קטני אמנה כי הבריאה היא בחיוב. אבל לדעת אנשי האמונה האומרים כי העולם מחודש בחפץ אלוהי פשוט, גם הקיום יהיה בו לעד כל ימי החפץ. וזה אמת ברור: אם כן ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות, שאז תהיה בן מות, לא תתקיים לעד בחפצי.

According to our teachers (Shabbos 55b) had Adam not sinned he would never have died, for the neshama from on high would give him life eternally and the desire that Hashem had for his existence at the time of his creation would cling to him constantly, and that desire would keep him in existence for eternity (notwithstanding the weaknesses of the body as a composite mass that must naturally degenerate, see earlier in the Ramban), as I have explained in the words of the pasuk “And Hashem saw that it was good (ibid 1:4).” Now you must know that the fact that that which is a composite must degenerate is only inviolate according to those who have little faith, and believe that the world’s existence is a given. Those who have true faith and know that the world is new, held in being by the plain will of Hashem, they know that everything exists for as long as Hashem continues to desire its existence, and this is the immutable truth. Thus, when Hashem says here that “On the day that you eat from it you shall die”, what that means is that from that day on you shall be bound to death, for my will shall no longer be for you to last forever.

This is what death is. This beautiful neshama that was granted to us at the inception of life would have kept us alive forever! Its source is on high; as the cheilek Eloka mima’al we are connected through it to the Ribono Shel Olam who is the source of all life and through that connection we could live on forever.^[7] But now, through the sin of the Eitz HaDa’as it was decreed upon us that that neshama does not remain with us forever! From here on after, the neshama is not a gift but rather a longer- or shorter-term loan, to be called back sooner or later. When that happens, the body reverts to the state that it was in before it was granted the nishmas chaim!^[8]

The inanimate body, a creation that has not existed since the nishmas chaim was granted to us has just winked back into existence, and to those who still have their neshamos ensconced in their bodies, the encounter is very traumatic. When we encounter death we abruptly come face to face with the magnitude of our lowliness. For all of our vaunted capabilities and intelligence, the reality is that we are no more than a very sophisticated mudball! Once the lifeforce is taken from us we are finished! There is nothing left but a cadaver that before our eyes begins to putrefy and decompose!^[9] This trauma manifests itself in tumah^[10]. We come to sudden terms with our mortality, with the abject lowliness of the human condition. We really are nothing more than ashes, blood and bile. Our end can so easily be naught but shame, putrification, and maggots!^[11] The shockwave of that realization overwhelms us and catapults us into a state of tumah wherein physicality takes on a very real feeling!

It is to this end that the Torah gave us the mitzvah of Parah Adumah. It is really a mitzvah rabbah to take down the Rav Hirsch Chumash and devote an hour or so to learning how he understands this parsha. What we will suffice here with noting is that initially we burn the Parah Adumah into אפר or ashes:

וְאָסַ֣ף׀ אִ֣ישׁ טָה֗וֹר אֵ֚ת אֵ֣פֶר הַפָּרָ֔ה…וְ֠כִבֶּס הָאֹסֵ֨ף אֶת־אֵ֤פֶר הַפָּרָה֙ אֶת־בְּגָדָ֔יו…

And a pure man shall gather the ashes of the heifer… and the one who gathered the ashes of the heifer shall cleanse his clothes…

But then after the process is complete what do we read?

וְלָֽקְחוּ֙ לַטָּמֵ֔א מֵעֲפַ֖ר שְׂרֵפַ֣ת הַֽחַטָּ֑את וְנָתַ֥ן עָלָ֛יו מַ֥יִם חַיִּ֖ים אֶל־כֶּֽלִי:

And he shall take for the one who is tamei from the dust of the burning of the chatas and he shall place upon it living waters in an earthenware container.

It is interesting to note that this living water is really no longer living! Having been constrained into the vessel it is no longer connected to the replenishing, lifegiving spring and it’s status changes. That is such a beautiful mashal for death. While still alive the person had the ability to shape who he was, to grow and accomplish all that he was placed in this world to do. But now he has died and with death he is constricted. He cannot accomplish and he can no longer grow. He is very similar to the contained living waters! What however do we do with this water? We mix into it the ashes of the Parah Adumah and then something remarkable takes place. Those ashes turn into dust. What is the difference? There is no time to go into it here, but ashes are the epitome of uselessness. There is nothing that can grow from them, they do no good to anybody. But dust is the exact opposite! Everything derives its existence from the dust! The soil of the earth contains the nutrients for all life on this planet! Don’t you see the Torah’s message here? Ashes to ashes and dust to dust is such a Goyishe concept! We see the world in a completely different perspective! We know that the truth is really “Ashes to dust”! That is the job of the Yid in this world, to take transience and turn it into permanence. To take mortality and lift it up into immortality. That is the message of the Parah Adumah and Tumas Meis.

The Placement of Parshas Chukas:

With this we can understand why the Torah put the parsha of the Parah Aduma here in Sefer Bamidbar. We must realize that between the parshiyos Parshas Shelach Lecha and the latter half of Parshas Chukas almost thirty eight years elapse about which the Torah tells us precisely nothing. What happened during those years? Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik once pointed out that the reason the Torah tells us nothing is because indeed nothing happened. Those thirty-eight years were spent dying! Every year another generation of the Anshei Milchamah who were decreed upon turned sixty and passed away. Year after year, for thirty-eight years, the sugia that Klal Yisroel was learning was the parsha of dying. Thus, Parshas Chukas is the precise parsha to serve as an interlude for almost the entire midbar experience. Through it we learn what death is all about, and conversely what the life that preludes that death is supposed to look like.

1. Perhaps these morbid and gruesome exhibitions can be traced back to a fundamental misunderstanding that the world at large has of life in general. As scions of Eisav and his realm of Olam Hazeh, the nations of the world view the living body as the epitome of perfection. Death, the state in which that perfect existence comes to an often-abrupt end can only be a degradation of the existence that the living body experienced. Without any knowledge of what happens to the person after death, the Olam Hazeh oriented mind can only fathom infinite variations of tortured existences, unable to attain the perfection that the body had while still alive. Tellingly, many of the constructs they have imagined for themselves (zombies, vampires etc.) feature an insatiable hunger to feed on the living.

   We, the descendants of Yaakov and bearers of Olam Haba’s standard, know that there is no such degradation! While it is true that the body does degrade back into dust, that has no bearing on the person himself! The body was only ever a coat, it was never the person himself! The person himself is the nefesh which lives on eternally in the main place where life is experienced, that is in the artzos hachaim of Olam Haba! Our entire life in this world was that degraded experience which the nations of the world imagine the afterlife to be!

   Thus, we can perhaps frame our disagreement with the world at large in the following terms: Where they view life as split into life and what comes afterward, we know that there is no “afterlife”. There is really only “pre-life” in this world and life itself after we leave it. What we make of our lives on this world is the “maaseh avos siman l’vanim” for how our real life will look when we get to the next world! This knowledge itself, that we are only pre-living our lives should galvanize us into action! In its light, everything that Chazal teach us about the dire need to prepare ourselves while still here in this world for Olam Haba takes on a very real and desperate urgency! There is really no time to waste because whatever time we waste is the pre-life for an infinity of wasted time in the real life that is to come! [ZB] ↑

2. The sentence finishes in the next pasuk as follows:

   גַּם־זֶ֣רַע יַעֲקוֹב֩ וְדָוִ֨ד עַבְדִּ֜י אֶמְאַ֗ס מִקַּ֤חַת מִזַּרְעוֹ֙ מֹֽשְׁלִ֔ים אֶל־זֶ֥רַע אַבְרָהָ֖ם יִשְׂחָ֣ק וְיַעֲקֹ֑ב כִּֽי־אשוב אָשִׁ֥יב אֶת־שְׁבוּתָ֖ם וְרִחַמְתִּֽים:

   So too shall I never disgust the seed of Yaakov or of Dovid my servant, from taking of his descendants to rule over the progeny of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, for I shall yet return their captivity and be merciful to them. ↑

3. I do not believe that the Ramban means to say that these korbanos work in the same manner as negel vasser, and that they cause a particular spirit such as the Bas Melech or Tezazis to flee. I believe that this reference to the “spirit of tumah” refers to the general tumah that we encounter when we come into contact with death as part of Hashem’s decree of chukah chakakti. ↑
4. Conclusion of the Mishna Berurah:

   ולהלכה אנו תופסים כשני הטעמים לחומרא לענין נטילה וכדלקמן בזה הסימן. ואם לא בירך ענט”י קודם התפלה שוב לא יברך אחר התפלה לכו”ע [ח”א]

   As far as the practical halacha is concerned, we take on the stringencies of both positions as we shall see later on in this siman. If one did not recite the blessing of Al Netilas Yadaim before praying, according to all opinions he does not recite the blessing after davening. [C.A.] ↑

5. And we are not speaking of simple levels of Avodah if there is any such thing. The Rambam in the second perek of Hilchos Yom HaKippurim tells us that every single time that the Kohen Gadol removed one set of clothes and donned another he was required to immerse in the mikvah and then sanctify his hands and feet by washing them from the Kiyor. He immersed five times and sanctified his hands and feet ten times. The Rambam delineates that Avodah ↑
6. אבל אונקלוס אמר והות באדם לרוח ממללא. נראה שדעתו כדברי האומרים שהם נפשות שונות וזאת הנפש המשכלת אשר נפחה השם באפיו היתה בו לנפש מדברת. וכן נראה לי מדעת רבותינו, ממה שאמרו (סנהדרין סה ב) רבא ברא גברא שדריה לקמיה דרבי זירא הוה מישתעיה ליה ולא אישתעי, אמר דמן דחבריא את תוב לעפרך. ובויקרא רבה (לב ב) אמר רבי אבין בשעה שאדם ישן הגוף אומר לנשמה, והנשמה אומרת לנפש, והנפש אומרת למלאך. וכן רוחו ונשמתו אליו יאסוף (איוב לד יד), יורה כפי משמעו שהן שתים:

   But Onkelos renders the pasuk differently so as to say the following: “and it was in man to be a speaking spirit”. It appears that Onkelos is of the opinion that there are various different forms of soul in one’s own body, and this last and most important one, the sentient soul that Hashem “blew” into man’s nostrils – that is the one who animates man’s power of speech. It would appear to me that this is the opinion of our teachers as well, as is evident in the following story:

   “Rava created a humanoid and sent it to R. Zeira. Upon its arrival at R. Zeira’s house, R. Zeira tried to converse with it but it would not respond. Seeing this, R. Zeira said “You are a creation of the Rabbis, return to your earth!”

   Similarly we find in Vayikra Rabbah (32:2) “R. Avin says ‘while man is asleep the body converses with the neshama, the neshama converses with the nefesh, and the nefesh converses with the malach.’” In a similar vein we find the pasuk in Iyov (34:14) that says “His spirit and his neshama shall be gathered in to Him”. This pasuk too seems to fit in with this concept that there is more than one soul in man. ↑

7. This is something which we talk about every single morning in the blessing of Elokai Neshama. There we say as follows:

   אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא אתה בראתה, אתה יצרתה ואתה נפחתה בי ואתה משמרה בקרבי ואתה עתיד ליטלה ממני ולהחזירה בי לעתיד לבא, כל זמן שהנשמה בקרבי מודה אני לפניך ה’ אלקי ואלקי אבותי רבון כל המעשים אדון כל הנשמות ברוך אתה ה’ המחזיר נשמות לפגרים מתים.

   My Lord, the neshama that you have placed within me is pure; You have created it, You have formed it, and You have breathed it into me, and You are the one who preserves it within me and You are destined to take it from me and to return it to me in the future; so long as the neshama is within me I give thanks to You Hashem my G-d and the G-d of my forefathers, master of all deeds, Lord of all souls; You are the source of blessing, Hashem, He who returns souls to dead cadavers.

   This is the body’s ode of thanks to the Ribono Shel Olam for the wonderful gift that He granted it in the form of the neshama. It is this gift which grants it life, and the body recognizes that that life exists for only so long as it contains the neshama. Once the neshama is removed from it, death ensues and that will happen. But we know that that death is really only a temporary state. After a relatively brief stint in which the body disintegrates back into its earthen component matter, Hashem is going to recreate the body and reinstall the neshama within it. It is clear from this beracha that so long as the neshama is within the body the body lives on. This connection with the neshama is the source of life and in order to stop the body from living it is necessary to actively remove the neshama. This is exactly the message of the Ramban! The body is capable of living on forever, should the will of the Ribono Shel Olam be to keep it alive through the neshama. Now that Adam sinned, Hashem no longer wishes for that to be the case and so He has promised to remove that neshama temporarily. But, it is only a temporary measure. Hashem has promised us that in the future He will renew the body in such a way that it will be worthy of maintaining that eternal connection in the way that He had initially created it. ↑

8. If you learn like those who understand that all life came to the body with the Nishmas Chaim, then the body reverts exactly back to that stage, to the clump of earth that it was when life began. And if you learn like Onkelos that man was a sentient animal then it goes back to even a further stage, to the very initial gathering of his earthen material, before he was formed at all. ↑
9. Rav Moshe Schwab zt”l the Mashgiach in Gateshead Yeshiva recounted an incredible story about his older brother Rav Mordechai Schwab zt”l. For a period of time during his stay in Yeshivas Kaminetz the two brothers roomed together. He noticed then that his brother would carry around a small matchbox wherever he would go. This was curious because Rav Mordechai zt”l was not a smoker and could not have had much use for those matches. What did he want with them? His curiosity took hold of him, and at some point when his brother was out of the room he opened up the matchbox to see what was so special about it. But his curiosity only got worse when he saw what was inside. The whole little rectangular container was packed tight with dirt! Later he confessed to his brother that he had taken a peek into his matchbox and couldn’t figure out what was so special about that dirt! He never forgot his brother’s response: “I keep that dirt with me at all times to remind myself that dos is der mentch! Whenever I feel the Yetzer Hara welling up the feelings of arrogance inside myself I open the matchbox and recall exactly what I am.”

   Coming face to face with our mortality is such a terribly crushing experience and is magnificently successful at taking the wind out of the Yetzer Hara’s sails. But that is only when the ship that he is sailing is the Gaavatanic! When he tries to get us to live in the wreckage of the titanic disasters that we can often make out of our lives he can use this very same matchbox to deal us a devastating blow. “Look at what you are! Nothing more than a tightly packed rectangle of dirt! You will never amount to anything and you can give up trying!” When he says that it is the time to pull out the parsha of Parah Adumah and deal him a good right hook. ↑

10. See Parshas Tazria-Metzora in Depths of Majesty, Essays on the Parsha by Rabbi Moshe M. Eisemann for an elaboration of this idea. ↑
11. See Sotah 5a. where R. Yochanan learns the words אד”ם בש”ר to be acronyms for אפר דם מרה, בשר סרוחה רמה. (The letter samech replaces the phonemically equivalent letter sin) ↑