Tag: Parshas Chukas

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Chukas – Warranted Fear

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From last week’s Torah portion of Korach to this week’s Torah portion of Chukas we skip about 38 years forward, to the end of the Jew’s period of wondering in the desert. The Children of Israel request to go through the land of Edom on their journey. “Moshe sent emissaries from Kadesh to the king of Edom: ‘So said your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that has befallen us… Let us pass through your land; we shall not pass through field or vineyard, and we shall not drink well water; on the king’s road shall we travel – we shall not veer right or left – until we pass through your border.’ The king of Edom said to him, ‘You shall not pass through me – lest I come against you with the sword!’ The Children of Israel said to him, ‘We shall go up on the highway, and if we drink your water – I or my flock – I shall pay their price. Only nothing will happen; let me pass through on foot.’ He said, ‘You shall not pass through!’ Then Edom went out against him with massive throng and a strong hand. So, Edom refused to permit Israel to pass through his border, and Israel turned away from near him” (Bamidbar 20:14-21).

  • The lesson the Ralbag learns from this episode is that “it’s befitting for a person to be ‘constantly scared’. Therefore, the Torah tells that when Israel saw he (the king of Edom) didn’t want to let them pass through his border and he went out to meet them with a big multitude and with force, they reared away from there and did not want to fight with him because they were scared lest he would be victorious. And even though the ‘Hand of G-D’ never was cut short with them for good in all their wars, and it was pretty evident that the king of Edom feared from the Jews lest they destroy them if they would have been in their land, nevertheless [the Jews] were commanded to not start a war with them as mentioned in the Torah portion of Devarim.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)

 In Devarim it states: “…’You are passing through the boundary of your brother the children of Esav, who dwell in Seir; they will fear you, but you should be very careful. You shall not provoke them, for I shall not give you of their land even the right to set foot, for as an inheritance to the children of Esav have I given Mount Seir…'” (Devarim 2:1-8). Clearly, Hashem warned the Jewish People not to start up with the descendants of Esav. They were allowed to purchase food and water from them as they passed through, as it says in Devarim 2:6, but were not to take advantage of them or start up with them. Now the King of Edom didn’t even allow that.
Granted, Hashem shielded and protected the Jews from all their enemies throughout their time in the desert when they were threatened and attacked. But it is known that there was one time where Hashem didn’t help them, as we saw in the Torah portion of Shelach, after the debacle of the spies, around 38 years before this episode with the land of Edom. Hashem decreed upon them the 40 years of wondering in the desert and that the generation between the ages of 20-60 wouldn’t merit to enter The Land. As the Torah states: “They awoke early in the morning and ascended toward the mountain top saying, ‘We are ready, and we shall ascend to the place of which Hashem has spoken for we have sinned!’ Moshe said, ‘Why do you transgress the word of Hashem? It will not succeed. Do not ascend for Hashem is not in your midst! And do not be smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword, because you have turned away from Hashem, and Hashem will not be with you.’ But they defiantly ascended to the mountaintop, while the Ark of Hashem’s covenant and Moshe did not move from the midst of the camp. The Amalekites and the Canaanite who dwelled on that mountain descended; they struck them and pounded them until Hormah” (Bamidbar 14:40-45).
The Jews in the desert were on very high levels of trust and faith in Hashem. Blindly following Him in the desert, relying on Him to provide food, drink and fresh clothing every day, making their travels safe by leveling the ground and killing any poisonous creepy crawlers like snake and scorpions on the way. They saw and felt this protection for 38 years. This was besides the open miracles in Egypt, the splitting of the sea which defeated the Egyptians, and the victorious battle over Amalek soon after leaving Egypt. But on the other hand, as the Torah described in parshas Shelach, if Hashem didn’t want them to enter into battle, Hashem wasn’t with them to protect them. With all their knowledge and belief in Hashem, especially physically, being there at the revelation of Har Sinai upon receiving the Torah, wouldn’t they have understood if they were told by Hashem not to attack Edom? Wouldn’t they not have attacked? Wouldn’t they have known to trust in Hashem that Hashem would not help or protect them in those circumstances? Why did the Ralbag have to say that they used their attributes of ‘always being scared’ to ensure that they would not go to war while relying on Hashem to defend them and bring them to victory? Particularly in this circumstance where Hashem said they should not go; then they should just have the emuna and bitachon that this is G-D’s will and nothing else is needed to make the right decision?
 It must be that without the attribute of a “person should always be scared” then it is very easy to get carried away and go overboard with the attribute of bitachon, the trust in Hashem that He will always defend and protect you, and will provide miracles if need be, under whatever circumstance and in any decision one makes. Just have bitachon and it will all work out! However, the Ralbag is teaching us that there must be checks and balances, because sometimes the proper trust in Hashem is not to move forward and attack, if it is against Hashem’s will. But it’s hard to come up with that resolve using one’s own belief and trust system; therefore, having this constant fear, ‘am I doing the right thing,’ ‘is this what I am supposed to be doing at this given moment,’ will counteract negative, or ‘overboard’ bitachon. This will ensure that one is serving Hashem properly, according to His will. That, in fact, is the proper bitachon, trust and faith in Hashem!
Good Shabbos,Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder

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Chukas – Frustration: OK, Anger: Not

The passing of Miriam in this week’s Torah portion of Chukas was the catalyst for Moshe’s notorious sin of hitting the rock. As the Torah says, “The entire congregation of the Children of Israel arrived at the desert of Zin in the first month, and the people settled in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there. The congregation had no water; so they assembled against Moshe and Aharon. The people quarreled with Moshe, and they said, ‘If only we had died with the death of our brothers before Hashem…’Moshe and Aharon moved away from the assembly to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and they fell on their faces. [Then] the Glory of Hashem appeared to them. Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: ‘Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aharon, and speak to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water. You shall bring forth water for them from the rock and give the congregation and their livestock to drink.’ Moshe took the staff from before Hashem as He had commanded him…Moshe raised his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, when an abundance of water gushed forth, and the congregation and their livestock drank. Hashem said to Moshe and Aharon, ‘Since you did not imbue faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them’” (Bamidbar 20:1-12).
There are many lessons the Ralbag learns from this episode in the desert and by putting it all together we will, b’ezras Hashem [with G-D’s help], learn an important lesson. When Miriam passed away the Ralbag says that when one person from a group dies the whole group should be worried. For we see that when Miriam died, immediately the [potential] for death was decreed on her brothers even though they were of such great stature, to the extent that they both died within a month of each other. As was explained in the Torah and in the Prophet Yehoshua, that Moshe didn’t live more than a month after Aharon passed away. Aharon died on the first of the month of Shevat in the 40th year of traveling in the desert as explicitly stated in parshas Massei (33:38), and Moshe died on the first of the month of Adar as stated in the Torah (Devarim 34:5-8) and in the Prophet Yehoshua, as Chazal explain. (There is an argument between the Medrish Rabba Esther 7:11 who says Moshe was born and died on the first of Adar and the Gemara in Megilla 13b who says that Moshe was born and died on the seventh of Adar. The Ralbag seems to be siding with the Medrish, but either way they all died in close proximity to each other.)
The Ralbag learns another lesson; that one should feel distressed over the death of the righteous because their passing makes an impact. We saw that when Miriam died the water from the rock, known as the Well of Miriam, which previously delivered water to the entire nation, stopped doing so. A similar thing happened when Aharon passed away; in whose merit there were the Clouds of Glory. This impacted the lives of all the Jews, even though Moshe Rabbeinu, the master of all the prophets, was still alive at the time!
This being the case, after Miriam passed away, the water ceased coming forth from “the well,” and the Jewish people began to complain of terrible thirst. Hashem was not upset at them over a lack of faith in Him and in fact the lesson the Ralbag learns from here is that “it’s unfitting to denigrate a person very much for blurting out inappropriate words in times of pain, loss, and injury. For when the Jews were experiencing great suffering due to thirst and were afraid of dying, they lashed out with very harsh words against Moshe, and we don’t find that they were punished for this. On the contrary, Hashem wanted to give them water in the fashion explicitly mentioned in the pesukim above.”
Yet when it comes to Moshe Rabbeinu hitting the rock, the Torah states that before doing so Moshe told the Jewish people, “Now listen, you rebels, can we draw water for you from this rock” (Bamidbar 20:10)? Moshe was punished and lost his right to live and lead the Jewish People into the Land of Israel. And the Ralbag learns from here that “a person should distance himself from the attribute of anger, as anger was the reason why Moshe didn’t execute Hashem’s intentions perfectly, as commanded. Even though he was of such a great height, and reached such greatness in perfection of his character. Hashem had said to speak to the rock and it would bring forth water. As a result of his action, bad things continued for the Jews with the fact that harm came to their prophet.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
We have to put into perspective what took place. Everything started with Miriam’s passing, which left a void on the Jews, who in her merit had been given water.  For this reason, Hashem overlooked any offensive rhetoric that was inappropriately lashed out at His prophet Moshe Rabbeinu, and even planned a great miracle for the water to return. However, what must also be taken into account is that Moshe was in the same plight, and he felt even more pressure knowing the concept that he should be worried once someone in his group, one of his sibling in this case, had passed on. It seems in fact that the mazel of Moshe and Aharon was susceptible, and they were tested to see if they would be deserving of severe punishment. That was probably troubling and on the forefront of Moshe’s mind, in addition to mourning the great loss of his sister. That being the case, then wasn’t Moshe in the same position as the rest of the Jewish people, in a state of agony and pain? So he also should have been exempt from any punishment for acting and speaking rashly?
Yet he was punished, and the Ralbag does not say it was because on his level Hashem judges stricter; rather the Ralbag says it was due to his anger. It must have been that on some miniscule level, Moshe let anger enter his heart, which allowed him to speak and act as he did, which minimized the miracle that could have taken place, which “impacted” Hashem’s goal.
We see from here that there is a difference between being angry and being agitated. Moshe slightly crossed the line into feeling anger and that caused him not to fulfill Hashem’s will with exactitude. (It must also be that because Aharon was standing right there at the time, next to Moshe, and didn’t make sure that Moshe executed Hashem’s instructions perfectly, so he was also punished with Moshe. We see this in the Ralbag, lesson 9, later on).
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder

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Chukas – Microscopic Focus

For Food for Thought in Spanish: Haga clic aquí para leer en español. Please share this with your Jewish Spanish speaking family, friends, and associates.

In this week’s Torah portion of Chukas, Moshe Rabbeinu commits the sin of hitting the rock which was the ultimate cause for him not being allowed to enter the land of Israel. However, the pasuk says, “Hashem said to Moshe and Aharon, ‘Because you did not imbue belief in Me in the eyes of the Jews, therefore you will not bring this congregation to the Land I have given them’” (Bamidbar 20:12). Why is Aharon also mentioned and blamed? What did he do wrong?

The Medrish Rabba, quoting this pasuk, gives an insight as to why Aharon was punished. “This is what the pasuk says, ‘There is futility that takes place on earth: Sometimes there are righteous men who are treated as if they had done the deeds of the wicked; and there are wicked men who are treated as if they have done the deeds of the righteous. I declare this too is vanity’ (Koheles 8:14). You find that when the snake was cursed, and He said you shall be cursed etc. He didn’t allow him to claim anything, for the snake could have said before Hashem, ‘You told man not to eat and I told him to eat, why should you curse me?’ He did not allow him to claim anything. And Aharon should have claimed, ‘I did not go against Your words why should I die'” (Medrish Rabba Chukas 19:11)? (Click here for Hebrew text.) The Maharz”u sights a Medrish Tanchuma in this parsha (10) which elaborates more on this very matter. The Anaf Yosef on the Medrish Tanchuma asks a basic question in belief in Hashem related to why Hashem didn’t allow the snake to make his claim or didn’t claim for him. This is even though there is a concept in Jewish courts called טענינן ליה that the court will make the claim for the litigant, if justified. The question is, that if the all-knowing Hashem knows the snake’s claim, which would make him innocent in court, then why was he guilty? How can the Judge of the world not exact proper justice? The Anaf Yosef gives two answers. One is based on a Yefeh Toar on Breishis Rabba (20), that says that he really deserved to be punished, but he gave some excuse to wiggle himself out of punishment. However Hashem didn’t let him give that excuse, because if He would then Adam and Chava would be punished and he, the perpetrator, the seducer, would not have been punished. Therefore, Hashem didn’t make the excuse for him, since he really deserved punishment for causing the mortality of man. The second answer is based on a gemara in Sanhedrin 29a. We learn from the snake that we don’t make any claims of innocence for one who was proven to be a masis, one who convinces others to sin. So Hashem did not make any excuse for the snake because he convinced Chava to sin, but in order not to allow the snake to make an excuse for himself, which according to halacha would have to be accepted so Hashem immediately sentenced him to his deserved punishment. Normally even if one is sentenced to death, if there is any claim that can reverse the sentence we listen to it. But we learn from this episode that for a masis, one who purposefully causes others to sin, we don’t have any mercy, and don’t allow anyone to claim for him once he is sentenced to death. (Click here for Hebrew text.)
 The Maharz”u on the Medrish Rabba, when explaining the medrish, says that the snake’s claim would have been ‘Why did he leave Your command and go after mine, the words of the teacher and the words of the student who should he have listened to?’  (דברי הרב ודברי התמיד דברי מי שומעים)However, since he was wicked, convincing them to sin, Hashem didn’t allow the snake to make any claim of innocence for himself. The Maharz”u concludes, “And what occurred to the wicked snake occurred to the righteous Aharon.” So, what did Aharon do wrong?

The Etz Yosef on the Medrish Tanchuma points out that Aharon is praised for not telling Hashem ‘I did not sin,’ but the reason why he was punished in reality is because he should have protested what Moshe was doing and not have agreed to his action [of hitting the rock twice.] 
 Even if he didn’t stop his brother Moshe Rabbeinu when he could have, does that mean he should be equated with the snake, as if he purposefully seduced Moshe to sin? Not even close! So why was Aharon Kohen Gadol compared to the snake and sentenced to death for his inaction of not preventing Moshe’s mistaken decision to hit the rock?

From here we see a clear proof that the righteous are judged by Hashem very meticulously, on a whole different level than others, since they are held to much higher standards. (ד’ דן הצדיקים כחוט השערה) This case is a clear explanation of this concept since Aharon, a rodef shalom, one who Pirkei Avos says ran after peace, as well as the beloved older brother of Moshe Rabbeinu, who Moshe treated with extreme respect and looked up to, could have said something to Moshe, Moshe would have definitely listened and none of this would have happened so since he didn’t, it literally is as if Aharon convinced him to sin like a masis, and therefore deserved to die without any excuses, because of his high level of righteousness and the standards he was judged on. However, without a doubt in anyone’s mind this was a punishment incurred in this world but in the next world, The Eternal World, Aharon earned a position extremely close to Hashem.

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Chukas – How Much Do You Believe In Hashem?

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There is a book mentioned in this week’s Torah portion of Chukas called “The Book of Wars of Hashem” (Bamidbar 21:14). What is this book? Where is it today?  Why is Hashem quoting it in His Torah? The Ibn Ezra is of the opinion that it is a separate book and written inside it are the wars of Hashem that were waged for His G-D fearing followers. It began being compiled in the days of Avraham Avinu.  This book and  many other books  have been lost to antiquity, like The Words of Nosson and Ido, or The Chronicles of Kings of Israel, as well as the Songs of Shlomo and his Parables. The Daas Zekeinim adds that “The Book of Wars of Hashem” mentions the victory of Sihon over Moav, which the Torah just alluded to in the previous pasuk; the point being that Hashem orchestrated that one nation would fall into the hands of the other.

However the Ramban has a slightly different take on this, which could be an eyeopener. It takes us to task for how much we actively relate to belief in Hashem. The Ramban says that the simple understanding of “The Book of Wars of Hashem” is that in those generations there were intellectuals who wrote about the great wars of the time, and it took place in every generation. The authors of these books were called Storytellers, for there were many parables and highfalutin phrases mentioned inside these books. They attributed the incredible victories in those wars to Hashem because it was in fact the truth. The victory of Sihon over Moav was wondrous in their eyes and therefore they wrote it in this book. (Click here for the Hebrew text.)
These intellectuals were historians who do not seem to be Jewish based on the context of the Ramban, and though they lived in a heavily polytheistic time in history they were able to attribute the incredibly wondrous battles and victories, even amongst two non-Jewish neighboring nations, to Hashem. Why? Because it was the truth!

What a curious phenomenon! Imagine a historian writing a book on the history of American wars, The Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, The Civil War, America’s involvement in the two World Wars, etc. Do you think he would call it “G-D’s Wars”?!

But in fact, if you think about it, it is the truth, as the Daas Zekeinim points out: Hashem enabled one side to fall into the hands of the other. What is incredible is that those historians back in the day were able to recognize that and acknowledge it. Granted the whole world at the time heard and felt the rumbles of the miracles at the Red Sea and at Mount Sinai, but that was almost forty years previous, and they were still very involved in their worship of idols. It took intellectuals to think logically about what the truth was; but it took a lot of courage for those intellectuals to admit and publicize it. For that matter it was worth it to Hashem to acknowledge them in His Torah.

All the more so us Jews, the personal princes and princesses of The King Of All Kings, who have an even more personal relationship with G-D, b’chasdei Hashem, should find and acknowledge the kindness of Hashem in every step of our lives.