They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to circle the land

of Edom, and the people became disheartened because of the way.

(Bamidbar 21:4)

Anything difficult for a person to bear is

called kitzur nefesh ["disheartenment," literally

"shortness of spirit"], like a person who is beset with trouble, and

his mind is not composed enough to accept it. There is no place in his heart

for the distress to settle. The thing causing the distress is described as

"large" since it is too large for him and weighs heavily on him, as

in, and their souls also loathed Me (Zech. 11:8); they were too much for Me. [And

also,] And it is so great that you hunt me like a lion (Job 10:16). In

summary, the expression shortness of spirit for a thing, means that it is

intolerable, and the mind cannot bear it.

(Rashi ad loc Judaica Press

translation)

and the people became disheartened

– For they had come close to the entry point [into the Land] but then the route

became long. That was more difficult to bear than if it were really far away. And

as we read in Eruvin 53b: "A long route to a near place is harder than a

short route to a far place."

(Ha'Amek Davar loc

cit)

They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the

Red Sea to circle the land of Edom, etc. and it is written: and

the people became disheartened. When they saw that they had turned back to

the way through the wilderness, it seemed to them as harsh as death, for they

intended to enter the Land of Israel immediately and eat of the Land's grain,

but now they returned to a place without water or food. You might ask why they

should care – since they had manna [to eat]. That is why it is written [that

they said], we are disgusted with this rotten bread. Seeing something

and tasting it is not comparable to merely tasting it without seeing it. When

one does not see the reality of the thing one is tasting, it is as nothing to

him. Another possibility: They did not taste the delicious flavor [that could

be tasted in the manna] until they toiled with it, grinding it between

mill-stones or crushing it in a crusher. That is implied by the verse in

parashat Beha'alotkha where it is written: [The

it in a mortar, cooked it in a pot and made it into cakes]. It had a

taste like the taste of oil cake.

(Da'at

Zekeinim MiBa'alei HaTosafot ad loc)

On Snakes, Staffs,

and Holy People

Gili Zivan

Parashat Hukat contains a remarkable story

about the venomous snakes which attacked the people as they were weary

from their wilderness journey:

They journeyed

became disheartened because of the way. The

many people of Israel died.

Having yet to understand the forcefulness of

God's response to the Israelite complaints (and many

people of Israel died), an additional question arises, this time one

concerning the means by which the Israelites are healed and repaired. There

seems to be a precise application of the magical notion that certain objects are

endowed with supernatural powers. Isn't Scripture ascribing mysterious curative

powers to the copper snake displayed on a pole, deeming it to be so effective

that a poison snake bite can be healed by just by having the victim glance at

it? And whenever a snake bit a man, he would gaze upon the copper snake and

live (Bamidbar

21: 4-9).

Many exegetes have

tried to explain the secret of the snakes' curative powers. The Sages chose a

famous midrash (Rosh

HaShana 3:6) to turn our attention away from the healing object – the copper

snake – and to focus our attention instead on the intentions of those

looking at it. According to the midrash, those who believed in the snake's

powers were not cured. Only those who understood that the object's curative

powers were derived from "their Father in Heaven" would be healed:

Could it be that

Moses' hands make war or break war? Rather [the verse's intention is] to tell

you that when Israel gazed upwards and subjugated their hearts to their Father

in Heaven they would prevail, and if not they would fall. Similarly, you say, "Make

a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone who is bitten looks

at it, he shall recover" (Num. 21: 8). Could it be that the snake kills

or the snake revives? Rather, when Israel gaze upwards and subjugated their

hearts to their Father in Heaven they would be healed, and if not, they would

waste away.

It seems the Mishnah

is fighting with all its might against a mode of thought which grants an

independent higher power to nature, objects, or human beings. By denying the

redemptive power of Moses' hands and the curative powers of the snake, it

presses for an extreme anti-magical position.

RaMBaN takes a

further step in the direction taken by the Sages. He claims that the cure is

effected precisely by the same principle which brings death in order to tell us

that snakes both living and formed of copper are not invested with independent

powers; rather such powers derive from the will of the Creator:

The secret of this

matter seems to me to be that it is characteristic of the Torah that all its

deeds involve miracles within miracles; the damage is removed by that which

damages, the disease is cured by that which causes disease, as they mentioned (Mekhilta VaYisa 1)

regarding the verse, and the Lord showed him a tree… (Shemot 15:25), and

similarly with the salt Elisha [threw] into the water (II Kings 2:21). The

general principle is that the Lord commanded that they effect a cure by using

something harmful and naturally deadly, that they should make an image of it

bearing its name. And when a person looks in the direction of the Copper Snake,

which looked like something entirely harmful, he would live, in order to tell

them that it is the Lord Who both kills and revives. (RaMBaN Bamidbar 21:9)

That is to say: God chose a particular

instrument of cure – the Copper Snake, which is similar in appearance to the

source of the ailment (notice how similar the words nahash – "snake"

– and nehoshet – "copper" – sound to each other) – in order

that the bite-victim should understand that it is God who kills and restores to

life. However, the human inclination to believe in special people, special

objects, graves, stones, and so forth is stronger than God's message. All

across human culture we can see how this tendency affects life in general and

religion in particular. Our own society seems to be shaking off the last

remnants of modern rationalism and many of its members seek solace for their

pains in the special powers of amulets, holy Kabbalists, and holy places (from

the grave of R. Shimon bar Yohai to Oman, the city of R. Nahman). Returning to

the Copper Snake, we find that eventually it also became an object whose divine

powers were sought out by many. In contrast to the spirit of the Mishnah from

tractate Rosh HaShanah, the Israelites worshipped the copper Snake. This only

ended during the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah (the end of the 8th century

BCE) when he destroyed the Copper Snake while executing his signature policy of

strengthening the status of the Temple and of Jerusalem:

… and he crushed

Israel were burning incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan and

of Israel were burning incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan (II Kings 18:4)

The Book of Kings

tells us that while the Copper Snake had been constructed by Moses at God's

explicit behest, it eventually became transformed from a means to an end. Those

who believed in it came to see it as an object endowed with divine powers.

The Tannaitic Sages

applauded the Copper Snake's destruction: "King Hezekiah performed six

deeds; they praised for three and did not praise him for three [others]… he

crushed the copper Snake, and they praised him" (Mishnah Pesahim 4:9). In

the Gemara and Tosefta, the Sages question Hezekiah's deed: how could he crush

the Copper Snake which Moses had been commanded to erect? "Was it an

object of idolatry? But didn't our Master Moses create it?" And they

answered: "This teaches us that Israel erred after it until Hezekiah came

and hid it away" (Tosefta Avodah Zara 3:19, see also in the Jerusalem Talmud:

Avodah Zara 3;3)

Prof. Zakovitch

defines magic as the being the opposite of a miracle. God effects miracles,

while magic and witchcraft are the activities of human beings who are

sufficiently wise and powerful to force their will upon both creatures and

creation. Zakowitch claims that (unlike later rationalist movements) Scripture

recognizes the power of magic – as can be seen in the story of the Egyptian

wizards – but fights them with all its might.

Zakovitch forwards an

interesting hypothesis regarding our parasha; he claims that the story of Mei

Meriva ["the Waters of Contention"] may also be involved with the

struggle against the ascription of magical powers to objects.

In the story of Masa

U'Meriva (Shemot

17:1-7) the staff is considered a legitimate instrument through which

God has chosen to perform a miracle:

And the Lord said

strike the rock, and water will come out of it… (17: 5-6)

However, the parallel

and very similar story of Mei Meriva (Bamidbar 20:1-13) opposes the status of the

staff and belief in the power of objects. Moses is told to take the staff with

him, but not to use it. This is meant to show everyone that the miracle will

occur even without the staff: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "Take

to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water… (verses 7-8). Moses

sins by making use of the staff. The rock is split not thanks to the staff, but

in spite of its use (Yair

Zakovitch: Al Tfisat haNes BaMikra, Universita Meshuderet, Tel Aviv

1987).

The scriptural

narrator also takes pains to show us that Elisha's staff lacks any powers of

its own in the story of the birth, death, and miraculous resurrection of the

Shunamite woman's son. When he dies, his mother runs to Mount Carmel to enlist

Elisha's help. She scolds him: Did I ask a son from my lord? Didn't I tell

you not to trick me? (II Kings 4:28), but Elisha does not hasten to help. He sends

his staff to Gehazi, telling him to use it to revive the child. And

and you shall place my staff on the lad's face" (verse 29). The Shunamite does not believe that

an object can revive her son; she does not leave Elisha in peace, but rather

forces him to follow her. Later we learn that the great woman of Shunam

was right while Elisha, the man of God, was wrong: And Gehazi went ahead of

lad has not awakened" (verse 31).

The expression, there was no sound nor any one listening, will no doubt remind sensitive readers of a different test

which Elisha's spiritual master had performed on Mount Carmel, when Elijah

confronted the prophets of Baal. That story uses a similar expression in

connection with an ineffective ritual act which goes unanswered because it

ascribes divine powers to ceremonies or objects:

And it was at noon

journey; perhaps he is sleeping and will awaken. And they called with a loud voice and

offering, and there was no sound and no answer and no one was listening.

Elisha's staff was like the prophets' gashing

themselves with swords and lances. A staff which is supposed to possess powers

because it belongs to the man of God is no less idolatrous than the rites of

the prophets of Baal who cry out Baal answer us! That is why there

was no sound nor anyone listening. Only when Elisha himself arrived at the

attic and faced the fact that despite his wondrous powers and his having been

appointed a man of God he was, at the end of the day, nothing more than

a human being whose amazing powers were not intrinsic to him, but rather

intrinsic to the God who sent him, only then could he perform the

resuscitation. In that intimate moment, when Elisha found himself alone in his

room with the dead child, he prays to God Who can revive the dead. From the

beginning of the story Elisha had not yet mentioned God's name, but now he

mentions it twice; once when suddenly confronted with his own ignorance while

speaking to Gehazi (and the Lord hid it from me and did not tell me) and

the second time when the narrator recounts Elisha's actions in the attic. The

child's resuscitation is not easy. It requires, first and foremost, a prayer to

God. Following the prayer, the narrator describes Elisha's medical efforts. He

does not perform any "hocus pocus" with the help of a magic wand or

staff; he climbs up onto the bed, respirates the child and warms him. It seems

that the biblical narrator tells us the details of Elisha's actions not only in

order to say that he has to make an effort to resuscitate the child and that

things were not progressing as easily as they had up to this point. We also

understand that for a split second the dead child lying in the bed and the man

of God were as one. The words describing Elisha lying over the child merge them

together: And he went up and lay on the child, and

palms. For one moment Elisha might have felt like a helpless child in need

of someone bigger than him; perhaps it was that feeling of smallness that

allowed him to arouse God's mercy.

And what of us? In

how many staffs do we place our hopes? How many rabbis and saints intercede in

our connection with the Master of the Universe? It seems that the struggle

against such "short cuts" will go on forever. The temptation to

ascribe supernatural powers to certain items that God has created will continue

throughout human history, as will the struggle against that human tendency.

Dr. Gili Zivan, a member of Kibbutz Saad,

directs the Yaakov Herzog center for Jewish Studies in Ein Tzurim. She is on

sabbatical for the year 5769

And from Mattanah

to Nahaliel: the Torah Requires Humility

What is the purport of

the Scriptural text, And from the wilderness to Mattanah, and from Mattanah

to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamot, and from Bamot to the valley (Bamidbar 21)? "If," the other

replied, "a man allows himself to be treated as the wilderness upon which

everybody treads, the Torah will be given to him as a gift [Mattanah =

"gift"]. And so soon as it is given to him as a gift, he will become

the inheritance of God as it says, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel [Nahaliel

= nahalei El = "inheritance of God"]. And as soon as he is the

inheritance of God he rises to greatness, since it says, and from Nahaliel

to Bamot [Bamot = "high places"]. But if he is haughty,

the Holy One blessed be He, humbles him, as it says, and from Bamot to the

valley. If, however, he repents, the Holy One, blessed be He, raises him,

as it says, Every valley shall be lifted up (Isaiah

40).

(Eruvin 54a, Soncino

translation).

Our Rabbis have taught:

A man should always be as gentle as the reed and never unyielding as the cedar.

Once R. Elazar ben Shimon was coming from Migdal Gedor, from the house of his

teacher, and he was riding leisurely on his ass by the riverside and was

feeling happy and elated because he had studied much Torah. There he happened

to meet an exceedingly ugly man who greeted him, "Peace be upon you,

Sir." He, however, did not return his salutation but instead said to him,

"Empty-one, how ugly you are. Are all your fellow citizens as ugly as you

are?" The man replied: "I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman

who made me, 'How ugly is the vessel which you have made!'" When R. Elazar

realized that he had done wrong he dismounted from the ass and prostrated

himself before the man and said to him, "I submit myself to you, forgive

me." The man replied: "I will not forgive you until you go to the

craftsman who made me and say to Him: 'How ugly is the vessel which You have

made.'" He [R. Elazar] walked behind him until he reached his native city.

When his fellow citizens came out to meet him greeting him with the words,

"Peace be upon you O teacher, O Master," the man asked them,

"Who are you addressing thus?" They replied, "The man who is

walking behind you." Thereupon he exclaimed: "If this man is a

teacher, may there not be any more like him in Israel!" The people then

asked him: "Why?" He replied: "Such and such a thing has he done

to me." They said to him: "Nevertheless, forgive him, for he is a man

greatly learned in the Torah." The man replied: "For your sakes I

will forgive him, but only on the condition that he does not act in the same

manner in the future." Soon after this R. Elazar ben R. Shimon entered

as the reed and never be unyielding as the cedar. And for this reason the reed

merited that of it should be made a pen for writing Torah scrolls, Tefillin,

and Mezuzot."

(Ta'anit 20a-b, following Soncino translation)

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