Moses 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.

(Bamidbar

20:11)

When an abundance of water gushed forth

Know, that the blessing willingly and warmly given by God is not laudable

for its quantity but rather for its quality, for it is more exalted and

proper that one satisfy one's hunger with a little food and quench one's thirst

with a little water, as He promised in His blessing, and you shall eat your

bread to satiation (the beginning of parashat Hukkat), to eat a bit of food

and be blessed in one's insides (Rashi),

and therefore the Sages said, "The Israelites were not assured until they

heard, and you shall eat your bread to satiation" (See Zohar, Midrash HaNe'elam, parashat Toldot

136). It is an exalted thing when one is sated with a little food, and

if a person eats food that leaves the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, that

is happiness to the soul and spiritual food, as the Sages spoke of the marvels

of the manna – the bread of heroes – each person receiving it in

accordance with his level of perfection, as they said in Yoma 75, "to the

righteous," etc. Therefore, if they had not deviated from God's word and

instead acted in accordance with His commandments, the blessing in their gut

would have been of quality rather than quantity, as it was with the

manna, that one who collected a lot did not get more than an omer, and

that was sufficient. Their drinking was also a spiritual matter; it distinguished

them from the way animals drink to extinguish the thirsty heat of the belly's

fire. However, when they did not sanctify His name, may it be blessed, then the

blessing became one of quantity rather than quality, and they drank like

animals. That is why God said and bring forth water for them, etc. and

did not mention the abundance of water [which is also not mentioned in

Beshalah], and water the congregation and – v'et – their animals V'et

marks a break between sections of the verse [as is stated in Bava Kama 65 on

the verse, v'et ashamo]. This means that their drinking would be different

from animals' drinking. But when they did not act as He commanded, then, an

abundance of water gushed forth, and the congregation and their livestock drank

They were identical in their drinking, and the blessing was one of quantity

alone.

(Meshekh Hokhma

Bamidbar 20:11)

You shall not pass

through me

Nuri Gross and

Avinoam Lahavi

In our parasha we find the Israelites

situated at Kadesh on Edom's

western border. The people are tired of wandering, their complaints are on the

rise, and some of them question Moses' leadership. Moses struggles to fulfill

their needs. Nevertheless, they must continue their long trek from Egypt towards the Land of Israel.

Moses sends emissaries to travel east from

Kadesh Barneia to the steppes of Moav, asking the King of Edom to allow the

Israelites passage through his land.

The following dialogue is based on chapter

20, verses 14-21 and its interpretation by various commentaries, including

Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Da'at Mikra. We add to these our own insights.

The emissaries: We have been sent by Moses,

the leader of your brother Israel,

to ask permission to pass through your land. You know that we have endured many

trials: our fathers went down to Egypt, we lived there for many

years. The Egyptians mistreated us, and our fathers – Edom [Esau] and Israel share a common father, who

would not want us to suffer. We cried out to God, He heard us and sent an

emissary who took us out from Egypt.

Now we are in Kadesh, the town on your border. We ask to pass through your

land. We promise not to pass through fields or vineyards, or to drink

well-water. We shall walk on the king's highway, deviating neither right nor

left. We shall not pitch our tents until we leave your borders.

King of Edom: You shall not pass through

me. Why should you pass through my land, of all lands? The passage you ask for

is not a slight matter. You are a nation of war-refugees seeking solace from

its pains and rest from its trials, and you cannot turn back. This is too

dangerous a situation for me; it threatens not only my land, but also my very

existence. Your temporary presence may become permanent; you will multiply and

take over my land, changing its character. You refugees will become the lords

of the land.

I cannot permit the transformation that you

may cause me. Therefore, my answer is: You shall not pass through me, lest I

go out to meet you with the sword.

Despite the king's refusal and explicit

threat, the emissaries make a further attempt to convince him:

The emissaries: We will travel via the more

difficult side roads. If we or our livestock drink, just set your price and we

shall pay it. You won't even notice us. We won't change anything; we only ask

to pass through.

King of Edom: You shall not pass.

The King of Edom musters his troops to guard

the border and keep the Israelites from passing through his land. The

Israelites retreat and continue their trek towards Moav.

Travelling east, they pass through Derekh

Atarim, which seems to be Canaan's

southern border (21:1-3). There the

Canaanites come out to do battle against them. The Israelites call out to God; He

saves them from the Canaanites, who are delivered into their hands.

The parasha ends with an attempt by the

people to pass through the Emorite kingdom

of King Sihon. Their

request is similar to that made of the King of Edom: Let

your territory (21:22). In his

case, when Sihon refuses their request and sets out to do battle against Israel

he is struck down and loses his kingdom, leaving no remnant (verses 23-35).

The parasha shows us the various consequences

of refusal to accept the request made by the Israelite refugees from Egypt.

They only asked to pass through. The word ma'avar

– "passage" – appears seven times in various forms in the Israelites'

request addressed to Edom.

The fact that Israel

was not interested in war or conquest, but rather only in free passage, is

repeatedly emphasized.

If so, what is the cause of the refusal?

The fear seems justified: The kings of the

various lands are worried about being taken over by a people who went down to Egypt and

stayed there for many generations; there is no guarantee that their temporary

passage will not become a permanent residency. Furthermore, when a nomadic

people passes through an area bordering on the desert, they may diminish the

limited resources of water and arable land. If we read the Edomite King's

response carefully, it seems to refer to more than a concern. The phrase, you

shall not pass through me suggests that for the king, the passage will not

be merely physical, but also essential and cultural, something which generates

real anxiety. It is this anxiety which keeps the king of Edom and the Emorite king after

him, from accepting any of the offered solutions. It is not enough that the

Israelites stay on the king's highway, take an alternative route to be chosen

by the king, or offer monetary compensation. It is this anxiety which generates

immoral behavior resulting in a declaration of war.

We began as a nation of refugees, but today

we are a sovereign nation living in its land. Today many refugees of

catastrophe and war in Africa knock upon our

gates. Our concerns are justified: limited job opportunities may be taken up by

the refugees; the refugees may settle in the land and not return home when

conditions permit; they will no longer meet the technical definition of

"refugees"; the refugees may include imposters who merely seek

improvement of their economic conditions.

We do not have reliable statistics regarding

the number of African refugees. There are those who try to inflate the

refugees' numbers, perhaps in order to increase anxiety and prevent their

entry. There is fear of the refugees bringing diseases with them; fear of

demographic changes that will threaten the Jewish majority; and fear of the

culture which the refugees may set up here.

Fear precludes a moral consideration of

the situation that would allow these concerns to be solved.

So it was with the King of Edom: his anxiety

kept him from being able to listen to the request and led to the total closure

of his gates: you shall not pass. A security argument is commonly made

against allowing refugees to enter the land from the Egyptian border: hostile

elements may pose as refugees to gain entry. A proposed bill for preventing

infiltration is being considered by the government. This bill does not

distinguish between hostile elements and genuine refugees (the law proposes

heavier punishments against people arriving from hostile countries, including Sudan.)

The request addressed to the King of Edom

begins: Israel

is you brother; you know all the tribulations that found us. The request is

for empathy with the situation of the Israelite refugees from Egypt. The call for empathy is

moral in nature.

We have been commanded many times throughout

Scripture to treat the weak, such as slaves and strangers, morally. We are

asked to do so as a people who know their troubles. We believe that we

similarly commanded today to display similar empathy towards the refugees who

seek our help today, and not to ignore them in their time of trouble.

Nuri Gross and Avinoam Lehavi are

students in the Ha'EMeK Pre-Military Academy.

A New Bottle Full of Old Wine – from the pen of our member, Ronen

Ahituv

And Moses sent emissaries… to the King of Edom: "So says your brother, Israel.."

(20:14)

From whom did Moses learn to send emissaries? He learned it from his

grandfather, for it is said: And Jacob sent emissaries before him to his

brother Esau to the land of Seir, the fields of Edom (Bereishit 32:4)

Just as the emissaries sent word back to Jacob, so they did to Moses. By

Jacob it says: and he has gone forth towards you, and four hundred men are

with him (32:7). By Moses it says: And

went forth towards him with many people and a strong arm (20:20).

Moses uttered this verse: I am for peace, yet when I speak, they are

for war (Psalms 120:7). And

immediately: Israel

turned away from him (20:21).

A Heavenly Voice spoke out to him: "You should have learned from

your grandfather Jacob, who placated Esau and kissed him whole-heartedly. By

your life, your people is destined to live in his land and be hated, for it is

said: I have lived much with the hater of peace (Psalms 120:6)

Compare the two delegations. Who treated Edom more correctly?

 The Sin of Moses

…God rebuked both Moses and Aaron in the most severe manner (in Devarim 32:51): You were unfaithful to

Me, You did not uphold My sanctity – and that was why God decreed

that they would die outside Canaan. We ask: how

did Moses break faith with God? What was his sin? How did he not uphold God's

sanctity?

These matters are not explained in the Torah. Those who studied and

delved into the Torah raised many and varied hypotheses in attempting to find

the meaning from the text itself, and could not find any… It is possible that

this event has a most profound explanation. In any event, a Midrashic source

states it – and I would like to relate to this. In order for us to understand

the significance of the interpretation, we must realize one fact that is

possibly decisive in every attempt to understand the affair: the fact that

Moses himself is not aware that he sinned. On every occasion – and this is

repeated three times in the Torah – when Moses pleads to God to annul His

decree and to allow him to achieve the goal for which he worked for forty years

– he never asks God for forgiveness for his sin, but merely asks for the decree

to be annulled … Did Moses sin or did he not sin? If Moses, the most humble

of all men, was not cognizant of having sinned, who are we to seek for sins in

Moses? And why this decree made against him?

And yet in the same Midrash, we are told that God told Moses in regard

to his prayers for the decree to be annulled: "Moses, with what do you

wish to enter the land?" The Midrash implies a message which it later

states explicitly: "The generation that you [Moses] led was not granted

the privilege of entering the Land – and you, the leader of that generation,

wish to enter?" This is analogous to a shepherd whose flock was torn to

shreds by wild animals – can he then say: "I'm going home now"? In

other words, the leader has a share in the sins of his generation, for the sins

which were committed under his leadership, even if he himself is not – either

legally or morally or by any other human criterion – responsible for the sins,

the omissions, or the errors of those under him. Yet he has a share in their

sins… And in modern day concepts, in the social and political spheres, we

refer to this as the assumption of ministerial responsibility.

(From Notes and Remarks

on the Weekly Parashah by Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz,

Chemed Books, tr. S.

Himelstein, pp. 146-49.)

Her paths are paths

of pleasantness and all her ways are of peace

Now this is the Instruction for the slaughter offering of shalom [shelamim]:

That which is written, Her paths are paths of pleasantness and all her

ways are of peace, means that everything which is written in the

Torah is written for the sake of peace. And even though the Torah speaks of

wars, this too was written for the sake of peace. You find, that The Holy One,

Blessed Be He, abolished his decree because of peace. When? When The Holy One,

Blessed Be He said to Moses, When you set siege on a city for many days (Devarim 20:19), and all pertaining to that

subject, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to him that no spoil may be taken,

as is written, You are to devote them to destruction, yes, destruction (Ibid. 20:17). But Moses did not do so; rather

he said, "Shall I go and smite both he who sinned and he who sinned not?

But I shall come upon them in peace, as is written, Now I sent messengers

your land (Ibid. 2:26-27)." When

he saw that he (Sihon) did not come for peace, he smote him, as is written, So

they struck him and his sons and all his people (Bamidbar 21:35). Said The Holy One, Blessed Be He, "I said,

You are to devote them to destruction, yes, destruction, but you did not

do so! By your life, as you spoke so will I do, as is written, When

peace (Devarim 20:10)."

Therefore does it say, Her paths are paths of pleasantness and all her ways

are of peace (Proverbs 3:17).

(Tanhuma Tzav, 3)

Yiftah's Sin

This was Yiftah's error with regards to his daughter: he thought than

when a leader in Israel

declares that certain people should be killed or that whoever disobeys his

order deserves the death penalty, and also if one should vow during wartime to

offer a person or persons as a sacrifice, that such vows are binding. He did

not know that the above declaration of the king and the Sanhedrin is intended

to destroy the rebels or whoever transgresses their injunctions and decrees,

but Heaven forbid that a vow be taken to offer as sacrifice something which is

inappropriate for an offering to God. Therefore it is said in Bereishit Rabba (63) that he was not even obligated to make

monetary substitution (for the object dedicated), and therefore he was

punished with her blood (Money and blood share a common root – ('domim'

–'dom'))

One must not crown Yiftah with a halo of a national hero; one should not

be impressed by his act as if it were an act of great sacrifice prompted by

patriotic emotion. His act was cruel and without basis. We can accept as valid

the words of Chazal, who judged him to be an am ha-aretz, empty-headed

and rash. Enthusiasm in itself is no guarantee of proper and desirable

direction; enthusiasm without a compass, which lacks the restraint of Torah –

is liable to result in utter destruction. In the words of Midrash Tanhuma (Behukotai 5) "What caused Yiftah to lose

his daughter? He did not study Torah."

(Iyyunim BeSefer Bamidbar,

Prof. Nechama Leibowitz z'l)

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