NOW THE PEOPLE WERE LIKE THOSE WHO GRIEVE

OVER ILL-FORTUNE, IN THE EARS OF GOD.

WHEN GOD HEARD, HIS ANGER FLARED UP;

THERE BLAZED UP AGAINST THEM A FIRE OF

GOD

AND ATE UP THE EDGE OF THE CAMP.

THE PEOPLE CRIED OUT TO MOSHE, AND MOSHE

INTERCEDED TO GOD

AND THE FIRE ABATED.

(Bemidbar 11:1-3)

A

Place's Character Is Determined By Its

Inhabitants

"For

there had blazed against them the fire of God"

– It was so called

after the event; this was not its original name. Similarly "And there

he called the place Massa and Meriva (Testing and Quarreling) – Could

that have been its name? Scripture comes to teach us: Because of the quarrel

amongst the Children of Israel, its name was determined by what happened

there. Similarly, "And

he called the name of the place the Graves of Gluttony" – Was that its

name before? Scripture comes to teach us that" Because there they

buried etc" – it was named after what had happened there, but such was

not its name before. But you do not know who it was who habituated Israel to

sin; behold, it says "and the riffraff which was in its midst"

– these are the converts who were gathered from all places. Rabbi Shim'on

ben Menasya says: These are the elders amongst them, as is written, "Gather

unto me"(The Hebrew for

'riffraff' and 'gather' share a common root.). And if the elders behaved in such a fashion, how much more

so the rest of the people! Similarly you read "And the sons of the gods

saw the daughters of man"– What were the sons of the judges (The

work "Elohim" – one of god's names, also has the connotation of

"judges".) doing?

They were seizing women from the marketplace and tormenting them; if the sons

of the judges behaved so, all the more so the other people.

 (Yalkut Shim'oni, Behaalotcha, 247:732)

HOLINESS IS TO BE FOUND ONLY IN GOD

Shammai Leibowitz

Sometimes,

those who strive to ascend the peaks of holiness are plunged into the depths of

bloodshed and death. Take, for example, Nadav and Avihu, the two sons of Aharon

the priest, who were burned alive while offering "alien fire which He

did not command them" (Vayikra 10:1) The exalted occasion of the sanctification of the priests is

transformed into a tragic and horrifying event, as a result of a perverted

understanding of the concept of kedushah – of holiness.

At

the outset of our parasha, we find the chapter dealing with the sanctification

of Levites. From it we can learn about the true essence of kedushah:

"Take

the Levites from among the Children of Israel, and cleanse them" (8:6)

What

is the significance of this kedushah? The Torah explains in detail:

"And

you shall separate the Levites from among the Children of Israel, and the

Levites shall be mine. Afterwards the Levites may enter to serve in the Tent of

Appointment, when you have purified them and elevated them as an elevation

offering" (Bemidbar 8:14)

The

holiness of the Levites is not immanent. It is expressed by their being

separated from the rest of the Children of Israel, separation which is marked

by a set of obligations and limitations imposed only upon them. The Children of

Israel, too, are commanded to be holy, i.e., set aside from the rest of

the nations (Shemot

19:6; Vayikra 20:26, and elsewhere), but

the Levites, by virtue of their duties, are subject to additional restrictions.

This – and only this – makes them holy.

The process of the

consecration of the Levites proves that we are not dealing with a metaphysical

issue. The Levites must undergo a ritual composed of a series of ceremonial

acts, but these acts are, in themselves, day-to-day acts, performed by ordinary

people in different contexts as purely secular acts. These include: The

sprinkling of water, shaving, laundering, eating meat, embracing. (In the

wording of the Torah: sprinkling, passing over with a razor, laundering

clothes, the offering of a sacrifice, leaning with the hands).          

This

is to say: These are ordinary acts, which every person is liable to perform on

certain occasions. In our case, as a result of God's commandments, these acts

take on religious significance; only after the performance of the act, the

Levites will become separate from the Children of Israel. Their holiness is not

ingrained; it derives from their having executed the list of acts. Whoever

fails to meet the conditions – is not holy.

Yet

more: The Torah emphasizes that the Levites' kedushah is contingent

upon their moral deportment. Prior to the selection of the Levites, the firstborn were

holy, but they lost their holiness to the Levites:

"For

every firstborn of the Children of Israel, both man and beast – on the day when

I smote every firstborn in the land Egypt, I consecrated them unto me. And I

took the Levites instead of the every firstborn of the Children

of Israel. (8:17-18)

The

principle element seems to be missing from the text. Why did the firstborn

lose their holiness?

The

parasha does not supply a clear-cut answer. But there is a more than broad hint

that it is tied to some sin which the firstborn – but not the Tribe of Levi –

transgressed. The Torah states "And I will appoint the Levites given to

Aharon and his sons… to atone for all of the Children of Israel."

(8:19). [Ed. Note: So does Rashi explain,

Bemidbar 8:17)

In the incident of the

sin of the Calf, the Levites were the only tribe of the Children of Israel who

did not consecrate objects and land, remaining faithful to the pure faith that

only God is holy, and nothing is holy other than Him. When the people followed

the "holy" calf, the Levites joined Moshe, who smashed the tablets,

works of God, because he wanted to demonstrate that there is no holiness in the

tablets themselves. How beautiful and penetrating the words of the

"Meshech Chochma" on this matter:

There is no holiness in anything created,

vessels!"

We learn, then, that the parasha of the

Levites is but a continuation of this tendency, the purpose of which is to

fight a battle of total annihilation against the perverted perception of kedushah.

The Levites were chosen because they did not follow that idol worship, which

wished to consecrate objects and stones. How powerful this idolatry was can be

learned from the fact that it swept, like a gigantic tidal wave, over all the

nation (except the tribe of Levi). Just as Moshe, by breaking the tablets,

wanted to transmit to the people the principle that that there is no kedushah

in objects and stones – even when "the writing of God inscribed on the

tablets" (Shemot

32:16), so did The Holy one,

Blessed Be He, wish to demonstrate that we are proscribe from thinking that kedushah

exists in men. If, until now, the firstborn were consecrated, their

misbehavior resulted in their holiness being taken away, and assigned to the

Levites. Should the Levites sin, their holiness will be annulled and will

disappear from the world.

The

question may be asked: Why is the distorted view of kedushah so

dangerous as to warrant so a dramatic step as replacing all the firstborn with

the sons of the Tribe of Levi? It would seem that the answer to this may be

found in a Midrash dealing with the first murder in human history:

"And

Kayin said to his brother Hevel" – What were they talking about? Rabbi

Yehoshua of Sachnin said: Both took land, and both took movables, but this one

said – the

his brother and killed him." (Bereishit Rabba,

Parasha 22)

The

very first murder in the world, Kayin killing Hevel his brother, was the result

of a controversy over control over the Temple Mount. The perverted idea that

earth, stone, or objects can be holy, led to bloodshed.

What

years later? It appears

that the author of the Midrash understood human nature. He directed his words

to us, in order to send us a penetrating message, to warn us against that

mistaken view of kedushah, which leads to ruin and destruction.

The

Midrash tells us that whoever distorts the concept of the sanctity of the

Temple Mount, and believes that we have an obligation to exercise political

control over it, is liable to engender bloodshed. It is difficult not to see

how the admonition of the prophet was realized: "When you come to be

blood!" (Isaiah

1:12) To our sorrow, we have

been caught up in a whirlpool of terrible and unnecessary bloodshed between the

two peoples living in this land.

Even

though the slogan "Do Not Give Up That Which Is Holy To Israel!" is

very catchy when voiced by politicians, we cannot ignore linking it to the

argument between Kayin and Hevel, controversy which ended with Kayin killing

Hevel his brother, and with the calf-worshippers proclaiming "These are

your gods, O Israel." They, too, thought that kedushah

is tangible, that it necessitates control and sovereignty. Chazal wanted to

teach us that there is no greater distortion than that misunderstanding of kedushah.

Precisely because of this perception, the firstborn, who worshipped the

calf, were distanced from the service of God, and replaced by the Levites.

The

purpose of the parasha of the replacement of firstborn with Levites is to

implant in us the understanding that holiness not ingrained in any object, in

any soil, in any person. Kedushah is independent of considerations of

sovereignty or nationality. On the contrary, an a priori condition for

the sanctity of Yerushalayim is the establishment of peace, doing justice and

righteousness between the two peoples living here.

In Chronicles I (22:7-10), David explains to Shelomo why he was

prevented from building the Bet Hamikdash:

"It

was in my heart to erect a house to the name of the Lord my God. But the word

of God was upon me, saying: You have spilled much blood, and you waged great wars, you

shall not build a house to My name, for much blood did you spill on the earth

before me."

If the desire to rule over the Temple

Mount leads to blood conflict, then there is nothing that can more desecrate

the earth, and divest it of its holiness. There is diametric opposition between

bloodshed – in any form – and a house of God. Beautiful and relevant are the

words of the midrash, which explain the prohibition against hewing stones for

the alter with a tool of iron:

"Because

iron was created to shorten man's days, and the altar was created to extend

man's days. It is not right that the decreasers be waved over the increaser." (Middot 3:4)

We

conclude with words of hope: It is the duty of our leaders to internalize the

words of the "Meshech Chochma", to understand that there is no

religious value to political rule over the Temple Mount or over "Greater

Yerushalayim" or any other piece of land. But this is not enough. The city

of the Mikdash has great importance on the public and social plane in its role

as lighthouse of justice and righteousness, illuminating for all the world the

path to realization of these values. Yerushalayim symbolizes a society in which

there functions a judicial system which is open and available to all. The

Temple Mount expresses, above all, the idea of equal and just attitude to all

inhabitants of the country.

            Learn

to do good, devote yourself to justice. (Isaiah

1:17)

Only

following this:

            Afterwards

you will be called the city of justice, faithful city" (Isaiah

1:26-27).

            Zion

will be redeemed through justice, and her returnees, with righteousness. (Ibid, 26-27)

                                                                                                                 Shammai Leibowitz is an attorney

Readers

Write:

Under

the very tendentious caption "What is Lag Baomer? Cessation of the Plague

or Cease-fire and Sobering-up from the Messianic Illusion and the Intoxication

with Power?" you quote sources which draw a contradiction (either real or

ostensible) between the Bavli (Yevamot 62),

and the famous letter by Rav Saadya Gaon.

Ostensibly

you left the issue open,

both in the caption and it the various quotes. But your intention was clearly

to favor Rasag's letter – with your interpretation to the effect that what happened to them

was the result of intoxication with power and the messianic illusion.

What, however, are we to do,

when the Rambam, in the Laws of Kings, describes the Bar Cochba rebellion,

supported by Rabbi Akiva, as messianic potential which eventually did not

succeed. That is to say, Rabbi Akiva acted properly, "but the generation was not

deserving" and the masses were not swept away with the enthusiasm of Rabbi

Akiva and his disciples, and therefore the revolt could not succeed.

For it is the spiritual

status which determines, not the physical; see the Hasmonean Wars in which the

few battled the many and they succeeded and they gave us the festival of

Chanukah for generations. As a rule, we, as Jews, are supposed to be adept at

searching out the reasons for failure of redemptive acts throughout the generations,

not on the physical plane of force ratios between armies, etc, but in the

spiritual failings of the Jewish people.

Therefore, there is really

no contradiction between Tractate Yevamot and Rasag's letter:

In my humble opinion, Rasag

described the factual analysis of the historical events: the Talmud reveals the

spiritual failing which existed among the disciples of Rabbi Akiva as the root

of the historical failure of the revolt. An argument about the historic facts –

did Rabbi Akiva's students die of askara or at the hands of the Romans –

is unimaginable, certainly not within the short historic period between the

rebellion and the generation of Amoraim discussing it.

Rabbi Yoram Cohen-Or

Tushiya – Kfar Maimon

Editor's

Note:

I

thank Rabbi Cohen-Or for his remarks which provide us with an opportunity to

clarify our policy in choosing sources such as these:

A.     Every week, we publish, in addition to

the main article, selections from the Midrash and various commentaries which

relate to some aspect of the parasha. We quote these sources verbatim

(occasionally, when the quote is from an Aramaic source, in Hebrew

translation), and through them we invite the reader to study from

non-conventional perspectives, to examine issues through the rich and complex

attitudes of Chazal and later commentators. The captions we attach are intended

to be "A reading suggestion". Sometimes it appears as a tendentious

reading, which sees in the sources quoted an unequivocal message. Sometimes,

the caption presents a question marked by complexity.

B.     In the sources relating to Lag BaOmer

which we brought in the Parashat "Behar" issue, and in the heading

preceding them, our aim was to present the question of the death of Rabbi

Akiva's disciples in an ideological perspective related to the messianic milieu

prevailing during the period. Therefore, in addition to the sources mentioned,

we also quoted from the Midrash in Eicha Rabba, in which Rabbi Yochanan ben

Torta attacks Rabbi Akiva's messianic position. True, there is not necessarily

a contradiction between the Talmudic tradition and Rasag's letter regarding the

death of Rabbi Akiva' disciples: The two traditions refer to different levels

of the story, as Rabbi Cohen-Or correctly points out. We, too, believe that the

deciding factor is not our physical status, but our spiritual standing, and this is one the central themes of our "Shabbat

Shalom" sheets. After the event, it became clear that Rabbi

Akiva was wrong in his evaluation of Bar Cochba as the mashiach; the

controversy between him and Rabbi Yochanan ben Torta indicates this. The Rambam

in "Laws of Kings" — which we quoted in our Yom Haatzmauth edition –

can also be read as Rabbi Amital reads it: Even Rabbi Akiva erred in this

matter. In our opinion, whoever wishes to understand the period in which he

lives in a messianic perspective is liable to err, and sometimes such an error

can exact a cost too great to pay.

 Pinchas Leiser – Editor

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak

Frankenthal and

 Dr.

Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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