THEN MIRIAM AND AARON SPOKE OF MOSES IN CONNECTION WITH THE

KUSHITE WOMEN WHOM HE HAD TAKEN, FOR HE HAD TAKEN A KUSHITE WOMAN.

(Bamidbar 12:1)

The Kushite woman: Tziporah

It is written: A Shigayon of David, which he sang to the Lord, concerning

Kush, a Benjaminite (Psalms

7). Was his name Kush? No, his name was Saul! Rather: just as a Kushite has unusual skin, so Saul was unusual in his deeds.

(Rashi ad loc: unusual in

his deeds – a perfectly just man). Similarly, you say: in connection with the Kushite women whom he had taken. Was her name Kushite? No, her name was Tziporah!

Rather: just as a Kushite woman has unusual skin, so Tziporah was unusual in her deeds (and in her beauty

the Kushite king, heard. Was his name Kushite? No, his name was Tzidkiyah!

Rather: just as a Kushite has unusual skin, so Tzidkiyah was unusual in his deeds. Similarly, you say: Are

you not like the Kushites to Me, O Israelites? (Amos

9). Was their name Kushites? No, their name was Israel! Rather: Just as the Kushite has unusual skin, so Israel differs from all other

nations in their deeds.

(Moed Katan 16b)

Then Miriam… spoke, etc. It seemed prideful of him, that

he did not want to marry within his own people.*

*Perhaps they thought it was prideful of Moses not to marry

an Israelite woman. He could not be faulted for [marrying] Tziporah,

since there were no Israelite women in Midian. In the

desert, however (perhaps Tziporah had died) he

certainly could have found an Israelite woman to marry, even though he was old.

Perhaps Aaron and Miriam wanted to give him one of their own daughters, but he took a Kushite woman from

amongst those who had joined with Israel when they left Egypt. It is known that

Egypt is near Kush, and there might have been Kushites

living in Egypt. When they saw what God had done for Israel, they joined them. Now,

while they [Miriam and Aaron] were criticizing him for his alleged pride, they

also said did He only speak with Moses? Then the Holy Spirit testified

that Moses had not acted from pride, but rather that he was very modest. Indeed,

we see that he did not apportion any honors to his own sons; perhaps that is

why he did not want to marry an Israelite woman, so that his sons would not be

able to enlist their relatives' help in lording over the public.

(ShaDaL ad loc)

When you mount the lamps, let the seven

lamps give light at the front of the Menorah

Avner Roei

The Menorah was preserved in the

memory of the generations as the principal symbol of everything related to the

Temple. This is well born-out by the RaMBaN's

comments on the beginning of our parasha: "…it

is known that when the Temple is not in existence and the sacrifices cancelled

because of its destruction, the lamps are also not in use, but they only

alluded to the [lighting of the] Hanukah lamps of the Hasmoneans,

which continues to be practiced in our exile, following the destruction…"

The Sages' edict that the "Hanukiyah" lamps

be lit during the eight days of Hanukah (in commemoration of the Hasmonean victory and of the annulment of the decrees

banning the commandments of the Torah) moved the Menorah from its place in the

Temple into the private space of every Jew; the commandment of lighting the Hanukah

lamp is required of "each man and his household." This is also

perhaps alluded to in the ancient prayer known as Al Ha-Nisim:

"and they lit candles in Your holy courtyards" – not in the Menorah's

usual place inside the Temple.

Why, of all the vessels of the

Tabernacle/Temple, did the Menorah merit such representation?

It appears that the Menorah

enjoyed special treatment and a central place already in the beginning o the

Second Temple period. In his important work, The History of the Israelite

Religion, Prof. Yehezkel Kaufman writes: "Zechariah's

vision of the Menorah makes the Menorah the central bearer of the Temple's

holiness. It might be that the Ark's absence served as the psychological

background for the vision. Now there was no Ark and no Tablets. That must have

certainly pained the heart of the community. Zechariah's vision has the Menorah

replace the Ark as the symbol of God. The power of that symbol makes the Temple

‘the tie between heaven and earth,' despite the Ark's absence. This symbolism

could not change the ritual formulations. It lacked any halakhic

consequences, but it had weight in the spheres of aggadah

and faith. It is not without significance that the festival of the Second

Temple, the festival of the Hasmoneans, is a festival

of the Menorah: The lamps of the Menorah showed the finger of God" (book eight,

pg. 256).

In the vision of Zechariah

chapter two, Shout for Joy (which is read this Shabbat as well as on the

Shabbat of Hanukah), the angel explains the vision's meaning to Zechariah with

the famous verse, Not with valor nor with force, but with My spirit, says

the Lord of Hosts.

How, then, does the Menorah

express this spiritual power, and how does it constitute a replacement for valor

and force?

The description of the Menorah's

appearance is found in Shemot 25:32: Six branches

and three branches of the Menorah from its other side. It should be

mentioned that no artifact similar to the Menorah was found in the possession

of the other ancient peoples of that time – it seems to be unique to Israel. The

branches that spread out upwards are reminiscent of a tree with its branches;

perhaps in the same way that the Torah is compared with a tree – it is a

tree of life for those who grasp it. On the other hand, man is compared to

a tree – for man is a tree of the field. The comparison between man and

tree is supported by the form of the upper skeleton – the backbone and the ribs

spreading from it. The Torah offers no details regarding the base of the

Menorah, and fails to give its dimensions, although it had done so for the

other vessels of the Tabernacle. According to the Sages (Menahot 28b),

the Menorah reached a height of eighteen average human hand-breadths.

The Kabalistic and Hassidic

literature cite the matters of the Tabernacle as alluding to man in his

entirety. The altar is found in the court. The table, the Menorah, and the

incense altar are in the Sanctuary – a place of greater sanctity than the

court. Similarly, man is formed of matter and spirit. Some of his organs are

specifically devoted to his physical existence, such as the digestive track,

bones, hands, and feet. These are represented by the outer altar, while spirit

largely involves parts found in the head: the brain, ears, eyes, nostrils and

mouth, which are represented by the vessels of the Sanctuary. The sense of

taste is represented by the table, smell by the incense altar, and vision by

the Menorah. A comparison has been drawn between the Menorah and all of the

parts of the head that make up the human spirit – their number is six: two

eyes, two ears, two nostrils parallel the Menorah's six branches. The brain and

mouth constitute a kind of central pillar. This is also alluded to by the tefillin worn on the head, which has a three-headed letter

shin on one side, and a four-headed shin on the other. Together they give us

seven – like the seven branches of the Menorah. This line of thought also

explains why many prayer books include a certain passage to be recited after the

placement of the tefillin on the head: "Let the

goodly oil be poured on the seven branches of the Menorah, to provide goodness

to your creatures."

The Menorah also symbolizes

equality, stability, and peace – neither side is preferred to the other, and a

central line binds together everything that stems from it. It reminds us of the

opening words of the benediction of peace, composed of twin letters shin­ – sim shalom ["grant peace"]. It

continues with the petition: "Let our Father bless us all as one with the

light of His face, for by the light of Your face You gave us the Torah of Life,

love of kindness, charity, mercy, life, and peace." This continues the

comparison between tree, man, and Menorah mentioned above: It is a tree of

life… and all its paths are peace.

Some prayer books (Sephardic and

others) include two psalms to be recited after the lighting of the Hanukkah

candles. Their orientations are dissimilar. Psalm 30, A

I extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up… treats

David's escape from a personal crisis. It is written in the first

person and anyone in similar circumstances can identify with it. The second

psalm is the 67^th: For the leader; with instrumental music. A psalm. A song. May God be

gracious to us and bless us. It deals with the international

situation, with

world peace stemming from common recognition of the Creator, as its central

verse states: Nations will exult and shout for joy, for You

rule the peoples with equity, You guide the peoples of the earth. Selah.

(This verse also appears in various drawings of the Menorah that are found in

places of worship, because it is composed of seven verses and contains a total

of forty-nine letters, which is why it is also read before the counting of the

omer.) Despite the differing orientations of the

two psalms, they may complement each other. Especially today, there is a close

interaction between the world situation and the feeling of security of the

individual, family, or particular nation. The reverse is also true: the

individual's deeds can affect and determine which way the world situation will turn

– to better or to worse, as the RaMBaM explains in Hilkhot Teshuva

3:4.

The Menorah in the Temple

testified that the Divine Presence dwelled in Israel – to the extent that the

Temple fulfilled the mission given it by Solomon and by the prophet Isaiah: to

be a house of prayer for all nations. The Hanukiyah –

which resembles the Menorah – that is lit by every "man and his household"

on Hanukah can create a friendly environment that begins with the individual

and his family, moves outwards through the particular nation and spreads to

world peace, which is the vision of redemption: Not with valor nor with

force, but with My spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.

Avner Roei is a member of Kibbutz Saad

and is writing a doctoral dissertation on Jewish history in the periods of the

Second Temple and the Mishnah.

Would that all the Lord's

people were prophets, that the Lord put His spirit upon them: there is No Monopoly on Spirituality

We were instructed that, it is fundamental to the

highest spiritual leadership that no one was given special privilege ("monopoly")

over spirit. God-given spiritual talent is independent of position; it is not a

class privilege. The very least one of the nation may be endowed with the Lord's

spirit, just the same as one who serves in the most elevated role of the royal

court.

(Rabbi Shimshon

Raphael Hirsch)

Manna as an Expression of Faith and Kindness

Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai

would say: the Torah was given to be expounded upon only by those who ate

manna. What does this mean? He would sit and explicate, not knowing where his

food and drink came from, nor where his clothing and covering

came from. The Torah was given to be expounded only by those who eat Manna, and after them to those who eat the terumah.

(Mekhilta BeShalah, Massekhet de'Yasisu, 2)

That is why the Torah was given only to those who

ate manna, for that is the path followed by all those

who busy themselves with God's Torah and are disgusted by excess luxuries that

are destined to be consumed by worms. That which was allowed for Shabbat was

excluded from such luxuries: it did not spoil and had no worms in it,

for it was a sign that one should save some of his food for the day that is completely Shabbat – for the World to

Come. One does this by sharing his food with the hungry. That is the eternal

preservation it did not spoil and had no worms in it. This allusion is

enough for those who fear the Lord and think of His name. The wicked shall not

understand, but the enlightened will understand eventually. To awaken people to

this, God commanded that a jar of manna be set for a remembrance before the

Pact – the place of the Tablets – in order to announce that the Tablets only

make a pact with those who eat manna.

(Keli Yakar on Shemot 16:18)

Moses was a very humble man

Moses approached the

fog – this

resulted from his humility, as is said, Moses was a very humble man. Scripture

tells us that whoever is humble, will

men on earth, as is written, For thus said He who high aloft forever dwells, whose

name is holy, and it says, The spirit of God is upon me. And it says

all these were created by my hand, and it says True sacrifice to God is a

contrite spirit. Whoever is prideful causes the earth to become impure, and

removes the Shekhina, as is said I cannot endure

the haughty and proud man. All the prideful are termed an abomination,

as is written, Every haughty person is a

abomination before God. Idolatry is called an abomination as is

written, You shall not bring abomination into your

house. Just as idolatry contaminates the Land and dispels the Shekhina. Moses approached the fog which was within three

partitions – darkness, cloud, and fog – darkness on the

outside, cloud on the inside, fog yet further inside, as is written, and Moses

approached the fog.

(Mekhilta, Yitro, Massekhet D'Bahodesh, 9)

…Human pride and arrogance stems from their not

recognizing their standing before God. That is why, unlike any other prophet,

Moses was uniquely called very humble (and not merely humble).

(Prof. Y. Leibowitz,

Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat

ha'Shavu'a)

Readers respond

I found something

strange and surprising in David Malkiel's article on

the story of Nadav and Avihu

(Shabbat Shalom, Parashat

Aharei Mot – Kedoshim 5766).

If I understand him correctly, he interprets the tragic deaths of Aaron's sons in

the light of three assumptions: 1) The main goal of

life – at least for Nadav and Avihu

– was to prepare themselves for life in the World to Come. 2) The only thing

that keeps most people from killing themselves (or at least, from shortening

their lives) is their uncertainty regarding the existence of an afterlife,

which creates the fear of death being total annihilation. 3) When "fire

descended from heaven" Nadav and Avihu underwent a great and intense religious experience in

which the secrets of heaven and earth were revealed to them, including sure

knowledge of the afterlife.

Modern Jewish thinkers are

wont to view this line of thinking as being fundamentally Christian; they claim

that Judaism is mostly interested in earthly life in the concrete world. True,

this claim is only half-correct: Kabbalistic and

philosophical works from the middle ages express great interest in the

afterlife; the afterlife also has an important role in the dicta of the Sages

(e.g., Rabbi Ya'akov's statement in Avot 4:21: "This world is like an entrance hall to the

World to Come'). However, all of those discussions are post-biblical. The Sages

had to work very hard (for example, in the chapter "Helek"

of Sanhedrin) to find a scriptural basis for the notion of the resurrection of

the dead. In addition, even those who indulged in lengthy descriptions of the

World to Come saw it as a reward to be enjoyed in its own good time. They most

certainly did not suggest that anyone actively shorten his earthly life in

order to enter it, as Malkhiel suggests had been done

by Aaron's sons.

The main thing is that

there are different schools of thought within Judaism: one of these tends more

to dualism and draws a line dividing the world of spirit from the world of

matter, and strives to overcome the rift between the soul and its divine

origin. The other school is more integrative. It emphasizes the unity of the

universe, and tries to redeem and sanctify this world. The latter school views

earthly life as the proper arena for human action and for the observance of the

halakha (see, for instance, Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik's Halakhic

Man, especially chapters seven through eleven). I think that a movement

such as Netivot Shalom, which inscribes concrete,

realizable values – such as the pursuit of peace and social justice – upon its

banner, clearly belongs in the latter school of thought.

Rabbi Yehonatan Chipman

Jerusalem

Editor's comment:

I think it is sometimes

difficult to differentiate between exegesis and the valorization of certain

personalities or spiritual paths.

The article's take on

what happened to Aaron's sons and to Ben Azai does

not necessarily celebrate their path and urge that we withdraw from this world.

Rather, it means to explain the motivation of unbridled spiritual fervor. This "Holy

Fire," which is also a "strange fire," is certainly dangerous

and the Torah warns us appropriately of its dangers.

Indeed, we definitely

stand for a brand of religious Zionism which strives to sanctify life. However,

we cannot excuse ourselves from the need to remain aware of other attitudes

towards the worship of God and to listen to separatist strains in the religious

community that are anchored in uncompromising spiritual fervor.

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Oz Veshalom-Netivot

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