YOU SHALL GIVE IT TO ELAZAR THE PRIEST. IT SHALL BE

TAKEN OUTSIDE THE CAMP AND SLAUGHTERED IN HIS PRESENCE.

(Bamidbar 19:3)

He said, You [plural]

shall give – rather than you [singular] shall give… He said you

Elazar, who was to slaughter

it, took it from the court of law in order that they [the judges] assign it to him to prepare [the ashes of the red

heifer] legitimately and in accordance with their wishes, as we learned in the Mishnah (Parah

3:5):

And who prepared them? The first was

prepared by our Master Moses, the second was prepared by Ezra, from Ezra on there were seven. Who prepared them? Shimon HaTzadik and Yohanan the High

Priest prepared two each… .

This tells us that in the depth of its mystery it is

appropriate that this commandment be consigned to the foremost amongst the

priests. But it was not consigned to Aaron – perhaps this was due to his

greatness; for he was sacred to God, he was God's saint, he atoned in God's Sanctuary,

and God did not want to assign him a ritual that took place outside of the

Sanctuary. Or, perhaps, it was in order to crown Elazar

and install him in regard to one of the commandments of the High Priest while

his father still lived. Or, perhaps, it was as a punishment for [Aaron's part

in the sin of] the calf, as R. Moshe HaDarshan says.

(RaMBaN on Bamidbar 19:2-3)

The Law is Observed through

its Disobeyance!

The Law's Struggle Against

Conformism

Shlomo Fuchs

Parashat Hukkat

opens with an unexplained hok [law] – the law

of the red heifer. Immediately afterwards, we are told of Miriam's death, and

of how Moses hit the rock instead of speaking to it. Moses' and Aaron's sin

keeps them from entering the Promised Land.

What can be learned from the juxtaposition of these

episodes? Let us consider Miriam's importance for the nation's consciousness

and consider how powerful the nation can

be – when it wants to be.

Miriam's talk about Moses led her to be punished with

leprosy, requiring her to be quarantined outside of the camp. Regarding this it

is said:

So Miriam was shut out of camp seven days; and the

people did not march until Miriam was readmitted. (Bamidbar 12:15)

In contrast to Moses' cry/prayer – the people did not

move until Miriam was readmitted. How should the people's not moving be

understood? The travels through the wilderness followed the cloud (Bamidbar 9:15-23)… At such

encamped at a command of the Lord, and broke camp at a command of the Lord (verse 20). Therefore, it may be said that the

people did not march means that God wanted to test the people, to see whether

they would leave Miriam behind or not, so he had the cloud ascend from its

place. The people did indeed wait for Miriam.

The people's decision gained additional significance after

it was decreed that Moses would not enter the Land. The people do not come to

Moses' aid, and they do not ask God to lighten the punishment.

According to the midrash's

formulation, when Moses said the Lord has not given you a mind to understand

(Devarim 29:3)

– he meant to say "Why do you – the people – not use your power for my

sake?"

Another view: has not given you a mind to understand

– R. Shmuel bar Nahmani

said: Moses told them this for his own sake… R. Shmuel

bar Yitzhak said: When Moses started dying and they did not ask mercy for him

that he should enter the land, he assembled them and began reproaching them: "A

single [man] saved 600,000 at the [sin of] the calf, but 600,000 cannot save a

single man? The Lord has not given you a mind to understand!" He

said to them: "Do you not remember all that I did leading you through the

wilderness?", as it is said, and I led you through the wilderness for

forty years (Devarim

29). (Devarim Rabbah 7:10)

Our parasha contains a number

of topics: the red heifer (a hok), Miriam's death, Moses' sin of striking the

reason to this collection?

This is the ritual law that the Lord has commanded:

which there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid. (Bamidbar 19:2)

Citing the mussar

Regarding the red heifer, it is written: in which

there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid. One should wonder

why it does not say on which no yoke has been laid first; it is more

common for a cow to have born a yoke than to be without blemish! Rather, it is

meant to hint at a lesson about people: If someone is found to be without

blemish, that is to say, he thinks that

all of his deeds are proper, certainly that person has not had the yoke of

the kingdom of heaven set upon him. (Zikhron Nifla'ot)

This reading understands that the law of the red heifer

symbolizes human behavior. Indeed, the law points out that the one who purifies

causes the impure to become pure while he himself becomes impure until the

evening. The purifying priest is likely to feel powerful; he purifies the impure.

He himself becomes impure until the evening in order to moderate that feeling

of power.

In the year 1942, while living in the Warsaw ghetto, a

few months before his death in the Holocaust, HaRav Klonimos mi'Pazienza wrote that

the law of the Red Heifer teaches us simple faith; the law is to be accepted

without understanding; we must accept God's word and believe in it, "do

not contemplate, just believe that since God has done this thing so it should

be. And so it is that the heifer purifies and also atones, since we immerse

ourselves completely in the mikveh [ritual bath] and

give ourselves over completely to the Blessed one.."

The acceptance of God's word is expressed by the way

Israel said we shall observe before they said we shall hear at

Mount Sinai.

A few months later, in his drasha

on parashat Hukkat, he

wrote of Miriam's power and Moses' sin, which had been committed deliberately

in order to secure Divine plentitude and reach the people.

This drasha expresses a

different conception: sin has the power to draw near. That is to say, Moses'

disobedience to the law brings the water to Israel. The rabbi asks: Why does

the story of Moses' hitting the rock follow immediately upon the description of

Miriam's death and of the lack of water? What is the connection between Moses'

sin and Miriam's death? He explains that Miriam's observance of the

commandments was the source of her power. Even though that as a woman she was

not commanded to, nevertheless she performed them. In other words, the rabbi

believed that "one who is not commanded yet performs the commandments"

is greater than "one who is commanded to perform the commandments and

performs them." He believed that the force of Miriam's passion raised up the people's passion to serve God. Thanks to her

passion they achieved the highest illumination in God's service. And he writes:

But when Miriam died, they were not so desirous,

therefore they did not merit receiving Moses' illumination from above, and

Moses had to lower himself to them in order to raise them up with an awakening

of their passion. How did he lower himself to them? By means

of the sin – by his standards – that he performed with them.

They complained about the water, and our Master Moses

hit the rock twice, even though God had said and you shall speak. As is

known in the holy books, "Anyone who is not required [to perform some

commandment] cannot dispense others of their obligation to do it, it is because

of this that the Tzadik sometimes must do something

that is a sin by his standards in order to bring merit to the masses."

The Rebbi from Pazienza continues:

It may be assumed that our Master Moses immediately

repented for this, thus raising them up as well, and much water and overflow

and great salvation came forth.

Moses hits the rock and sins – a premeditated act

prompted by his inability to rise up to Miriam's level. Miriam's power was in

the breaking of norms; even though she was not commanded, she initiated action.

Thanks to her power she managed to waken and arouse the people. That is why

when he came to fill his sister's place, Moses had to sin and reach the people

in order to arouse their desire for God.

Next the parasha describes a

plague and how it was ended by the copper serpent (21:5-9).

Regarding this, the Talmud states: The Rabbis taught: "King Hezkiah did six deeds. They thanked him for three, but for

they thanked him… " (Pesahim 56a). The Talmud in Hullin

6b-7a adds: " R. Yehoshua

ben Zaruz, the son of Rabbi

Meir's father-in-law testified before Rabbi in the

matter of how R. Meir ate the leaf of a vegetable in Beit Shean, and on the basis of

this testimony, Rabbi absolved all of Beit Shean [from the laws of the Sabbatical Year]. His brothers

and his father's house joined together against him, saying to him: "Where

your ancestors and ancestors' ancestors prohibited, you permit?" He

expounded for them upon this verse: He also broke into pieces the copper

offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan

(II Kings 18:4) – could it be that Asa came and did not destroy it, that Yehoshafat

came and did not destroy it? Did not Asa and Yehoshafat destroy every form of idolatry in the world? Rather,

his forefathers left him room in which to exalt himself, so too, my forefathers

left me room to exalt myself."

R. Yehudah HaNasi

permited the crops of Beit Shean in the Sabbatical year, based upon an early testimony

that R. Meir had been accustomed to do so. To his

friend's complaint that he had permitted that which is prohibited, he answered "My

forefathers left me room to exalt myself" – sometimes there is a need for

innovation.

The parasha ends with the dispatch of emissaries to sue for

peace with Sihon:

And Israel now sent messengers to Sihon

king of the Amorites, saying, "Let me pass through your country… (21:21-23)

But in Devarim (2:24-29) we read:

See, I have given Sihon the

country… "

Regarding this, we read in Midrash

Devarim Rabbah 5:13:

Another view: You will decree [and it will be

fulfilled] (Job 22:28) – R. Yehoshua DeSikhanin said in the

name of R. Levi: Everything that Moses decreed, the Holy One blessed be He agreed with him. How was this?

…The Holy One blessed be He told him: You should fight

Sihon, for it is said, engage him in battle,

yet he did not do that, but rather, then I sent messengers, etc. The

Holy One blessed be He said to him: I tell you go

do battle with him, and you offer peace?? By your life, I will fulfill your

decree, every war that you go forth to fight shall begin with a call for peace,

as it is said, When you approach a town to attack it [you shall offer it

terms of peace] (Devarim

20:10). Who fulfilled this matter? Yehoshua

bin Nun…

And in a midrash

of the Tana'im it is written:

Great is peace, but controversy is hated, great is peace

for even in time of war peace is needed, for it is said, When you approach a

peace. (Sifrei Bamidbar 42)

To summarize: the parasha of

law [hok] – Hukkat –

contains a call for struggle against conformism.

a) The parasha begins with a

law that demands simple faith, but even this unfathomable law hints at proper

behavior: Do not even think of claiming that you are without imperfections.

b) Moses' breaking of the law – hitting the rock instead

of observing the command to speak to it. We find in the Aish

Kodesh that this act was premeditated in order to

bring God's plenty to the Israelites following Miriam's death. This required

that Moses disobey God's law in order to rise up to Miriam's station. Moses

learned of Miriam's power from the fact that the people did not break camp when

she was punished with leprosy.

c) Hezekiah's destruction of the copper serpent became a

symbol – Rabbi learned from Hezkiah's deed that it

was possible to cancel the land's holiness, making Beit

Shean's produce permissible in the Sabbatical year.

d) Moses broke the law when he offered peace instead of

setting out directly for battle, as he had been commanded. The midrash understands Moses' deed as

one which taught God – so to speak – how one should behave, and God agreed with

it.

e) We must fulfill the verse everything that God says

we shall observe and hear with a mind towards repairing the world.

Shlomo Fuchs is the educational director of the Yiud ve'Yihud program at Beit Morasha and teaches at

Hebrew Union College, at Beit Shmuel

and at Kolot.

The Striking of the Boulder

–Response Out Of Desperation or Fulfillment of God's Command?

Have

we the right to investigate the feelings of Moshe our teacher at that moment?

What was in the heart of the servant of God – about whom God himself

testified he is the most trusted in My

entire house? What had distracted him from properly discharging his

mission?

We

might offer the following suggestion: Moses took the staff from the Tabernacle

where it had stood for almost forty years. He took the staff in his hand as God

had commanded, and, holding this symbol of his divine mission, he proceeded to

gather the people. Here he stands once again – after forty years – with the

staff of God in his hand. At the beginning of his mission forty years earlier,

he needed the staff in order to publicly certify his appointment. Now he is

pained by the thought that in all those forty years, despite all he had done

for them, he had not succeeded in winning the people's trust. In the bitterness

of this emotion, he forgot his mission, and instead of talking softly to the

boulder, he spoke harsh words of admonition. In the storm of his feelings, he

struck the boulder.

(Rabbi

S. R. Hirsch on Bamidbar 20:11)

The

sin of Moses and Aaron is not publicized in Scripture. Rashi

explained that they were ordered to speak to the boulder – He did not

command them to strike it. These are words of aggada.

But they are not clear, for after He commanded "Take the staff"

the implication was that he strike with it; if it was His intention that

Moshe only speak, why take the staff in his hand? When the plagues were brought upon Egypt, God

commanded, and the staff which turned into a serpent,

take in your hand – and the purpose was to strike with it. A number of

times He said stretch forth your hand, meaning to

strike with the staff, for

Scripture tends to economy with words, and, furthermore, speaking is no greater

a miracle than striking, because for the rock, both are equal.

(Ramban, Bamidbar 20:8)

The Heritage of Jacob; the Heritage of Esau:

Of What are We Proud?

It

says about Moses: We cried to the Lord and he heard out voice (Bamidbar 20:16). [Edom] said to [the Israelites]: You are

proud that your father bequeathed to you the voice is the voice of Jacob

and He heard our voice, while we are proud of what our father bequeathed

to us: By your sword you shall live as it says And Edom said to him,

you (Bamidbar

20:18)

(Yalkut Shimoni Yeshayahu 41)

It is written in Bamidbar (21:21)

And Israel sent messengers to Sihon. It

is written elsewhere, in parashat Devarim

(2:26) And I sent messengers… to Sihon. Based on these two verses, our sages said

that two messages were written: one by Moses for peace, and one by Israel for

war.

(Hizkuni Bamidbar 21:21).

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