MOSES MADE A COPPER SNAKE AND

PUT IT ON A POLE, AND WHENEVER A SNAKE BIT A MAN, HE WOULD GAZE UPON THE COPPER

SNAKE AND LIVE.

(Bamidbar 21:9)

AND IT WAS IN THE THIRD YEAR OF

HOSHEA THE SON OF ELAH, THE KING OF ISRAEL, THAT HEZEKIAH THE SON OF AHAZ THE

KING OF JUDAH, BECAME KING…

AND HE DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN

THE EYES OF THE LORD, LIKE ALL THAT HIS FATHER DAVID HAD DONE.

HE ABOLISHED THE HIGH PLACES,

AND SMASHED THE MONUMENTS, AND CUT DOWN THE ASHERAH, AND CRUSHED THE COPPER

SERPENT THAT MOSES HAD MADE, FOR UNTIL THOSE DAYS THE

CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE BURNING INCENSE TO IT; AND HE CALLED IT NEHUSHTAN.

(II

Kings 18:1,3,4)

for until those days the children of Israel

were burning incense to it

– From the time that the kings of Judah became wicked and Israel erred in

pursuing idolatry until the days of Hezekiah's reign, the Israelites would

offer incense to it. Having found it written that he who looks upon it would

live, they thought it could serve well as an intermediary [between humans and

God] and that they should worship it. It was kept from Moses' day as a memorial

to the miracle, as had been done with the jar of manna. Asa

and Yehoshafat did not destroy it when they destroyed

the other objects of idolatry because during their reigns they did not find it

being worshipped and being offered incense. They left it as a memorial to the

miracle. However, Hezekiah saw fit to destroy it when he destroyed the idols

because it was being worshipped as an idol in his father's day. Even though the

good people used it to commemorate the miracle, he said: "Better that

will err after it today or tomorrow."

(ReDaK ad loc)

Make a seraph figure and

recover (Bamidbar. 21: 8). Could it be that the

not, they would waste away.

(Mishnah Rosh HaShana 3:8)

"Could it be that the snake kills… Could it be that Moses' hands make war?"

Pinchas Leiser

The Mishnah (Rosh HaShana 3:8) connects "Moses'

(Shemot 17:11) with the "Copper

shofar:

Could it be that Moses' hands make war or break war?

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 (Bamidbar 21: 8). Could it be that the snake

would waste away.

A deaf person, a fool, or a minor cannot serve as a proxy

that obligation.

In the 48^th issue of Shabbat Shalom (Rosh HaShana 5759) we dealt with the connection

between the mishnayot dealing with the kavana ["state of

intention"] associated with the commandment of shofar and the aggadic section of this mishnah,

importance of proper kavana. There we wrote:

It may be that the halakhic

connection. That is to say; it is the shaliah tzibbur's ["emissary of the

the community and to be thought of by the community as bearing proper kavana.

It is perhaps possible in this connotation to understands

obligation upon themselves with full intention of the heart and to serve as shlihei tzibbur for the performance of

special kavana: "One does not fulfil one's

intention" (Hilkhot Shofar 2:4). That is to say: there is a need for maximal ability to have awareness, intention, and

effective communication that allows the community to depend upon the shaliah tzibbur it has appointed to perform his commission

faithfully and for the shaliah tzibbur to know

that the community is with him.

Like

and he who blows it.

I think

HaNasi when he compiled this mishnah.

In the

the people began worshiping it.

The Sages

(in a braita appearing in Berakhot

10b and various other locations)

three other deeds:

Our Rabbis Taught: King Hezekiah did six things; of three

it. (following Soncino

translation)

A common denominator may be found among Hezekiah's three

praiseworthy deeds:

His father Ahaz was an idolator: he passed his son through fire in the abominable manner of the nations

(II Kings 16:3) and he slaughtered sacrifices and burnt incense on

the high places (16:4).

father's idolaterous tradition and connect up with his father David.

Similarly, he battled against the people's "idolatrous"

idols as well.

In Sanhedrin 98b we find R. Hillel's opinion: "Israel

reign possessed a messianic potential.

Hezekiah's iconoclastic activities remind us of how Moses

broke the Tablets, a deed which also earned the Sages' approbation: "Which you broke – more power to you for

having broken them!" (Shabbat 87a

and other locations). In his commentary, Meshekh Hokhkma, R. Meir Simkha of Dvinsk expands upon the

topics of holiness and the shattering of the Tablets:

The point is that the Torah and faith are

what is essential for the Israelite nation. All of the types of holiness, [that

of] the Land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple, they are but details and

branches of the Torah, and they are sanctified through the Torah's holiness.

Therefore, there is no distinction between different places in regard to

matters of the Torah, and it is the same both within and without the Land of

Israel, except for those commandments whose observance is conditional upon

residence in the Land….

Do not imagine, God

forbid, that the Temple and the Tabernacle are intrinsically holy objects! God

dwells among His sons, and if they, to a man, have transgressed the Covenant

(Hosea 6:7), all holiness is removed

from them, and they become like profane vessels "intruders came and

desecrated it." Titus entered the Holy of Holies with a prostitute and was

not harmed (Gittin 56b)

because its holiness had been removed. More than that – the Tablets – God's

handwriting – are not holy in themselves, but only for you. When the

bride fornicated under her canopy [i.e., the Israelites committed the sin of

the golden calf], they [the Tablets] became as mere pottery shards – they

lacked any intrinsic holiness – they are only [holy] for you when you observe

world to which holiness can be attributed and which can be an object of worship

and submission, except the Holy One blessed be He, Who

is holy in His necessary existence, and to whom praise and worship is befitting.

(Meshekh Hokhma Shemot 32:19)

Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who

often quoted the Meshekh Hokhma and identified with it

wrote (Sheva Shanim Shel Sihot al Parashiyot

HaShavu'a, pg. 709):

It is clear to all of us that if there was ever an object in the world

that deserved to be called holy, the term should have been applied to the

copper snake that Moses made following God's instruction. However, with the

goal of following the command you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy,

King Hezekiah did not hesitate to destroy it, since it had become a stumbling

block for Israel, becoming a ritual item to which they offered incense.

Concluding his treatment of this topic, he wrote:

Due to the historical associations connected with these stones [the

stones of the Western Wall] we have become witnesses to how they have become,

in the eyes of people who think of themselves as "believers and the

children of believers" a kind of mail-box for the delivery of messages and

requests to the blessed Lord. However, it must be emphasized that from the

moment those stones become objects

of holiness, it all becomes the

very opposite of holiness. It might be said that in this instance the Torah has

again failed to uproot these idolatrous concepts and practices which have

settled deep within them from the hearts and minds of believing Jews who have

accepted the Torah.

During his lifetime, Yeshayahu Leibowitz awakened the anger of many against him, since he

never hesitated to express his opinions even when he found himself in a

minority within the national-religious community and within Israeli society

following the Six Day War. However, it seems to me that his consistent and

radical approach to the issue of holiness and its opposite, following the Meshekh Hokhma,

demands our serious consideration. True, it is undeniable that we must develop

a respectful attitude towards tashmishei kedusha ["holy objects"] such as Torah

scrolls, mezuzot, tefillin,

holy books and the like.

However, there is a difference between the obligatory attitude towards

such tashmishei kedusha,

which define our commitment to observing the word of God and the turning of

stones, trees, graves, and land into "fetishes."

The interpretation of the Sages, RaMBaM and

others of the Song of Songs makes use of its erotic imagery between man and

woman – seen as the "Holy of Holies" – to illustrate the loving

relationship between a person or people and their God.

We distinguish genuine love, which involves complexity, deepening of

connection and interpersonal awareness from "fetishism" that seeks

short-lived, egoistic, and immediate gratification stemming from stimulation by

a partial object.

Sometimes, when the other or part of the other is grasped as an object

for the gratification of needs, violent expressions of this perversion may

appear. In such cases, the other is not a "subject" but rather an

object, a thing. Unfortunately, there is no need to illustrate these matters in

our own day, when every news broadcast and daily newspaper includes accounts of

sexual exploitation or other forms of abuse.

Perhaps there is room to recall the words of the Meshekh

Hohkma and to study the Song of Songs in detail

and to internalize the fact that even if we as individuals, as a society, and

as a people want to aspire to the love of God, the love of Israel, the love of

the Land, the love of Torah and the love of humanity, we must learn to

distinguish idolatrous fetishism and other perversions from true love.

Pinchas Leiser,

the editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist

And from Mattanah to Nahaliel:

the Torah Requires Humility

What is the purport of the Scriptural text, And from the wilderness 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

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 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 [the house of learning] and expounded thus, "A man should

always be gentle 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

71a-b, following Soncino translation)

Let me pass through your land -Even though they had not been commanded to offer peace, they asked for

peace.

(Rashi,

Bamidbar 21:22)

Let me pass through your land -They did not say please let us pass (Bamidbar

20:17) as they did to the king of Edom, for here they did not come to make a

request but rather to announce that it was necessary. They told him because if

he so wished they would not fight him, for Moses did not want to conquer

Transjordan first [before conquering Canaan], since it says in Sifrei parashat Eikev that God was angry with David for having captured

Syria before [capturing] the Land of Israel, and also because of a secret

reason: that it caused great evil for a later generation.

(The NeTziV

MiVolozhin's HaAmek

Davar on Bamidbar

21:22)

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 shall not pass through our territory, lest I

come out with a sword against you (Bamidbar 20:18).

(Yalkut

Shimoni Isaiah 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).

When

a person dies in a tent

You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend [and shall be gathered to your kin, as your

his kin]: He said before

him, "Lord of the world, why should I die? Is it not better for people to

say, ‘Moses is good,' because of what they have personally seen, than that they

should say, ‘Moses is good,' based on what they have heard? Is it not better

that people should say, ‘This is that very same Moses, who brought us out of

Egypt, split the sea for us, brought down the manna for us, did wonders and

acts of might for us,' than that they should say, ‘Such and so is what Moses

was, such and so is what Moses did'?"

He said to him, "Go your way, Moses, it is a decree of mine that applies to

every mortal." For it is said,

This is the Torah that applies to a mortal; when a person dies in a tent (Bamidbar 19:14). And further, This is the Torah of a mortal, O Lord God (2 Samuel 7:19).

The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Lord

of the world, why did the first man die?"

He said to them, "Because he did not carry out My

orders."

They said to Him, "Lo, Moses did carry out Your

orders."

He said to them, "It is

a decree of Mine that applies to every mortal."

For it is said, This is the

a person dies in a tent.

(Sifrei Ha'azinu 339, Neusner translation)

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