THE ENTIRE CONGREGATION OF THE

CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ARRIVED AT THE DESERT OF ZIN IN THE FIRST MONTH, AND THE

PEOPLE SETTLED IN KADESH.  MIRIAM DIED

THERE AND WAS BURIED THERE. THE CONGREGATION HAD NO WATER;

SO THEY ASSEMBLED AGAINST MOSES AND AARON.

(Bamidbar

20:1-2)

Three good leaders had arisen for Israel, namely. Moses,

Aaron and Miriam, and for their sake three good things were conferred [upon

Israel], namely, the Well, the Pillar of Cloud and the Manna; the Well, for the

merit of Miriam; the Pillar of Cloud for the merit of Aaron; the Manna for the

merit of Moses. When Miriam died the well disappeared, as it is said, Miriam

died there, and immediately follows [the verse], The congregation had no water; and it

returned for the merit of the [latter] two. When Aaron died the clouds of glory

disappeared, as it is written, And the Canaanite, the king of Arad heard.

What news did he hear? He heard that Aaron had died, and that the clouds of

glory had disappeared; he thought that he was free to make war on Israel.

Therefore it is written, And all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead

(Bamidbar 20). With reference to which R. Abahu said: Do not read, they

saw [vayir-u] but, they were seen [vayyero-u]. This is

also in accordance with the view of Resh Lakish who said: [The word] ki

may be used in four different senses, namely, 'if', 'perhaps', 'but', 'because'.

The two [the Well and the Cloud] returned because of the merit of Moses, but

when Moses died all of them disappeared, as it is said, And I cut off the

three shepherds in one month (Zachariah 11). Did they then

all [three] die in one month? Did not Miriam die in Nisan, Aaron in Av and

Moses in Adar? This therefore is meant to teach you that the three good gifts

which were given because of their merit were nullified and they all disappeared

in one month.

(Ta'anit 9a, Soncino translation)

R. Hiyya said: One who wishes to see Miriam's well should

ascend to the top of the Carmel and gaze, when he will observe a kind of sieve

in the sea, and that is Miriam's well.

(Shabbat 35a, Soncino translation)

According to the opinion of our Rabbis regarding Miriam's

Well, they said that this rock was the boulder found in Horev, and therefore its

waters which it would give ended now that its spring was sealed following

Miriam's death. The Rabbis' intention regarding the well of Miriam was that

there always existed a miraculous well, a source of living waters in any place which

was desired. He raised it up for Ishmael in the wilderness of Beer Sheva, and

it sprang from the rock that was there in Horev, and in the course of their

other marches it sprang from a rock wherever they camped. When the righteous

woman [Miriam] died the spring stopped [giving water], but now it was restarted

by Moses to serve him as a source [of water] from within the very rock, and

that is why it says to the rock as is known.

(RaMBaN 20:8)

Please let us pass through your land

Pinchas

Leiser

Our parasha recounts two incidents in which the Israelites

asked to pass through another land.

The Torah (Bamidbar 20:14-18) tells us how

Moses first addressed the king of Edom:

Moses

sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: "So says your brother,

Israel, 'You know of all the hardship that has befallen us. Our

fathers went down to Egypt, and we sojourned in Egypt for a long time. And the

Egyptians mistreated us and our forefathers. We cried out

to the Lord and He heard our voice. He sent an angel, and he took us out of

Egypt, and now we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. Please let us pass through your land; we will not pass through

fields or vineyards, nor will we drink well water. We will walk along the

king's road, and we will turn neither to the right nor to the left until we

have passed through your territory.'" Edom replied to him, "You shall

not pass through me, lest I go out towards you with the sword!"

Edom refused to allow Israel to cross through its territory;

so Israel turned away from it.

Moses asked the Edomite king to take into account all that

this nation of slaves had gone through. They had just left Egypt, and given his

promise that they would merely "pass through" Moses hoped that the

king would agree to his request out of fraternal solidarity; after all, he had

referred to the Israelites as your brother, an expression that echoes

the expression your brother Esau used in parashat VaYishlah when Jacob

returns from Haran. However, the king refuses and threatens to attack the

Israelites if they try to cross his border.

The Israelites (is this the messengers' independent initiative,

made without Moses' consent?) do not give up easily, and they reply: We will keep to the beaten path and if we or our cattle drink your

matter (verse 19).

Now the Edomite king does not

merely refuse the request and threaten the Israelites, rather, he actually goes

out to confront them in force: And he replied, "You

armed (verse 20).

For some reason, the Israelites

acquiesce to the king's refusal and do not fight him: So Edom would not let

Israel cross their territory, and Israel turned away from them (verse 21).

The RaMBaN explains this

"concession": "And Israel turned away from them – Scripture

wrote briefly of this matter, because God had commanded them, be very

careful, do not provoke them (Devarim 2:4-5), as Moses explained to them. Following

God's command they turned way from them, since they had no other option given

that he [the Edomite king] had not granted them permission to pass through."

Indeed, there is yet another passage in which the Torah commands that the

Edomites must receive special treatment: Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is

your brother (Devarim 23:8).

We are commanded to maintain

brotherly relations with Edom, even though the Edomite king remained

unimpressed by Moses' addressing him as your brother.

This situation repeats itself

later in the parasha when the Israelites send a message to the Amorite king (21:21-26): Israel sent messengers to Sihon the king of the Amorites, saying: "Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into

Arnon.

There are a number of differences

between this story and the earlier one involving Edom:

a) The Amorite king is not

addressed in fraternal terms. In his commentary (see below) the NeTziV points

out that the word na [please] is also not used in addressing the

Amorites.

b) There is no dialogue here;

Sihon immediately responds by going to war, a war that is won by the

Israelites.

c) The Torah points out that Sihon

had taken his land in battle from the first king of Moab, perhaps

invalidating Sihon's sovereignty there.

The Torah offers two additional

examples of people who did not treat the Israelites kindly; due to that

behavior we are suppose we are commanded to keep them out of God's community: An

generation shall never enter the assembly of the Lord, because they did not greet you with bread and water on the way, when you left Egypt, and because he [the people of Moab] hired Balaam

the son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim against you, to curse you (Devarim 23:4-5).

The RaMBaN argues at length against various explanations of

the claim – which is not explicitly repeated anywhere else in Scripture – that they did not greet you with bread and water on the way. He offers his

own explanation (see his commentary on 23:5), but it is not necessary to go into that

here.

I think that there is room to consider the

motives that lay behind the decision of various peoples not to show kindness to

this nation of slaves that had left Egypt. It is true that the Torah never

mentions these motives explicitly, but a passage from the Song of the Sea does

describe the terror which the escapees from Egypt inspired in the minds of the

peoples of the region: With Your loving kindness You led the people You redeemed; You led [them]

with Your might to Your holy abode. People heard, they trembled; a shudder seized the inhabitants of

Canaan melted.

Pharaoh, King of Egypt also incites his people with fear of

the Israelites, although he might be giving us an example of the kind of

demagoguery used by any leader who wants to unite his people against the

strangers dwelling in their midst: The children of

and depart from the land" (Shemot 1:7-10). Rashi

interprets the words and depart from the land after the manner of the

Sages: "Our

Rabbis, however, interpreted [i. e., depicted Pharaoh] as a person who curses

himself but ascribes his curse to others. And it is as if it were written: and

we will depart from the land, and they will take possession of it."

We see, then, that the fear of strange peoples and alien

individuals – that fear which we call the "demographic threat" – has

a long history, be it whether leaders actually see it is a threat or whether

they simply use it as a means to maintain control and unify the people against

a common enemy. However, for some reason, Scripture tells us these stories

about the Egyptians, about Ammon and Moab, about the king of Edom, and about

Sihon, King of the Amorites.

Despite all of this, when the land was conquered the

Israelites felt that they bore an obligation towards the Gibeonites, even

though the latter had falsely claimed that they came from a distant place.

There is no need to write at length regarding the Torah's

various commands to love the stranger and the prohibition against mistreating

strangers.

Chapter twenty one of II Samuel tells us the following

concerning the Gibeonites:

And the king called the Gibeonites and said to them-now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. Rashi,

following the Sages, explains: "That is, they exhibited the characteristic of being merciless [which gave indication]

that they are not of the seed of Abraham and were unworthy of joining Israel. As a result

David decreed upon them that they may not enter the [Israelite] community. He

said: This [Israelite] nation possesses three signs; they are compassionate, they are bashful, and they are benevolent.