Chukat 5773 – Gilayon #803
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Parshat Chukkat
That they take you a perfect red cow
That has no blemish and on which no yoke has been put.
And you shall give her to eleazar
the priest…
(Bemidbar 19:2-3)
We have already explained that
the whole intention with regard to the Sanctuary was to affect those
that came to it with a feeling of awe and of fear; as it says: Ye shall fear
My Sanctuary. Now if one is continually in contact with a venerable object,
the impression received from it in the soul diminishes and the feeling it
provokes becomes slight. The Sages, may their memory be blessed, have
already drawn attention to this notion, saying that it is not desirable that
the Sanctuary should be entered at every moment, and in support quoted
its dictum: Let thy foot be seldom in they neighbors' house, lest he be
sated with thee and hate thee. This being the intention, He, may He be
exalted, forbade the unclean to enter the Sanctuary in spite of
there being many species of uncleanness, so that one could – but for a
few exceptions – scarcely find a clean individual. For even if one were
preserved from touching a carcass of a beast, one might not be preserved
from touching one of the eight creeping animals, which often fall into
dwellings and into food and drink and upon which a man often stumbles in
walking… Thus all of this was a reason for keeping away from the Sanctuary
and for not entering it at every moment. You know already what [the Sages]
literally say: Even a clean man may not enter the Hall for the purpose of
performing divine service before having immersed himself [in water].
In consequence of such actions, fear will continue and an impression
leading to the humility that was aimed at will be produced. To the extent that
a certain kind of uncleanness was more frequent, purification from it
was more difficult and was achieved at a later moment.
Being under the same roof as dead bodies, more especially those of relatives
and neighbors, is more frequent than any other kind of uncleanness.
Accordingly one is purified from it only by means of the ashes of a [red]
heifer, though these are very rare, and after seven days.
(Rambam,
The Guide of the Perplexed, [Pines translation], III, 47)
[This may be explained] by
homiletic exposition which appears in the commentary of Rashi z"l "That they take you a red cow" – they
shall take you of their own, just as they participated in the sin
of the calf and removed their gold rings as is written (Shemoth
all the people removed the gold rings', so shall they participate in the
atonement and bring of their own. A cow – A parable may be drawn with a
maidservant who soils the hall of the king. Said the king, Let the mother come
and clean up her son's droppings, so shall the cow come and atone for the calf
incident. Red – after the sin which is called red, as is written (Isaiah
shall become white as snow". Whole – as
let this [heifer] come and atone for them and they will return to their
wholeness. On which no yoke has been put – as when they had removed from
themselves the yoke of the kingdom of heaven.
To Eleazar the priest – because
they had assembled against Aharon the priest to make the calf, and because
Aharon had made the calf, he was not assigned this task, because a 'prosecutor
cannot become counsel for the defense'. And he shall burn the heifer, just as
the [golden] calf was burned.
(Rabbeinu Behaye, ibid.
ibid.)
The copper serpent – between art and faith
Dov
Abramson
In this week's
parasha we read the surprising and
extraordinary story of the copper serpent. This is a unique story of the
meeting between art of the image and the prohibition against idolatry; it is
one of rare instances in the Bible in which we can relate to the art of image
not in the direct context of the injunction against idolatry.
God instructs
Moshe, following
attack by the burning serpents:
Make for
yourself a viper ["Seraph" – lit. "a
burning-snake"] and put it on a standard and so then, whosoever is bitten
will see it and live. (Bemidbar 2
We note than
in God's instructions to Moshe, the word "serpent" [nachash] is not at all mentioned. Yet we assume that
the word "seraph" is synonymous with the serpent. And what
does Moshe actually do? "And Moshe made a "nachash"
– a serpent – of bronze and he placed it on a standard and it was that if a
serpent bit a man and he looked upon the serpent of bronze, he would live"
(Ibid. ibid, 9).
As we
mentioned, "nachash"
[viper] and "seraph" [burning snake] are synonymous, Yet
it is interesting to note that the material chosen by Moshe for the crafting – bronze-
is also absent from God's directive. We must ask ourselves whether or not this was
an independent artistic choice on Moshe's part. Rashi writes:
He was not
ordered to make it of bronze, but Moshe said: The Holy One, blessed be He,
calls it nachash, so I will make it of nechoshet [bronze], an alliteration [nechash
nechoshet].
Rashi's explanation is puzzling for two reasons. If God had
used the term seraph, then there is no alliteration. But a more basic
question must be asked – what place is there for wordplay in a decision
regarding the creation of the bronze serpent and the material from which it is
made? In order to understand this, we should try to understand how the bronze serpent
worked. The famous Mishnah in Tractate Rosh Hashanah (3, 8) reads:
The same
lesson may be taught thus. [It is written], 'Make for yourself a fiery serpent
and set it up on a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is
bitten, when he sees it, shall live'. Now, does the serpent kill? Does the
serpent cure? No, [what it indicates is that] when
and subjected their hearts to their father in heaven, they were healed, but
otherwise they pined away.
This Mishnah is difficult to comprehend. Ostensibly, there is no
connection between the serpent's mode of operation and its serpent essence.
According to this Mishnah, if indeed the heart of the matter is the looking
heavenward it would seem that Moshe could have placed on the pole a bat or a
frog. Ibn Ezra, in his commentary, reinforces the
approach which neutralizes the "serpent-ness"
of the serpent; he is careful not to attach any special powers to the snake
image:
Yet many
erred, saying that this form can receive celestial powers. Forefend and
forefend! – the object was fashioned at God's
directive, and it is not for us to seek the reason why the serpent form was
chosen.
The Ramban offers a completely different approach:
It would have
been proper that those bitten by the fiery serpents never again see a serpent nor
remember nor recall it at all. But the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Moshe
to make for themselves the image of the serpent which had killed them. Therefore
Moshe found no other way to fulfill His command to create a serpent other than
by making a bronze serpent, for it has the image of fiery serpent […] and
when a person looks with proper intent upon the bronze serpent which is strongly
resembles the live scourge, he is informed that it is God who kills and cures.
Ramban voices an approach according to which Moshe's choice
of bronze is not at all arbitrary. His choice stems from the profound principle
that part of the cure lies in the fact that the substance which harms is the
substance which cures, and thus we express God's being both life-taker and life-giver.
This even intensifies the miracle essence of the act; God rules nature wherein
the same element both harms and restores.
2. The serpent in the days of
Hezekiah
The next time
we encounter the bronze serpent is in the Book of II Kings, in the time of King
Hezekiah:
He abolished their
shrines and smashed the pillars and cut down the sacred post. He also broke
into pieces [Hebrew –"v'kiteit"] the
bronze serpent the Moshe had made, for until that time the Israelites had been
offering sacrifices to it; it was Nehushtan. (II Kings
Says the
Talmud in Tractate Berachot (
Our rabbis
taught: King Hezekiah did six things; of three of them they [the rabbis]
approved and of three they did not approve. Of three they approved: He hid away
the book of cures; and they approved of it; he broke into pieces the brazen
serpent, and they approved of it; and he dragged the bones of his father [to
the grave] on a bed of ropes, and they approved of it. Of three they did not approve:
he stopped up the waters of Gihon, and they did not approve of it; he cut off
[the gold] from the doors of the temple and sent it to the King of Assyria, andthey did not approve of it; and he intercalated the month of Nisan during
Nisan, and they did not approve of it. (Soncino translation)
The Talmud
quotes a beraita regarding six actions taken by King Hezekiah during his
reign, three of which the Sages viewed positively and three negatively. Exceptionally
odd is 'He hid away the book of cures', a document never even alluded to in the
Bible.
Clarification
is provided by a parallel beraita in the Palestinian Talmud (Sanhedrin 5b):
Hezekiah, King
of Judah, did six things; of three of them they [the rabbis] approved and of
three they did not approve. Of three they approved: he broke into pieces the
bronze serpent, and they approved of it; and he dragged the bones of his father
[to the grave] on a bed of ropes, and they approved of it He hid away thetablet of cures; and they approved of it. Of three they did not approve: He cut
down the doors of the Sanctuary, and they did not approve; he stopped up the
waters of Gihon, and they did not approve of it; he inter-calated the month of
Nisan during Nisan, and they did not approve of it.
All of
Hezekiah's actions recorded in the Babylonian Talmud are identical with those appearing
in the Palestinian Talmud, excepting the former's replacement of "hid away
the tablet of cures" with "hid away the book of cures.
In his commentary "Iggude HaTalmud",
the researcher Moshe Benovitz suggests that the
hiding of the tablet of cures and the smashing of the bronze serpents are
actually the same act, but because of editorial considerations they were
divided into two different acts. Benovitz brings
supporting evidence for the determination that the form of the bronze serpents
was indeed like a kind of tablet.
At this point
we must ask how is the act of smashing compatible with
the act of hiding the book of cures.
A source in
the Tosefta (Avodah Zara 4, 3) deals with
this question:
Said to them
R. Yosi: But it says "He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent the
Moshe had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices
to it". They replied: Was this idolatry?! Did not Moshe make it! This is
to teach that
mistakenly followed it until Hezekiah came and hid it."
Benowitz writes: It seems that they interpreted "kiteit" as "struck" rather
than as "smashed", as the verb is used in Hebrew and in the
Babylonian Talmud. In other words, he struck the tablet once so as to remove it
from the wall, and then hid it. Say then, that according to one tradition he
hid the Nechushtan which stood on the banner and was hung, it seems, on the
wall of the
and it is likely that this was the tablet of cures that – according to R. Levi
– Hezekiah hid, and this is "I did that which was right in your eyes".
3. Summing up the serpent
The uncommon reality of God himself commanding the creation of a
sculpted figure opens the door to many questions about the nature of this
figure's function and the manner in which it was perceived by the Jewish people,
and the attitude of Chazal, exegetes and researchers towards it. This
attitude oscillates between relating to the serpent's powers as a decree whose specific
essence is not open to inquiry, and highly graphic explanations which relate
the serpent's specific form and specific powers to natural and supernatural
matters.
It is
interesting to note that this serpent, created at God's command, could not help
but enter the circle of idolatry. It is almost inevitable that such an object –
from a Biblical perspective – should, sooner or later, become a focus of
worship. Then along came King Hezekiah and – whether by a single hammer blow,
or whether by crushing and smashing the Nechustan to fine powder – left us with
the secret of the serpent to ponder forever.
Dov
Abramson is a designer and artist who deals with
contemporary Jewish-Israeli identity. His work "Zman
Nekat" is on exhibit at the Schechter Institute
of Jewish Studies in
God has no desire for human
sacrifices
Thus says Scripture: "The
fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; A wise man
captivates people." (Proverbs
one be righteous, even if he be a tzaddik, but
does not engage in Torah, he is empty handed. "The fruit of the
righteous is a tree of life" – this is Torah, for by being a ben Torah, he learns how to win over souls,
as it written, "A wise man captivates people." For if he vows
to order souls, he learns from the Torah how to do so. And if he has no Torah,
he has nothing. So you find in the case of Yiftach
the Giladi; because he was not a ben Torah, he lost his daughter. When? When
he waged war against the people of Ammon, and vowed,
as is written "And Yiftach made the following
vow to the Lord… whatever comes out… shall be the Lord's and shall be
offered by me as a burnt offering." (Judges
was angry with him. He said: Had there come out of his house a dog or a pig or
a camel, it would sacrifice it before me? Therefore He arranged that his
daughter come out. What is the purpose of this? So that all who vow will
carefully learn the laws of vows and oaths, so that they do not err in their
vows.
"There was his daughter
coming out to meet him… on seeing her, he rent his clothes and said 'Alas,
daughter… for I have uttered a vow to the Lord and I cannot retract" (Ibid, 34-35) But Pinchas
was present!? Why did he say "I cannot retract"? But Pinchas said: I am a high priest, how can I go to a boor? Yiftach said: I am head of the judges of
shall go before a commoner?! Between the two of them, the poor girl lost her
life. Both were liable for her blood. Pinchas
– the Holy Spirit left him; Yiftach – his bones were
dispersed, as is written: "and he was buried in the towns of
Because he wanted to sacrifice
her, she cried before him. His daughter said to him, Father, I went out to
greet you in joy, and now you slaughter me? Did The Holy One, Blessed Be He, write
in his Torah that
should offer up before The Holy One, Blessed Be He, human sacrifices? Does it
not say in the Torah "When any of you presents an offering of cattle to
the Lord, he shall choose his offering from the herd" – from
the herd, not from humans. He replied: My daughter, I vowed, "Whatever
comes out of the door of my house… shall be offered by me…" Can
one who has vowed not fulfill his vow? She said to him, Our father Jacob
vowed, "From all that you will give me I will give a tenth, (Bereishet 28:22) and
The Holy One, Blessed Be He, give him twelve sons, did he offer up one?… All
these things she said to him, but he did not listen to her. When she saw that
he was not listening to her, she said, give me leave and I will go before a Bet
Din, perhaps they will find a way to release you of your vow
. . she went before them, but they found no way to nullify the vow,
because of their sin in slaughtering members of the tribe of Efrayim… for God had concealed the Halacha from them, so that they do not find a
way to release Yiftach of his vow. He went up and
slaughtered her. And the Holy Spirit screams out: Did I want to offer before me
that "which I never commanded, never decreed, and never entered my
thoughts". (Jeremiah
not raise your hand against the boy" – to notify to all the world of
Abraham's love, who did not spare his only son from me, to perform the will of
his Creator. I did not tell Yiftach to sacrifice his
daughter.
(Tanhuma, BeHukotai,
5)
"Her paths are paths of pleasantness and all her ways are
of peace"
"Now
this is the Instruction for the slaughter offering of shalom ("Shelamim")": That which is
written "Her paths are paths of pleasantness and all her ways are of
peace" means that everything which is written in the Torah
is written for the sake of peace. And even though the Torah speaks of
wars, this too was written for the sake of peace. You find,
that The Holy One, Blessed Be He, abolished his decree because of peace. When?
When The Holy One, Blessed Be He said to Moshe "When you set siege on a
city for many days" (Devarim 20:
all pertaining to that subject, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to him that
no spoil may be taken, as is written "You are to devote them to
destruction, yes, destruction" (Ibid.
20:
do so; rather he said, Shall I go and smite both he who sinned and he who
sinned not? But I shall come upon them in peace, as is written, "Now I
sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemot…
words of peace, saying, Let me cross through your land" (Ibid. 2:26-27). When he saw that he (Sichon) did not come for peace, he smote him, as is
written, "So they struck him and his sons and all his people" (Bemidbar 2
Said The Holy One, Blessed Be He, I said "You are to devote them to
destruction, yes, destruction" but you did not do so! By your
life, as you spoke so will I do, as is written, "When you
approach a city to wage war against it, you shall call upon it to make peace
(Devarim 20:
Therefore does it say, "Her paths are paths of pleasantness and all her
ways are of peace" (Mishlei 3:
(Tanchuma Tsav, 3)
And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: the Torah
Requires Humility
What is the purport of the Scriptural text, And
from the wilderness to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel,
and from Nahaliel to Bamot, and from Bamot to
the valley (Bamidbar 2
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 [Nahaliel = nahalei 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).
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