AND GOD WOULD SPEAK TO MOSHE FACE TO FACE, AS A MAN SPEAKS TO HIS NEIGHBOR. NOW

WHEN HE WOULD RETURN TO THE CAMP, HIS ATTENDANT, THE LAD YEHOSHUA, WOULD NOT

DEPART FROM WITHIN. (Shemot 33:11)

"FACE TO FACE"

"Face to face" meaning: Present, without intermediary,

as is written, "Let us confront each other", and this is

elsewhere explained, saying, "You heard the sound of words but

perceived no shape – nothing but a voice." Thus, "and God

would speak to Moshe face to face" is an expression describing the

kind of speech – "And he heard the voice speaking to him." Thus

it has been explained to you that the hearing of the voice without the

intercession of an angel is called "face to face".

 (Rambam, Guide

for the Perplexed, I, 37)

[Another explanation, this one] in the style of the Midrash: "Face

to face" – an expression of anger. Said The Holy One, Blessed

Be He, to Moshe: Moshe, I did not tell you [to punish the people] when I was

angry and you were conciliatory, nor when you were angry and I was

conciliatory. But now I am angry and you are angry; "return to the camp";

read not "v'shav el hamachaneh" [and he –

Moshe – returned to the camp], but read it "v'shuv

el hamachaneh" ["return to the camp"], if we are both angry

who will bring Israel close?

                                                                                                                 (Rabeinu Bahaye, Shemot 33:11)

MOSHE THE ZEALOT AND MOSHE

THE WEEPER

Danny Statman

Moshe descends Mt. Sinai, and to his

amazement he finds the people in the midst of worship of a golden calf, led by

none other than by his brother Aharon. In anger, Moshe smashes the tablets,

burns the calf, grinds it to dust, casts it upon the waters and gives the

Children of Israel to drink. But this is not enough. The people are still out

of control: "And Moshe saw that the people were out of control, since

might oppose them." (Shemot 32:25).

What exactly did Aharon do to the people? Says Ramban: "For Aharon had let

them get out of control – he released them from all advice and rebuke, and they

were like sheep dispersed on the mountains (I

Kings, 22:17) without counselor or guide." Their despairing of

Moshe, the fashioning of the calf and the ecstatic dancing around it, and the

destruction of the calf by Moshe, all these left the people in a state of total

disarray – "he released them from all advice and rebuke". The people

had lost their moral and religious compass, "like sheep dispersed on the

mountains"; according to many Midrashim, they engaged in idol worship. In

this difficult situation, which he had not encountered from the time he came to

know the people, Moshe rises to leadership and takes the following extreme steps:

Moshe stood up in the gate of the camp and

against son and brother – that He may bestow a blessing upon you today." (32:26-29)

Moshe cries out the cry of zealotry: "Whoever

is for God – to me!" which many years later will be echoed by Mattityahu

the Hashmonean, after killing the Hellenist on the altar at Modiin. Those who

heed Moshe's call, the sons of Levi, embark upon a round of exceptionally

brutal punishment, in which they are charged to " slay brother,

neighbor, and kin." The Levite zealots go to the extent of killing

their own sons, as can be learned from Moshe's words "each of you has

been against son and brother" (Rashbam definitely understood the plain

meaning [pshat] as he wrote: "You sent your hands, man against his

son and against his brother, for the sake of heaven"). According to

the Midrash, this willingness to kill relatives and friends is the subject of

the passage referring to Levi in the Parasha "V'zot haberacha": "Who

kept Your covenant." (Devarim 32:9).

From here we learn that the sons of Levi killed not only their children and

brothers, but also their fathers and mothers.(According

to the Talmud, since it is written that all the sons of Levi answered

Moshe's call, it is impossible that that there were idolaters among the sons of

Levi, and therefore it cannot be that the fathers and mothers they killed

belonged to the tribe of Levi. From this we adduce that the reference is to the

father of the mother, maternal step-brothers, grandchildren via the daughter –

who are not considered Levites (Yoma, 62b) – but this is certainly not the

peshat.) This the nature of such punitive operations; what begins as an

order to kill brothers, relatives and neighbors, ends with the indiscriminate

slaughter of brothers, parents and sons.(It

cannot be argued that parents and children are included in 'kin', for one's tie

to his child is much stronger that his tie to his brother, and if Moshe's

intent was that they also kill the sons, he would have said so expressly.)

We are not surprised that those capable of such wholesale slaughter are

descendants of Levi, who led the campaign of vengeance in Shechem, those whose "weapons

are tools of lawlessness."

I wish to raise two questions regarding Moshe's

behavior in this incident. First, Moshe bases his behavior upon the divine

command "Thus says the Lord… each of you, put sword on thigh, etc."

– but the text records no evidence of such a command. Secondly, Moshe's

cruel and vengeful order does not seem consonant with his efforts to achieve

atonement for the sin immediately afterwards – "Now, if You will

You have written." (32:32) Why

could not Moshe have sought to pacify God and present his 'ultimatum' before

the slaughter by the sons of Levi? These questions were asked by the Darshanim,

and one of them suggests the following sequence of events:

He [Moshe] said before Him: Master of the

Universe, have you before you only the measure of law for all the inhabitants

of the world and for all of your creations upon earth? Shall I descend and

apply the measure of the law – and if they worshipped it with full heart shall

they all perish in a single day? He descended, took the calf and burned it in

fire, as is written "He took the calf… and Moshe stood in the gate…

and said to them, So said God , etc." I call upon heaven and

earth to testify that The Holy One, Blessed Be He, did not tell Moshe to

stand in the gate of the camp and proclaim 'Who is for God – unto me' and to

say 'So said the Lord, God of Israel' – but rather Moshe was a tzaddik and he

learned for himself a kal va'chomer – If I say to Israel, let one kill

his brother and his neighbor and his kin, Israel will say, Did you not teach

destructive, how do you kill three thousand in one day? Therefore, Moshe

ascribed the command to the Glory above, as is written, 'So said the Lord,

etc"… then Moshe the tzaddik returned and stood before The Holy One,

Blessed Be He, in prayer. He said to Him, Master of the Universe, you are a

tzaddik and a hassid, and everything you do is in good faith. Because of three

thousand who worshipped the calf with full heart, shall six hundred thousand

– plus those of twenty years of age and younger, and those eighteen years

old and those fifteen years old, and ten, and two, and one, and many aliens and

slaves who joined them – perish!? There will be no end to this. Immediately God

was filled with mercy and was appeased. (Eliyahu

Rabba [Ish Shalom] Parasha 4, beginning with "Why did he merit")

According to this Midrash, the campaign of

zealotry and killing was not carried out for the sake of vengeance and

punishment, but in order to appease the anger of The Holy One, Blessed Be He.

To accomplish this, Moshe thought to punish only those who were directly and

totally involved in the sin of the calf, and thereby to save the rest of the

people (who had certainly also sinned!) from the decree "Let my anger

blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them" There is, then,

a direct connection between "Who is for God – to me!" and "Perhaps

I shall atone for their sin." This and more: God did not order the

above punitive operation; it was Moshe's initiative which was intended to

subdue God's anger and to show Him that the real sinners had been punished

according to the full letter of the law. The reason the Midrash gives for Moshe's

ascribing "and slay brother and neighbor, etc." to God is

that had he issued the order in his own name, the people would have protested

and argued on the basis of the Mishna which says that a Sanhedrin which

executes one person in seven years is "destructive". This rationale

is instructive, in that it no doubt expresses the darshan's reflections

regarding the ostensible contradiction between the serious concern for human

life – as expressed in the Mishna in Sanhedrin – and the disregard for human

life as expressed in the massacre of "three thousand in a single day."

According

to this explanation, then, Moshe was not carrying out a divine order; his

desire was not to take revenge upon the sinner (otherwise he would have

accepted the suggestion to annihilate the nation, for all had participated in

the sin). His sole intent was to save the Jewish people and to conciliate

between them and their heavenly father. The words placed in Moshe's mouth by

the Midrash indicate how deep was his mercy and love for the Children of

Israel, and his concern that they not be judged unfairly: "Because of

three thousand who worshipped the calf with full heart, shall six hundred

thousand – plus those of twenty years of age and younger, and those

eighteen years old and fifteen years old, and ten, and two, and one – perish!?"

But if Moshe was so fearful for those of ten, two, and one, how could he have

ordered the sons of Levi to indiscriminately kill their brothers and relatives?

In

conclusion, I would like to suggest that Moshe was indeed not at ease with the

order he gave; he was unable to accept its terrible results. This finds

expression in his impotence in coping with a surprisingly similar situation –

the predicament of idolatry and sexual license with the daughters of Moav,

described at the end of Parashat Balak. In this case, Moshe does not stand in

the gate and cry out "Who is for God – to me!!" He weeps by the

entrance to the Tent of Appointment. The sight before him certainly reminds him

of the unbridled and abandoned behavior of the people at the sin of the calf; but

his traumatic experience at having killed three thousand people in a single day

paralyzes him. All he can do is to weep. Civil war is no longer an option he is

willing to consider.

Danny

Statman is a Professor of Philosophy at Haifa Univ.

THE

CONSIDERATE "STRONG HAND" OF MOSHE BREAKING THE TABLETS

Rabbi

Meir says: Moshe broke the tablets only because he was ordered to so by the

Almighty, as is written, "Which you broke" – All strength

to you for having broken [the tablets].

 (Avot d'Rabbi

Natan, 2: 3)

All

those things sanctified – Eretz Yisrael, Yerushalayim and the Mikdash

– are but details and branches of the Torah, and they were sanctified

through the holiness of the Torah. Do not suppose that the Mikdash and the

Mishkan are in themselves holy, heaven forbid. The Holy One, Blessed Be He,

dwells inside his children who worship him. If they, as a man, violate the

covenant, all sanctity is lifted from them, and they are like a profane object

defiled by a robber. Titus entered the Holy of Holies and was not harmed, for

its sanctity had previously been removed. Yet more, the tablets, engraved by

ascend Mt. Sinai, even though there the faith originated.

                                                                                                                 (Meshech Hochma, Shemot 32:19)

Our

teacher Moshe illustrated this for us when he smashed the tablets upon seeing

that the people had violated the commandment "You shall make no statue

nor image". We must understand that the phrase "no statue nor

image" does not apply only to the golden calf which Israel fashioned,

but to all natural phenomena, such as: nation, land, motherland, flag, army,

ideology, persons, etc., when they are elevated to planes of holiness.

 (Y. Leibowitz, Seven Years of

Discussion of the Weekly Parasha,, p. 401)

The

you a heart of flesh.

 (From the Haftara for Parashat Parah,

Ezekiel 36)

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser

(Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

This weekly publication was made possible by:

The Moriah Fund, the Tisch Foundation and

private donors

To

our readers:

We will be happy to have you actively participate in "Shabbat

Shalom" by:

• Letters to the editor
• Publication of Divrei Torah (in

  coordination with the editorial board)

For

details, contact Miriam Fine (053-920206 or 02-6730196)

If you enjoy Shabbat Shalom, please consider contributing towards

its publication and distribution.

·       

Hebrew

edition distributed in Israel $1000

• English edition distributed via email $ 100

Issues may be dedicated in honor of an event, person, simcha, etc.

Requests must be made 3-4 weeks in advance to appear in the Hebrew, 10 days in

advance to appear in the English email.

US, Canadia or British tax-exempt contributions to OzveShalom may be

made through the New Israel Fund or through P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc.

Contributions should be marked as donor-advised to OzveShalom/Netivot

Shalom, the Shabbat Shalom project.

New Israel Fund, POB 53410, Jerusalem 91534 (Please include Israeli

address and telephone number)

New Israel Fund, POB 91588, Washington, DC 20090-1588, USA

New Israel Fund of Canada, 801 Eglinton Ave. West, Suite #401, Toronto,

Ontario M5N 1E3 Canada (Canadian tax exemption)

New Israel Fund of Great Britain, 26 Enford Street, London W1H 2DD,

United Kingdom (British tax exemption)

P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New

York, New York 10017 USA

About us:

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom is a movement dedicated to the advancement of

a civil society in Israel. It is committed to promoting the ideals of

tolerance, pluralism, and justice, concepts which have always been central to

Jewish tradition and law.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom shares a deep attachment to the land of

Israel and it no less views peace as a central religious value. It believes

that Jews have both the religious and the national obligation to support the

pursuit of peace. It maintains that Jewish law clearly requires us to create a

fair and just society, and that co-existence between Jews and Arabs is not an

option but an imperative.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom`s programs include both educational and

protest activities. Seminars, lectures, workshops, conferences and weekend

programs are held for students, educators and families, as well as joint

seminars for Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Protest activities focus on

issues of human rights, co-existence between Jews and Arabs, and responses to

issues of particular religious relevance.

9,000 copies of a 4 page peace oriented commentary on the weekly Torah

reading are written and published by Oz VeShalom/Netivot Shalom and they are

distributed to over 350 synagogues in Israel and are sent overseas via email.

Our web site is www.netivot-shalom.org.il.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom`s educational forums draw people of different

backgrounds, secular and religious, who are keen to deepen their Jewish

knowledge and to hear an alternative religious standpoint on the subjects of

peace and social issues.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom fills an ideological

vacuum in Israel's society. Committed both to Jewish tradition and observance,

and to the furthering of peace and coexistence, the movement is in a unique

position to engage in dialogue with the secular left and the religious right,

with Israeli Arabs and with Palestinians.

Our activities

are funded by donations and one part time employee.

OzveShalom/Netivot Shalom                Tel./Fax

972-2-5664218

Pob 4433                                             Email:

ozshalom@netvision.net.il

Jerusalem 94310, Israel                            www.

netivot-shalom.org.il