IT WAS AFTER THE PLAGUE, THAT

THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES AND TO ELEAZAR THE SON OF AARON THE PRIEST, SAYING:

TAKE A CENSUS OF ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM TWENTY

YEARS OLD AND UPWARDS, FOLLOWING THEIR FATHERS' HOUSES, ALL THAT ARE FIT TO GO OUT TO WAR IN ISRAEL.

(Bamidbar 26:1-2)

It was after the plague This can be compared to a shepherd whose flock was

intruded by wolves who killed some of them [his sheep]. He counted them to know

how many were left. Another interpretation: When they left Egypt and were

entrusted to Moses, they were delivered to him with a number. Now that he was

close to death and would soon have to return his flock, he returns them with a

number.

(Rashi ad loc, Judaica Press

translation)

all that are fit to go

out to war in Israel

– as for Rashi's formulation, "as they tell the executioner:

cut off so-and-so's head" I do not know why they interpreted the verse in

a negative light; perhaps because they died in the wilderness, and in reference

to the tribe of Levi it says pekod (3:15) [count, rather than our verse's

formulation, se'u et rosh

– take a census, literally, raise up the head] because they were

not included in the decree [of the generation that would die in the

wilderness]. However, in the second census of those who were to enter

the Land, the expression is used: Take a census [se'u

congregation of Israel (26:2)! The aggadah brought by Vayikra Rabbah interprets the expression in a positive light:

"Se'u is always an expression of

greatness," as in the verse, Pharaoh shall lift up your head and

returned you to your status. The Holy One blessed be He said to Israel: I

exalted you over all the world's inhabitants, for it says Yours is the kingdom

everything as the Leader (I Chronicles 29:11); so

too, I exalted you, for it says raise up [se'u –

the congregation of Israel, in order to fulfill that which is said and

lifts up the horn of His people (Psalms 148). And is also says, And the Lord your God

will make you supreme over the nations of the earth (Devarim

28:1). And again I find in Bamidbar Rabbah (1:9) that they said: "Rabbi Pinhas said in the name of Rabbi Idi:

Why does it say lift up the head – s'eu

et rosh – in the

beginning of the book? It does not say exalt the head or make great

the head, but rather lift up the head, as one would say to an

executioner, "cut off so-and-so's head." Here He gave Moses a hint, se'u et rosh: that

if they merited it they would rise to greatness, as it is written Pharaoh

shall lift up your head and returned you to your status, but if you do not

merit it, you shall all die as it is written, Pharaoh shall lift [yisa] your head off you and hang you on the gallows (Bereishit

40:19). This expression is to

be interpreted in a positive light when referring to the good people, and since

it is an expression of greatness and is used in the first census it was also

use in the second census.

(RaMBaN Bamidbar 1:2)

The Torah of Truth Was in His Mouth

Sparks of light

From the soul of Rav ShaGaR

Shmeul Reiner

The

story of Pinhas raises many thoughts concerning the

way and the nature of the truth. By killing Zimri ben Salu and Kozbi

bat Tzur, Pinhas sets up a

different truth that stands in opposition to the normative halakhic

truth. In his independence, Pinhas is an

"Other": he represents the truth of the zealot, which is a truth

different from and sometimes even opposed to the halakhah's

truth – the truth of the majority.

In

Sanhedrin 82b we read:

And Pinhas saw – What did he see? Rav

said : He saw the deed [of Zimri]

and remembered the halakhah. He [Pinhas]

told him, "Moses, brother of my father's father! When you descended from

Mount Sinai did you not teach us that if one has

sexual intercourse with a gentile woman – the zealots kill him?" He told

him: "The one who read the message is the one who should execute it."

And Shemuel said: "He [Pinhas]

saw that There is neither wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the

Lord (Proverbs

21:30) – anywhere where there

is desecration of the Name, deference is not paid to the Rabbi!"

Both

opinions recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, that of Rav

as well as that of Shemuel, depict Pinhas as creating a norm. The Babylonian Talmud relates to

this norm as "a halakhah which is not

taught," while the Jerusalem Talmud will describe the situation as

"not in accordance with the wishes of the Sages." Nonetheless, the

Torah accords Pinhas a place of honor and praises his

deeds: Pinhas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest has turned My anger away from the children of… Therefore, say,

"I hereby give him My covenant of peace (Bamidbar

25:11-12). This

despite the fact that to one degree or another Pinhas

disagreed with Moses' position and represents a different truth.

In Pinhas's story we encounter something of the questions that

haunt today's beit midrash [house of study]. I refer to the debate

that continues to take place in our religious world regarding the possibility

that different truths exist; the conflict between the traditional and the

novel, between the traditional and the cultural, and between those two and the

ethical, etc., etc. Pinhas's story is a

"sample" of the post-modern confusion which extinguishes and

rekindles the light in our beit midrash and confounds those who study within its

walls.

The

postmodern world replaces exclamation marks with question marks, and question

marks with exclamation marks, over and over again. It demands of you:

"Tell me your story, your personal story which expresses that which is

unique to you." It consistently subverts the common truths, the

certainties inherited from grandfather's home. In this it poses a genuine

threat to our religiosity, since certainty is one of our religiosity's

foundations. The religious world, which contends with the spirit of our times

and with the contemporary voices, wages a total war against the

"post" phenomenon by ridiculing and strongly criticizing postmodernism's

cultural product. It tries with all its might to expel this "cultural

disease." This spiritual stance has little chance of offering valid and

convincing answers. In addition, it is apt to pay a weighty price for failing

to offer a relevant interpretation of the religious life; it even creates

serious distress over lost freedom.

A

short time ago Rabbi ShaGaR (Shimon Gershon Rosenberg), the rosh

yeshiva of Yeshivat Siah

Yitzhak, was taken from us. Rabbi ShaGaR tried to

contend with the challenge of postmodernism – and not from a defensive

position. I would say that in some ways he even "rejoiced at the prospect

of battle" due to a feeling that this arena may harbor an opportunity for

a great religious renewal. He did not ask how and by what means this evil might

be destroyed. Rather, he asked how a religious Jew who fears Heaven and loves

Torah might appropriate the postmodern world. How do we build a beit midrash

within the space of postmodernism, a space in which anything can be said? Rabbi

ShaGaR felt that there is a great truth here and that

it must therefore become a foundation stone of the beit

midrash and perhaps even

serve to widen the borders of the Oral Law.

Old-fashioned

religious Zionism emphasized the need to include secular Zionism, to bear its

yoke – including its various political, social, and cultural elements – happily

and enthusiastically. With time, this obligation, which was

presented as Rabbi Abvraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook ztz"l's

spiritual legacy, faced serious difficulties. A different and very

troubling reality stood opposite the great vision. It climaxed these past years

with the consolidation of a well-formulated secular Israeli identity. The

disengagement was the climax of all climaxes. Disappointment severely fractured

the national-religious worldview. Amidst this spiritual chaos could be heard

the voice of Rabbi ShaGaR, offering an alternative

which emphasized the world of the individual, the heartbeat and feelings of

each and every one of us. This alternative demanded honesty. It also called on

each of us to reject self-effacement, to refuse to become someone else's

victim, and instead to remain "myself." This finds its primary

expression in the significance that we attribute to our own lives; it is

expressed in Torah study, it refreshes our relationship with our Father in

Heaven. This position renews the religious Zionist worldview by setting up a

new ordering of priorities regarding the present.

Rabbi

ShaGaR's student stands chin-up in the postmodern

world; in one hand he carries Likkutei MoHaRaN, a bookmark at section 64, "Come to

Pharaoh." That discourse of Rabbi Nahman

proclaims a deep expression of religion through silence. This is not the

silence of ignorance or unknowing, but rather the silence that takes aboard

profound questions; it does not recoil from them and is prepared to live with

them. There are questions that have no answers. Religious honesty places the

student in the position of one who remains silent. This position does not

engender weakness nor does it dampen religious fervor. In his other hand he

holds the Babylonian or Jerusalem Talmud, of which he does not ask merely

"What is written here?" but also "What does this say to

me?" When he has no answer, he possesses the patience to wait and to

wait…

The

Archimedean point from which Rabbi ShaGaR wished to

lift up the world was the beit midrash. There study was

different; it sounded a new melody and added new aspects to the Torah – aspects

of freedom and creativity. Now, deep Talmudic discussions also create the

feeling that they genuinely touch the deepest strata of the soul. All of this

without relinquishing even a single detail of the halakhah. This great spiritual freedom does not deny

commitment to the Mishnah Berura's dictum,

"he who fears Heaven will see fit to be strict."

Here

is what Rabbi ShaGaR writes in his introduction to

the book Te'einim Metukot

– Osafim be'Hassidut Kefi she'Lamadeti me'HaRav ShaGaR, lessons that

were transcribed by his student, Rabbi Shlomo Shuk:

We

learn from the AdMuR that there is an advantage to

transforming Torah discourses into poetry, paralleling R. Nahman's

MiBrestlov's call to transform discourses into

prayers in order to move the Torah on to the plane of personal existence and

change the idea into an ideal. So, too, the transformation of discourses into

poetry moves the Torah from the intellectual plane to the poetic place,

transforming it into an object of aspiration and yearning.

This

transformation is wont to bring forth new aspects of the Torah; it makes

difficult the identification of the poem and its source. However, such is the

nature of the grounds of the Torah. In contrast to the laws of wisdom, they are

free and creative. Its nature makes impossible the differentiation from each

other of creator, translator, and his creation. Many find that the poetry of

Torah is a conduit for connection to the Torah.

Thus

a student sings to his rabbi:

For

Rabbi ShaGaR

So

meanwhile touch hard

Upon

the extreme of possibility's reality

And

learn to feel

To

take pity

Upon

the weathered body

Which

rocks and rocks

From

side to side

Slowly,

slowly it will reach

The

reserved places

As

in a Shakespearian

Theater

They

all die in the end.

Really,

Touch

hard

Your

eyes and remember to see

Your

tongue and remember to taste

The

chicken's drumstick

As it is.

Shlomo Shuk

I

remember Rabbi ShaGaR from the years when, out of

great love for Torah, it became poetry and poetry became Torah.

When

his motto was "Torah shall come forth from me" – a new Torah shall

come forth from me.

At

his funeral I met one of the rabbis who taught Rabbi ShaGaR

Talmud in his youth in the days when he attended the Netiv

Meir yeshiva. He asked: What was Rabbi ShaGaR's

special strength? I answered him that Rabbi ShaGaR

possessed the secret of the "next thing." Ahead of us, he

sensed what our spirits and souls would need in times to come.

He

left in the middle of life, in the middle of his work and "The song of his

life ended in the middle."

Rabbi Shemuel Reiner is a Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat

HaKibbutz HaDati at Ma'alei Gilboa.

Despite

the Difficulty – No Favoritism in Prophecy

Before

you; I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations.

(Jeremiah, 1:5)

The

Holy One said to Jeremiah: Go and prophesy concerning Israel. He replied

to the Holy One: I don't how to speak, for I am still a boy (Jeremiah 1:6). Because he did not want to prophesy severe

prophecies upon them, until He said to him: Before I created you in the womb'

prophet concerning the nations. Immediately he accepted the mantle of

prophecy, and he thought that he was to prophesy only concerning the nations.

Once he accepted the mission, the Holy One told him to take the cup of the

wine of wrath, etc. (25:16). Jeremiah immediately took it, as is written, So I took the cup from the hand of the Lord,

assuming that he was to serve the drink only to nations, and so said the Holy

One, God and learn from general practice – Who is served the drink? Is it not

he who sits at the head? See who sits at the head of all nations to be served?

It is Jerusalem who sits at the head of all the nations. This is allegorically

comparable to the sotah who enters the Temple

precinct to drink the sotah waters, and the priest

sees that she is his mother, immediately he is ashamed and turns around, crying

out and weeping over his mother, so with Jeremiah when the Holy said to him

"Give the drink to Jerusalem" he cried out and wept, saying to

Him: " Master of the Universe, did you not say to me I appointed you a

prophet concerning the nations – now I must prophesy first to my own

people? You have enticed me, O Lord, and I was enticed; You

overpowered me and you prevailed." (20:7)

The

Holy One blessed be He said: "You have already

accepted, and you cannot go back." Immediately he took the cup from His

hand, and drank it all, even gnawing its shards, as is written, You shall

drink it and drain it, and gnaw its shards (Ezekiel 23;34). Once Jeremiah saw that the fate of Jerusalem was

sealed, he immediately cried out, and began to lament "Alas! Lonely

sits the city.

At that

time the Holy One said to him: Why do you stand? Immediately he answered: Thus

them quickly start a wailing for us, that our eyes may run with tears. This

is to tell you that whenever Israel suffers, The Holy One shares their

suffering, as is written; In all their

troubles, He was troubled (Isaiah

63:9).

(Midrash Zutta

Eikha, Chapter 1)

Pleasing Odor, Nahat Ruah, the Will of the Lord

A pleasing odor –

Nahat ruah [Nahat Ruah can be

translated as "satisfaction," "gratification,"

"tranquility," "serene spirit," "pleasure"] – pleasure

– for me, for I spoke and my will was executed.

(Rashi, Bamidbar

28:8)

Then Noah built an

nikhoah [pleasing odor] , and the Lord said to

ever again destroy every living being, as I have done.

 (Bereishit 8:20-21)

Reyah

nikhoah does not mean "pleasant odor"

but rather: the satisfaction of the request and aspirations of the other.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, Bereishit

8:21)

What need have I

of all your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am

cannot abide.

(Isaiah

1:11-13)

What need have I

of all your sacrifices – Rabbi Elazar said:

Prayer is superior to all offerings, for it is written What

need have I of all your sacrifices and it is written, And when you lift up

your hands… Though you pray at length, I will not listen. Rabbi Yohanan said: Any priest who has killed someone shall

not lift his arms [to bless], as is written, Your

hands are stained with blood.

 (Yalkut Shimoni,

Isaiah 247:387)

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