And on the Sabbath day, two unblemished lambs in the first year,

and two tenths fine flour as a meal offering,

mixed with oil, and its libation.

(Bamidbar 28:8 most

quotations from Scripture and Rashi

herein based on the

Judaica Press translation)

 

A pleasing odor –

Nahat ru'ah [Nahat Ru'ah can be translated as

"satisfaction," "gratification," "tranquility,"

"serene spirit," "pleasure"] for Me, for I spoke and My

will was executed.

(Rashi, Bamidbar 28:8)

 

Then Noah built an

altar to the Lord and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean bird, he

offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the reyah nikhoah [pleasing

odor] , and the Lord said to Himself: Never again will I doom the earth

because of man, since the devisings of man's mind are evil from his youth; nor

will I 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 the aspirations of the other.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, Bereishit

8:21)

 

What need have I

of all your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am sated with burnt

offerings of rams and suet of fatlings, and blood of bulls; I have no delight

in lambs and he-goats. That you come to appear before Me – who asked that of

you? Trample My courts no more; Bringing oblations is futile, incense is

offensive to Me. New moon and Sabbath, proclaiming of solemnities, assemblies

with iniquity, I 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)

 

Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the

Lord –

… In the future, an abundance of knowledge will spread and will

penetrate even animals. They will not do evil nor will they destroy on the

mount of My holiness, because the earth will be full with knowledge of the Lord,

and that offering which will then be the minha offering – from the

vegetable – shall be pleasant to the Lord as in the days of yore.

(Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak

HaKohen Kook, Olat RA'aYaH p. 282)

 

But it is obvious that

in those days of knowledge they will not have the idea of propitiating God with

tens of thousands of streams of oil.

(Rabbi Hayyim Herschensohn, Malki BaKodesh,

part I pg. 32.)

 

 

Between

Yitro and Pinchas

Pinchas Leiser

Mount Nebo symbolizes

a place from which one can see the Land but not enter it. Taking

her lead from Moses, who was commanded (Devarim 32:48-52) to ascend Mount Nebo in

order to see the Land, the poetess Rachel speaks of Nebo in her poem Mineged

["across from"] as a universal human experience: "Each man and

his Nebo over the wide earth."

When we read the first

parshiyot of Bamidbar, in parashat Beha'alotkha, just before the story of the

Spies, we find the Israelites receiving the following commandment in the

context of the laws of the substitute Paschal offering:

If a stranger dwells

with you, and he makes a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, according to the

statutes of the Passover sacrifice and its ordinances he shall make it. One

statute shall apply to you, to the stranger and to the native-born citizen. (Bamidbar 9:14)

The Torah here speaks to the generation that

left Egypt in the second year after the Exodus. It sounds as if they are about

to enter the Land; indeed, it is only after the sin of the Spies that the

Generation of Wilderness is condemned to die along the way. Perhaps this was

that generation's "Nevo" experience.

I think it is important to trace how the

Generation of the Wilderness developed; perhaps the story of the Spies should

not be viewed as a one-time affair, but rather as an ongoing crisis.

When did the crisis begin and what was its

cause?

Towards the end of parashat Beha'alotkha (10:35-36), a two-verse long passage appears,

apparently completely out of context. It is bracketed off from the verses preceding

and following it by a pair of upside down characters of the Hebrew letter nun.

Rashi, following the Gemara (Shabbat 116a) explains:

He made marks for it

[this passage], before it and after it, as if to indicate that this is not its

proper place [in Scripture]. So why was it written here? To make a break

between one punishment and the next.

The Gemara (Shabbat 116a) lists these misfortunes:

R.

Shimon ben Gamaliel said: This section is destined to be removed from here and written

in its [right place]. And

why is it written here? In order to provide a break between the first [account

of] punishment and the second [account of] punishment. What is the second [account of] punishment? – And

the people were as murmurers (Bamidbar 11:1).

The first [account of] punishment? And they moved away from the mount of the

Lord (Bamidbar 10:33), which R. Hama

ben R. Hanina expounded [as meaning] that they turned away from following the

Lord. (Based on Soncino translation)

According

to the plain sense of Scripture, we would read the verse And they moved away

from the mount of the Lord as a purely factual statement, but the Sages

heard in it an additional stratum: the mount of the Lord is not a

geographical concept, but rather a philosophical and axiological concept. Rashi,

cognizant of the Sages' interpretation, follows Sifre (82) in his comment on it:

A distance of

three days: They completed a distance of

three days travel in one day, for the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to bring

them to the Land immediately.

That is to say that something happened here

that kept them from immediately entering the Land, as was God's original plan. With

the words And they moved away from the mount of the Lord, the Torah

hints that this is where the trouble began.

Verses 29-32 tell us how Moses tried to

convince his father in law to join the Israelites and enter the Land of Israel

with them:

Then Moses said to

Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses's father-in-law, We are traveling

to the place about which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Come with us

and we will be good to you, for the Lord has spoken of good fortune for Israel.

He said to him, I won't go, for I will go to my

land and my birthplace. He said, Please don't

leave us, for because you are familiar with our encampments in the desert

and you will be our guide. And if you go

with us, then we will bestow on you the good which God grants us.

We do not know if Yitro was convinced and

stayed with them. While RaMBaN contends that Moses convinced Yitro, Ibn Ezra,

Seforno, and Abarbanel holds that Yitro left the Israelites and returned to his

own land. If we accept the latter reading, can we find a connection between Yitro's

departure and the events which later befell the Israelites?

The words you will be our guide

[literally: "you will be eyes for us"] point to a relationship of

dependence between Moses and Yitro. The authors of the midrashim and

commentaries read these words in various ways. Rashi, for instance, first

explains the verse's plain meaning and then mentions a dictum from the Tannaitic

midrash Sifre:

You will be our

guide: The verse has the past tense, [and]

as the Targum renders, [it means: all the wonders wrought for us, you have seen

with your eyes.]

Another explanation:

[It is in] the future tense-If anything should be hidden from our eyes, you

shall enlighten us [with your guidance].

A further

interpretation: You shall be as beloved to us as the pupils of our eyes, as it

says, "You shall love the stranger" (Devarim 10:9).

This reading suggests

that Moses felt he was in need of Yitro's "eyes" in order to continue

leading the Israelites through the wilderness. Indeed, immediately after Yitro's

departure we read, And they moved away from the mount of the Lord a

distance of three days. Immediately after the

bracketed passage, So it was, whenever the ark set out So it was, whenever the ark set out, we read:

The people were

looking to complain, and it was evil in the ears of the Lord. The Lord heard

and His anger flared, and a fire from the Lord burned among them, consuming the

extremes of the camp. The people cried

out to Moses; Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. He named that

place Tab'erah, for the fire of the Lord had burned among them there. But the

multitude among them began to have strong cravings. Then even the children of

Israel once again began to cry, and they said, "Who will feed us meat?

We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of

charge, the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

But now, our bodies are dried out, for there is nothing

at all; we have nothing but manna to look at."… Moses heard the people

weeping with their families, each one at the entrance to his tent. The Lord

became very angry, and Moses considered it evil.

Moses said to

the Lord, "Why have You treated Your servant so badly? Why have I not

found favor in Your eyes that You place the burden of this entire people upon

me? Did I conceive this entire

people? Did I give birth to them, that You say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom

as the nurse carries the suckling,' to the Land You promised their forefathers?

Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying on me,

saying, 'Give us meat to eat.' Alone I cannot

carry this entire people for it is too hard for me. If this is the way You treat me, please kill me if I have

found favor in Your eyes, so that I not see my misfortune." (Bamidbar 11:1-15)

Moses felt he was no longer able to contain

the people's complaints. Could it be that Moses' leadership was weakened after

he lost Yitro's enlightening "eyes"?

Rashi interprets the

use of the feminine form in this verse: "If this is the way You [feminine]

treat me: Moses’ strength became weak like a

woman’s."

Moses is no longer able to keep a grip on the

people, to lead it and serve as its apologist before God. That is why immediately

afterwards we read the verse: Then the Lord said to

Moses, "Assemble for Me seventy men of the elders of Israel…"

It is interesting to consider the connection between this verse and Yitro's

advice in Shemot 18:

Moses' father in

law said to him, "The thing you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out both you and these

people who are with you for the matter is too heavy for you; you cannot do it

alone. Now listen to me. I will advise you,

and may the Lord be with you. [You] represent the people before God, and you

shall bring the matters to God. And you

shall admonish them concerning the statutes and the teachings, and you shall

make known to them the way they shall go and the deed[s] they shall do.

But you shall choose out of the entire nation men of

substance, God fearers, men of truth, who hate monetary gain, and you shall appoint over them [Israel] leaders over

thousands, leaders over hundreds, leaders over fifties, and leaders over tens.

Yitro saw something with his "eyes"

that eluded Moses: in order to control and lead an entire nation of slaves it

is necessary to do without centralization and instead delegate authority. In

other words, he must be helped by other people, otherwise You will surely wear yourself out. Indeed,

perhaps that is what happened after Yitro left.

It is impossible in the present article to

consider every crisis, but within parashat Beha'alotkha itself we find Kivrot

Hata'ava [where the people demanded meat] and Aaron and Miriam's talk about

the Kushite woman whom [Moses] had taken, which Rashi understands as having

been "about her divorce."

Following Rashi (who

adopted the drasha from Sifri 99), might we argue that Moses had

withdrawn from life in "this world" and thus lost his power as a

leader? Indeed, God's defense of Moses relates to his spiritual achievement as

a prophet who maintained an intimate relationship with God (I speak to him

mouth to mouth). Perhaps Moses, the man of God, needed Yitro's

"eyes". Perhaps there is a connection between Moses' seclusion and

asceticism and Yitro's departure, as we also read in parashat Yitro:

So Moses' father

in law, Yitro, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after she had been sent away… Now

Moses' father in law, Yitro, and his [Moses'] sons and his wife came to Moses,

to the desert where he was encamped, to the mountain of God.

Yitro counterbalances

the "spiritual" Moses, and acts as his "eyes," helping him

operate in this world.

Lacking the

"eyes" needed both by Moses as a leader and by the nation itself,

Moses must send the Spies who undermine the people's confidence and reveal how

unprepared the Generation of the Wilderness was to enter the Land of Israel. Perhaps

this also points shows us that Moses – who belonged to that generation – was

unable to contend with the demoralization and desperation that had taken grip upon

the people. (And see Bamidbar 14:5: Moses and Aaron fell on their faces

before the entire congregation of the children of Israel. A similar thing

happens during the Korah affair: Moses heard and fell on his face. However,

since in that case Aaron was under fire, Moses recouped and managed to prove

that his brother had been chosen by God. Nevertheless, the very phenomenon of

rebellion against Moses and subversion of the established order testifies to

the weakness of his leadership and his unsteady status in the eyes of the

people.)

In parashat Hukkat,

two of the leaders of the Generation of the Wilderness – Miriam and Aaron – leave

the stage and Moses is also told of his impending death. In parashat Balak,

Balaam (Yitro's negative image, since according to the Zohar II:69 and other

midrashim, he was Pharaoh's advisor) managed to advise Balak that "their

God hates fornication" (Sanhedrin 106a) – to cause the people and part

of their leadership to commit the sins of harlotry and idolatry. His success

was doubtlessly linked to the people's despair; Pinchas's zealous reaction

testifies to Moses' lack of leadership (the latter had forgotten the applicable

law, as Rashi states, following the midrash):

The law [that anyone

cohabiting with a non-Jewish woman is to be executed by zealots] eluded him.

[Therefore,] they all burst out weeping. At the incident of the golden calf

Moses [successfully] confronted six hundred thousand as it says, He ground

it until it was powder… (Shemot 32:20), yet here he appeared so helpless?

However, we should

mention that Rashi goes on to write: "However, [this happened] so that Pinchas

should come and take what was due to him." Be that as it may, the

Sages' ambivalent attitude towards Pinchas's zealotry allows us to make do with

Rashi's comparison between Moses' decisive reaction to the Sin of the Calf and

his impotence in the present case. Perhaps we may claim that his weakness – lacking

"Yitro's eyes" – allowed the people to be overcome by desperation and

encouraged the development of zealous reactions.

Perhaps we need "Yitro's eyes," the

"eyes" of the stranger and the alien to add an "outside"

perspective on events. Perhaps when a person, a group, or a nation becomes

entrenched in a mind-set, an outsider's eye must come to illuminate alternative

points of view. Then, as now, "a prisoner does not free himself from

prison" (Berakhot 5b).

Pinchas Leiser, the editor of Shabbat

Shalom, is a psychologist.

 

Midrashei Tzafon

By our member, Ronen Ahituv

If a man dies and has no son, you shall

transfer his inheritance (27:8)

That man is Moses, for it is said: and the man Moses (12:3)

Dies, for it is said: you too will be

gathered to your people (27:13)

And he had no son, for he had no son worthy of

reigning.

Know that Scripture did not count them. Eight sons

of Aaron and none of Moses!

You shall transfer [veha'avartem],

for it is said: Go up to this Mount Avarim (27:12).

And why is it called Mount Avarim? For it was

there that Moses transferred his inheritance to Joshua.

His inheritance – and what was

Moses' inheritance? None other than the majesty of the Shekhina [Divine

Presence], for it is said: You shall bestow some of

your majesty upon him (27:20), and it is said: But to the tribe of

Levi Moses gave no inheritance. The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance

(Joshua 13:33).

The juxtaposition of the passage treating Moses'

death decree and Joshua's appointment vis-à-vis the passage setting out

the laws of inheritance applying to Zelafhad's daughters invites this symbolic

drasha. One might say that leadership was Moses' inheritance, but I chose the verse

You shall bestow some of your majesty upon him as the key to my

interpretation, understanding that verse as referring to prophecy and closeness

to God.

Ronen Ahituv

 

 

 

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