They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to circle the land of Edom, and the people became disheartened because of the way.

(Bamidbar 21:4)

 

Anything difficult for a person to bear is called kitzur nefesh ["disheartenment," literally "shortness of spirit"], like a person who is beset with trouble, and his mind is not composed enough to accept it. There is no place in his heart for the distress to settle. The thing causing the distress is described as "large" since it is too large for him and weighs heavily on him, as in, and their souls also loathed Me (Zech. 11:8); they were too much for Me. [And also,] And it is so great that you hunt me like a lion (Job 10:16). In summary, the expression shortness of spirit for a thing, means that it is intolerable, and the mind cannot bear it.

(Rashi ad loc Judaica Press translation)

 

and the people became disheartened - For they had come close to the entry point [into the Land] but then the route became long. That was more difficult to bear than if it were really far away. And as we read in Eruvin 53b: "A long route to a near place is harder than a short route to a far place."

(Ha'Amek Davar loc cit)

 

They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to circle the land of Edom, etc. and it is written: and the people became disheartened. When they saw that they had turned back to the way through the wilderness, it seemed to them as harsh as death, for they intended to enter the Land of Israel immediately and eat of the Land's grain, but now they returned to a place without water or food. You might ask why they should care - since they had manna [to eat]. That is why it is written [that they said], we are disgusted with this rotten bread. Seeing something and tasting it is not comparable to merely tasting it without seeing it. When one does not see the reality of the thing one is tasting, it is as nothing to him. Another possibility: They did not taste the delicious flavor [that could be tasted in the manna] until they toiled with it, grinding it between mill-stones or crushing it in a crusher. That is implied by the verse in parashat Beha'alotkha where it is written: [The people walked about and gathered it. Then they ground it in a mill or crushed it in a mortar, cooked it in a pot and made it into cakes]. It had a taste like the taste of oil cake.

(Da'at Zekeinim MiBa'alei HaTosafot ad loc)

 

On Snakes, Staffs, and Holy People

Gili Zivan

Parashat Hukat contains a remarkable story about the venomous snakes which attacked the people as they were weary from their wilderness journey:

They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to circle the land of Edom, and the people became disheartened because of the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this desert, for there is no bread and no water, and we are disgusted with this rotten bread." The Lord sent against the people the venomous snakes, and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died.

Having yet to understand the forcefulness of God's response to the Israelite complaints (and many people of Israel died), an additional question arises, this time one concerning the means by which the Israelites are healed and repaired. There seems to be a precise application of the magical notion that certain objects are endowed with supernatural powers. Isn't Scripture ascribing mysterious curative powers to the copper snake displayed on a pole, deeming it to be so effective that a poison snake bite can be healed by just by having the victim glance at it? And whenever a snake bit a man, he would gaze upon the copper snake and live (Bamidbar 21: 4-9).

Many exegetes have tried to explain the secret of the snakes' curative powers. The Sages chose a famous midrash (Rosh HaShana 3:6) to turn our attention away from the healing object - the copper snake - and to focus our attention instead on the intentions of those looking at it. According to the midrash, those who believed in the snake's powers were not cured. Only those who understood that the object's curative powers were derived from "their Father in Heaven" would be healed:

Could it be that Moses' hands make war or break war? Rather [the verse's intention is] to tell you that when Israel gazed upwards and subjugated their hearts to their Father in Heaven they would prevail, and if not they would fall. Similarly, you say, "Make a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shall recover" (Num. 21: 8). Could it be that the snake kills or the snake revives? Rather, when Israel gaze upwards and subjugated their hearts to their Father in Heaven they would be healed, and if not, they would waste away.

It seems the Mishnah is fighting with all its might against a mode of thought which grants an independent higher power to nature, objects, or human beings. By denying the redemptive power of Moses' hands and the curative powers of the snake, it presses for an extreme anti-magical position.

RaMBaN takes a further step in the direction taken by the Sages. He claims that the cure is effected precisely by the same principle which brings death in order to tell us that snakes both living and formed of copper are not invested with independent powers; rather such powers derive from the will of the Creator:

The secret of this matter seems to me to be that it is characteristic of the Torah that all its deeds involve miracles within miracles; the damage is removed by that which damages, the disease is cured by that which causes disease, as they mentioned (Mekhilta VaYisa 1) regarding the verse, and the Lord showed him a tree... (Shemot 15:25), and similarly with the salt Elisha [threw] into the water (II Kings 2:21). The general principle is that the Lord commanded that they effect a cure by using something harmful and naturally deadly, that they should make an image of it bearing its name. And when a person looks in the direction of the Copper Snake, which looked like something entirely harmful, he would live, in order to tell them that it is the Lord Who both kills and revives. (RaMBaN Bamidbar 21:9)

That is to say: God chose a particular instrument of cure - the Copper Snake, which is similar in appearance to the source of the ailment (notice how similar the words nahash - "snake" - and nehoshet - "copper" - sound to each other) - in order that the bite-victim should understand that it is God who kills and restores to life. However, the human inclination to believe in special people, special objects, graves, stones, and so forth is stronger than God's message. All across human culture we can see how this tendency affects life in general and religion in particular. Our own society seems to be shaking off the last remnants of modern rationalism and many of its members seek solace for their pains in the special powers of amulets, holy Kabbalists, and holy places (from the grave of R. Shimon bar Yohai to Oman, the city of R. Nahman). Returning to the Copper Snake, we find that eventually it also became an object whose divine powers were sought out by many. In contrast to the spirit of the Mishnah from tractate Rosh HaShanah, the Israelites worshipped the copper Snake. This only ended during the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah (the end of the 8th century BCE) when he destroyed the Copper Snake while executing his signature policy of strengthening the status of the Temple and of Jerusalem:

... and he crushed the copper snake that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel were burning incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan and crushed the copper snake that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel were burning incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan (II Kings 18:4)

The Book of Kings tells us that while the Copper Snake had been constructed by Moses at God's explicit behest, it eventually became transformed from a means to an end. Those who believed in it came to see it as an object endowed with divine powers.

The Tannaitic Sages applauded the Copper Snake's destruction: "King Hezekiah performed six deeds; they praised for three and did not praise him for three [others]... he crushed the copper Snake, and they praised him" (Mishnah Pesahim 4:9). In the Gemara and Tosefta, the Sages question Hezekiah's deed: how could he crush the Copper Snake which Moses had been commanded to erect? "Was it an object of idolatry? But didn't our Master Moses create it?" And they answered: "This teaches us that Israel erred after it until Hezekiah came and hid it away" (Tosefta Avodah Zara 3:19, see also in the Jerusalem Talmud: Avodah Zara 3;3)

Prof. Zakovitch defines magic as the being the opposite of a miracle. God effects miracles, while magic and witchcraft are the activities of human beings who are sufficiently wise and powerful to force their will upon both creatures and creation. Zakowitch claims that (unlike later rationalist movements) Scripture recognizes the power of magic - as can be seen in the story of the Egyptian wizards - but fights them with all its might.

Zakovitch forwards an interesting hypothesis regarding our parasha; he claims that the story of Mei Meriva ["the Waters of Contention"] may also be involved with the struggle against the ascription of magical powers to objects.

In the story of Masa U'Meriva (Shemot 17:1-7) the staff is considered a legitimate instrument through which God has chosen to perform a miracle:

And the Lord said to Moses, Pass before the people and take with you [some] of the elders of Israel, and take into your hand your staff, with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I shall stand there before you on the rock in Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it... (17: 5-6)

However, the parallel and very similar story of Mei Meriva (Bamidbar 20:1-13) opposes the status of the staff and belief in the power of objects. Moses is told to take the staff with him, but not to use it. This is meant to show everyone that the miracle will occur even without the staff: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water... (verses 7-8). Moses sins by making use of the staff. The rock is split not thanks to the staff, but in spite of its use (Yair Zakovitch: Al Tfisat haNes BaMikra, Universita Meshuderet, Tel Aviv 1987).

The scriptural narrator also takes pains to show us that Elisha's staff lacks any powers of its own in the story of the birth, death, and miraculous resurrection of the Shunamite woman's son. When he dies, his mother runs to Mount Carmel to enlist Elisha's help. She scolds him: Did I ask a son from my lord? Didn't I tell you not to trick me? (II Kings 4:28), but Elisha does not hasten to help. He sends his staff to Gehazi, telling him to use it to revive the child. And he said to Gehazi, "Gird your loins and take my staff in your hand and go... and you shall place my staff on the lad's face" (verse 29). The Shunamite does not believe that an object can revive her son; she does not leave Elisha in peace, but rather forces him to follow her. Later we learn that the great woman of Shunam was right while Elisha, the man of God, was wrong: And Gehazi went ahead of them, and he placed the staff on the lad's face, and there was no sound nor anyone listening; and he returned toward him and told him saying, "The lad has not awakened" (verse 31). The expression, there was no sound nor any one listening, will no doubt remind sensitive readers of a different test which Elisha's spiritual master had performed on Mount Carmel, when Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal. That story uses a similar expression in connection with an ineffective ritual act which goes unanswered because it ascribes divine powers to ceremonies or objects:

And it was at noon that Elijah scoffed at them, and he said, "Call with a loud voice, for he is a god. [Perhaps] he is talking or he is pursuing [enemies] or he is on a journey; perhaps he is sleeping and will awaken. And they called with a loud voice and gashed themselves as was their custom, with swords and lances, until blood gushed on them. And as the afternoon passed and they feigned to prophesy until the time of the sacrifice of the [evening] offering, and there was no sound and no answer and no one was listening.

Elisha's staff was like the prophets' gashing themselves with swords and lances. A staff which is supposed to possess powers because it belongs to the man of God is no less idolatrous than the rites of the prophets of Baal who cry out Baal answer us! That is why there was no sound nor anyone listening. Only when Elisha himself arrived at the attic and faced the fact that despite his wondrous powers and his having been appointed a man of God he was, at the end of the day, nothing more than a human being whose amazing powers were not intrinsic to him, but rather intrinsic to the God who sent him, only then could he perform the resuscitation. In that intimate moment, when Elisha found himself alone in his room with the dead child, he prays to God Who can revive the dead. From the beginning of the story Elisha had not yet mentioned God's name, but now he mentions it twice; once when suddenly confronted with his own ignorance while speaking to Gehazi (and the Lord hid it from me and did not tell me) and the second time when the narrator recounts Elisha's actions in the attic. The child's resuscitation is not easy. It requires, first and foremost, a prayer to God. Following the prayer, the narrator describes Elisha's medical efforts. He does not perform any "hocus pocus" with the help of a magic wand or staff; he climbs up onto the bed, respirates the child and warms him. It seems that the biblical narrator tells us the details of Elisha's actions not only in order to say that he has to make an effort to resuscitate the child and that things were not progressing as easily as they had up to this point. We also understand that for a split second the dead child lying in the bed and the man of God were as one. The words describing Elisha lying over the child merge them together: And he went up and lay on the child, and placed his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his palms on his palms. For one moment Elisha might have felt like a helpless child in need of someone bigger than him; perhaps it was that feeling of smallness that allowed him to arouse God's mercy.

And what of us? In how many staffs do we place our hopes? How many rabbis and saints intercede in our connection with the Master of the Universe? It seems that the struggle against such "short cuts" will go on forever. The temptation to ascribe supernatural powers to certain items that God has created will continue throughout human history, as will the struggle against that human tendency.

Dr. Gili Zivan, a member of Kibbutz Saad, directs the Yaakov Herzog center for Jewish Studies in Ein Tzurim. She is on sabbatical for the year 5769

 

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 21)? "If," the other replied, "a man allows 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 He, raises him, as it says, Every valley shall be lifted up (Isaiah 40).

(Eruvin 54a, Soncino translation).

 

Our Rabbis have taught: A man should always be as gentle as the reed and never unyielding as the cedar. Once R. Elazar ben Shimon was coming from Migdal Gedor, from the house of his teacher, and he was riding leisurely on his ass by the riverside and was feeling happy and elated because he had studied much Torah. There he happened to meet an exceedingly ugly man who greeted him, "Peace be upon you, Sir." He, however, did not return his salutation but instead said to him, "Empty-one, how ugly you are. Are all your fellow citizens as ugly as you are?" The man replied: "I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman who made me, 'How ugly is the vessel which you have made!'" When R. Elazar realized that he had done wrong he dismounted from the ass and prostrated himself before the man and said to him, "I submit myself to you, forgive me." The man replied: "I will not forgive you until you go to the craftsman who made me and say to Him: 'How ugly is the vessel which You have made.'" He [R. Elazar] walked behind him until he reached his native city. When his fellow citizens came out to meet him greeting him with the words, "Peace be upon you O teacher, O Master," the man asked them, "Who are you addressing thus?" They replied, "The man who is walking behind you." Thereupon he exclaimed: "If this man is a teacher, may there not be any more like him in Israel!" The people then asked him: "Why?" He replied: "Such and such a thing has he done to me." They said to him: "Nevertheless, forgive him, for he is a man greatly learned in the Torah." The man replied: "For your sakes I will forgive him, but only on the condition that he does not act in the same manner in the future." Soon after this R. Elazar ben R. Shimon entered [the house of learning] and expounded thus, "A man should always be gentle as the reed and never be unyielding as the cedar. And for this reason the reed merited that of it should be made a pen for writing Torah scrolls, Tefillin, and Mezuzot."

(Ta'anit 20a-b, following Soncino translation)

 

 

 

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