YOU SHALL NOT TRY THE LORD YOUR GOD AS YOU TRIED HIM IN MASSAH

(Devarim 6:16)

 

You shall not try the Lord your God - this is explained by the phrase as you tried Him in Massah. That is, do not say "If the Lord is in our midst to perform miracles for us, or if when we serve Him we succeed, have enough food to satisfy us and live well - then we shall observe His Torah," for the point of that [the Massah episode] was that if the Lord would miraculously supply them with water, then they would follow Him through the wilderness, but if not they would leave Him. This was accounted to them as a great sin, for after it had been demonstrated to them with signs and wonders that Moses was a prophet of the Lord and the Lord's word was truly in his mouth, it was wrong for them to make any further trial. Anyone who would do so would not be testing the prophet - he would be testing the blessed Lord to see if His powers were sufficient to the task. Therefore, it has been prohibited for all the generations to test the Torah or the Prophets, for it is wrong to serve the Lord in a doubting fashion, or based upon demands for miracles and tests. It is not the Lord's will to perform miracles for all persons and at all times, and it is wrong to serve Him in order to receive a reward. Rather, one may come across sorrow and tragedy while serving Him and while walking in the paths of Torah; one should accept that as just, and not be like the fools of our nation who said [What have we gained by keeping His charge] and walking in abject awe of the Lord of Hosts? (Malachi 3:14).

(RaMBaN Devarim 6:16)

 

But in spite of man's certainty that all his affairs are entrusted to God's power and that the choice of God as his trustee is the best choice for him, he must also strive for his welfare and choose the means that seem best to him while God is executing His predetermined decrees. An example of this is the fact that although man's term and the length of his life are both predetermined by God, he must for his part strive for the means of his livelihood, like food, clothing, and housing, all according to his needs. He cannot leave it to God, saying, "If it was predetermined by God that I should live, why, He would sustain my soul in my body, without food, for the whole period of my life. So I do not have to take the trouble to find my livelihood, and I shall not exert myself."

In the same way, it is not proper for man to expose himself to dangers because he relies on God's predetermined fate, drinking poison, fighting the lion and other beasts without needing to, throwing himself into the sea or into the fire, and the like. These are things by which man is sure to destroy himself, and thus he is endangering himself. The Scriptures have already forbidden it in their saying: You shall not try the Lord your God, as you tried Him in Massah (Devarim 6:16). So when a man does this, one of the two consequences must follow: either he is killed, or he is not killed. If he is killed, he has committed suicide and he will be punished for it as if he had killed somebody else, although he has died this way only by God's decree and permission, for He has forbidden us to cause the death of human beings, in His saying: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (Shemot 20:13, etc.). The closer the relationship between the killer and the killed, the greater the punishment, as it is said: Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Edom, yea, for four, I will not reverse it: Because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever (Amos 1:11).

Consequently, a man who kills himself is undoubtedly worthy of the severest punishment and the gravest chastisement, for his case is like that of a servant whose master ordered him to look after a place for a certain period, forbidding him to leave it until he sent an envoy there. The envoy was delayed, and the servant left the place without waiting for him. Thereupon the master became angry and inflicted the severest punishment on the servant. In the same way, a man who commits suicide passes from God's obedience to the border of His disobedience by exposing himself to destruction.

(Bahya Ben Yosef Ibn Pakuda: Hovot Ha'Levavot

[The Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart] 4:4, Mansoor translation pp. 244-5)

 

 

Console, oh console My people

Pinchas Leiser

There are a number of Sabbaths on the Jewish calendar that are named for their haftorah readings. The Sabbath between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shuva; the Sabbath before Passover is called Shabbat HaGadol, and the Sabbath before the 9^th of Av is called Shabbat Hazon.

The Sabbath following the 9^th of Av, when we read the parasha Va'Et'hanan, is also named for its haftorah (Isaiah 40): Shabbat Nahamu.

In this devar Torah, I would like to investigate the Hebrew root NHM, which appears frequently in Scripture and which, apparently, takes on different meanings.

Already in parashat Bereishit, following the story of the creation of the world and of humanity, after the expulsion from Eden, Cain's murder of Abel, and the recounting of the entire book of the generations of Adam in chapters 5-6, we read:

The Lord saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the Lord regretted [vayinahem] that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened. The Lord said, "I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created - men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky for I regret [nihamti] that I made them (Bereishit 6:5-7).

However, just a few verses earlier we read in connection with Noah's birth:

And he named him Noah, saying, "This one will provide us comfort [yenahamenu] from our work and from the toil of our hands, out of the soil which the Lord placed under a curse." (Bereishit 5:29)

The Holy One blessed be He mitnahem [regrets] having created man and Lemekh; Noah's father is mitnahem [comforted] by the birth of Noah, who was said to have found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

In contemporary Hebrew, we only use the root NHM in the sense of consolation, but not in the sense of regret.

When we engage in nihum aveilim [comforting mourners], the formulaic expressions we use are "May the Omnipresent yinahem [console] you amongst the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem" and "Tenahamu [may you be consoled] by Heaven."

Starting with Nahamu, the haftarot following the 9^th of Av, are called the Sheva de'Nehamuta ["The Seven of Consolation"]. At first glance, it seems that in every one of these haftarot the root NHM appears in relation to consolation following disaster as a way of dealing with distress. It is, then, interesting to see if the commentators tried to explain the various meanings of NHM by way of a common denominator and a new understanding.

Rabbi S. R. Hirsch (on Bereishit 5:29) enlightens us with his discussion of the various senses of the root NHM, and their common basis:

This root has a peculiar meaning. In the pi'el: to comfort, in nifal: to be comforted;

but also: to alter your mind or your decision regarding some intended action; finally, also: contrition, remorse at something which has occurred as in No man regrets his wickedness (Jeremiah 8:6) and Now that I have turned back, I am filled with remorse (31:18).

The basic underlying meaning is: to change one's mind, hence repentance and altering one's decision. Consolation is also a complete reversal of the previous feeling regarding an occurrence... NHM [similar to Noah], is a movement which is reversed, like nah. Hence haniham, also where it means repentance, seems to be connected with the complete giving up of a direction hitherto held. But that is also consolation. A painful loss sets us in motion internally; consolation brings us to rest, closes the gap, and stays the motion. (Levi translation)

Rabbi Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio, who was almost a member of Rabbi Hirsch's generation, living just a little earlier than him in northeast Italy, writes in his Torah commentary (on Bereishit 6:6):

And the Lord regretted [vayinahem] - all expressions using the word nehamah refer to a change of will from one plan to an opposing plan, sometimes from bad to good, sometimes the opposite. It is known that God's will is unchangeable, but the matter is like this: All of the blessed Lord's decrees and promises are made on the condition that those who benefit from them remain deserving of them and do not change. When the decree is categorical and unconditional, an oath, or a sign accompanies it, or it is formulated as advice. In the creation story God decreed that the laws of creation would remain in effect forever, and that is why it is said of them that they are good. Similarly, He decreed that the human race would be fruitful and multiply and conquer the earth, but all of that was conditional upon humans observing the commandments of reason, avoiding oppression and illicit sex. God knew from the start that they would corrupt their ways and deserve annihilation - accordingly, He did not swear to those decrees at the time of the creation, but only swore to them to Noah following the flood. From this we can understand that the calamities of the flood did not constitute a change in the Divine will, but rather a change in those affected by it. Because of their evil ways they no longer merited the benefits promised to them by God at the beginning of creation. However, since God did not reveal this secret to humanity when He blessed it saying be fruitful and multiply, we thought that it was as if God had regretted what He had said..."

In addition to explaining the concept NHM as referring to a change of will in either direction, Reggio tries to grapple with the theological problem that arises from biblical passages whose plain meaning seem to refer to changes in God's will regarding the creation of humanity. He does this by attributing the change to human beings. The change associated with God actually occurs in the consciousness of humans and derives from their unacceptable behavior.

The common element in these two 19^th century commentaries is that the root NHM can be interpreted in a wide fashion. All of the cases concern change; sometimes it is a change of will - a change of a decision already taken or about to be taken. Sometimes it is a change of mindset and of emotion following an event.

In other words, nehama can be defined as a new vision of reality that requires that a decision already taken be changed, or which creates a different relationship of consciousness or of emotion that lends new significance to an event beyond our control.

This new definition allows us to contemplate Isaiah's prophecies of nehama from a developmental perspective. Only in the seventh week, in the haftorah for parashat Nitzavim (or Nitzavim - VaYelekh), on the Sabbath before Rosh HaShana do we read in chapter 61: I greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being exults in my God, for He has clothed me with garments of triumph, wrapped me in a robe of victory. There were earlier attempts at consolation, but the people's response to the effort to console them in Nahamu (the haftorah of Va'Et'hanan, Isaiah 40) was: The Zion said: the Lord has left me, my Master has forgotten me (the haftorah for Ekev, Isaiah 42). The haftorah for Ekev ends with Isaiah 51:3:

Truly the Lord has comforted Zion, comforted all her ruins. He has made her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Gladness and joy shall abide there, thanksgiving and the sound of music.

However, the response of the haftorah for Re'eh (Isaiah 54:11) is:

Unhappy, storm-tossed one, uncomforted! I will lay carbuncles as your building stones and make your foundations of sapphires.

And so the process of consolation continues until the seventh week, when the people finally agree to be comforted.

In the end of the tractate Makot (24b) we are told of how Rabban Gamliel, R. Eliezer ben Azariah and R. Akiva were walking along, and when they ascended to Jerusalem and reached the Temple Mount, they saw a fox emerge from the area of the Holy of Holies:

They began to cry, while Rabbi Akiva laughed.

They said to him, "Why are you laughing?"

He responded, "Why are you crying?"

They said to him: "If from the place about which it is written, And the stranger who enters there, shall die, now foxes prowl over it, should we not cry?"

He said to him: "For that very reason, I am laughing. As it is written, I will bring two reliable witnesses regarding my People, Uriah the Priest and Zachariah son of Yevarech'yahu (Isaiah 8:2). What does Uriah have to do with Zachariah? Uriah lived in the time of the First Temple, and Zachariah in the time of the Second Temple! But Scripture makes Zachariah's prophecy dependent on Uriah's. By Uriah it is written, Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed under like a field. (Micah 3:12). In Zachariah it is written, Yet again, elderly men and elderly women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, (Zachariah 8:4). Until I saw the fulfillment of Uriah's prophecy, I had some doubt as to whether Zachariah's prophecy would come true. Now that I have seen Uriah's prophecy fulfilled, I know that Zachariah's prophecy will also be fulfilled."

They spoke to him in these words, "Akiva, you have comforted us. Akiva, you have comforted us."

Rabbi Akiva different reaction and his ability to console [nahem] his fellow Tanaim is connected to his ability to hitnahem [change his attitude], to look at reality in a different way, to take into account not only static reality, but also the possibility of that reality changing. R. Akiva's ability to view reality as dynamic springs from his attitude towards historical reality as an open and changing text.

It seems that we sometimes need time in order to be consoled and see reality differently. The transition from a crisis to a situation in which we may recover from the crisis is a slow process because reality does not change and we are not automatically blessed with the ability to accommodate to a disappointing reality and to find consolation in it.

Sometimes, someone who is blessed with consoling/changing qualities can influence his environment and help it look at apparently harsh reality in a different way.

These words are written in difficult days in which the north of our land has burst into flames. Many people have been hurt and forced to leave their homes; soldiers have been killed and injured, and the welfare of the abducted soldiers is a cause for great concern. Similarly, people from among our Lebanese neighbors have been hurt, including children who have no part in our war against the cruel enemy. Therefore, we hope and pray that by the time these words are published there will be a new reality in our country and in our region.

These hard events require healing and consolation. I am troubled that some of the rabbinic voices heard in the media are not shocked by the killing of innocent children.

We need to undergo a process of nehama, and we need a spiritual leadership that can - like Rabbi Akiva - see the situation "differently," that can change and console and sew hope, love and consolation in hatred's place.

Pinchas Leiser, the editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist

 

 

Readers respond

I would like to relate to Ruti Lazare's article, which appeared in the parashat Balak issue of Shabbat Shalom.

While I found it very interesting, the article's conclusion that Balaam should be seen as the hero of the story and as a tzadik [saint] of the first order seem extreme to me. The development of Balaam's personality through the course of the parasha has firm foundations (I think that Rabbi S.R. Hirsch takes a similar approach), but two points require at least further study:

a) The midrashim and exegeses that brand Balaam as wicked for the very fact that he was willing to go Moav in the beginning of the story are firmly rooted in the plain meaning of the Torah. They may be summarized by the dictum quoted by Rashi: "A person is led in the path that he wishes to take."

b) More importantly, even if we assume that Balaam's development occurs after his departure and that his righteousness only becomes apparent after he receives genuine Divine revelation, how does that jibe with the advice he gave regarding the Midianite women? The author explicitly invites us to "ignore the connection made by Scripture between Balaam's curse and the sin of Ba'al Pe'or." But that is exactly the problem: one may "free oneself" of the midrash in order to investigate the plain meaning of the Torah from a new viewpoint, but ignoring things written in the Torah itself confounds the very attempt to create a plain reading!

I think that both of these problems must be solved if the position taken in the article is to be justified - I invite the author to address them. I should emphasize that the general idea that we must try to see ourselves through other people's eyes is well taken: here my question is what that notion has to do with parashat Balak.

Michael ben Moshe Askuli

 

Ruti Lazare responds:

My article is a kind of midrash; it is not intended to solve all of the problems raised by the story of Balak and Balaam. By depicting Balaam as someone able to change his original viewpoint, I did not make him into a tzadik, but rather described him as someone who can teach us something, despite his having been marked as an enemy. Indeed, when emphasis is placed on Balaam's spiritual strengths things becomes more difficult for those who wish to emphasize his failings. On the other hand, the depiction of Balaam as a completely evil person and the neglect of his strengths does not sit well with the fact that Scripture chose to place the praises of Israel in his mouth - those very praises we so often quote. I wish to distinguish between the "evil man" and the "enemy." Balaam explicitly sided with our enemies. He helped them by revealing Israel's weak point to them, making the Israelites into their own worst enemies. The uncovering of the opponent's weaknesses and their use against him are the clever tactics of one who manages to avoid direct hostilities. I am not sure that it is correct to call such a strategy wicked. If - God forbid - Balaam had managed to bring about a Moabite military victory over Israel, would his sin be more forgivable?

 

 

 

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