פרשת חקת
At the end of this week’s Parsha, the Torah tells us about an unfortunate incident which cost many Jews their lives. The Jews came to Moshe Rabenu and lodged a complaint about the Manna which Hashem had used to miraculously sustain them. They said, “We are sick and tired of this bizarre and destructive bread”. Rashi explains that since the Manna had no waste in it whatsoever, the Jews who consumed it never had to go to the bathroom. So they were concerned that it would explode inside their stomachs, and this is what they were complaining about. Hashem became understandably angry with the Jews for not only not thanking Him for such a miraculous sustenance, but for complaining about it as well, and sent poisonous serpents which killed many Jews until Moshe put a copper snake on a banner, and the Jews gazed at it and were healed.
The Seforno asks two interesting questions to try to understand this episode recorded by the Torah. First, he would like to know why the Torah stresses the types of serpents that were used to punish the Jews. The Torah goes out of its way to describe the poisonous nature of the snakes, implying that this is an important point. And second, when Moshe decided to place a copper snake on a banner, he seemed to have done so on his own accord. The Torah only commanded Moshe to make a serpent, and he seemed to have decided that it should be made of copper on his own. The Seforno explains that the Jews’ sin in this instance was very subtle, and could have been overlooked entirely, because there was no action involved, only speech. Indeed, the Gemorah calls forbidden slander a breech of a negative commandment which has no physical action in it, and this is why even though it is extremely serious, does not warrant corporal punishment. We find then that speech is considered to have no action in it, and therefore has a danger that it will not be taken seriously. Today, this is especially true in a world which many people have the illusion that they have freedom of speech and can say whatever they want, whenever they want, with no accountability. Hashem had to show the Jewish people that this was certainly not true, and He therefore punished them extremely severely for their verbal transgression. Moshe, who got the point of what Hashem was trying to do, knew that when Hashem commanded a serpent to be fashioned, He really meant that Moshe should construct a physical demonstration of the severity of their transgression. A poisonous serpent is an interesting creature. When it bites a person, he may not even know that anything is wrong. He doesn’t feel much pain, and begins walking on his way. Shortly afterward, he begins to feel the poison burning in his veins, until his heart stops beating. Similarly, when we damage people with our mouths, the insidious injuries which have been inflicted are not even felt at first, but shortly afterward, the person can be rendered completely socially or financially incapacitated. Such is the danger of damaging speech, and Moshe knew that Hashem wanted to convey that danger, so he fashioned the serpent out of copper, whose reddish hue strongly resembles fire, in order to demonstrate this point.
The Midrash relates however, a very positive lesson which was leaned in the aftermath of this tragedy. After the Jews realized that they had made a major misstep, they came to Moshe, and said one word,”חטאנו” “We blew it”. When Hashem heard this, He immediately forgave them and commanded Moshe in how to stop the plague. We see from this incident the power of admitting one’s wrongdoings. A Jew can travel very far from the ways of the Torah, but if he turns back to Hashem, and honestly examines his actions to the point that he realizes that he has made a mistake, Hashem will take him back instantly, and forgive him for all his sins. Such is the power of sincere repentance.
The Jews are sometimes referred to derogatorily as “a stubborn nation”. This stubbornness is referring specifically to the difficulty to view the challenging events in our lives as a reminder to repent. Often a person will be straying off the path he should be on in some way, minor or major, and will receive a gentle wake up call. If he gets the message, and takes it to heart, and admits that he has blundered, nothing could be better. But sometimes, instead of viewing the troubles that come our way as loving reminders to admit to the folly of our ways, we become annoyed and frustrated, and turn to Hashem with anger at His audacity to torture us with no good reason. When we do this, Hashem responds by being forced to send us a reminder which is not quite as subtle as the first one and not only will we be punished for the original sin, we won’t even get the credit normally afforded to those who are purged by painful scenarios. This choice to not accept the uncomfortable situations we are in as reminders to look into our action is the trait of stubbornness which a Jew must avoid, and favor the stance of accepting everything that comes his way as being sourced in love and compassion in order to stimulate us to examine our actions.
It is very difficult to admit when we have erred. Nobody likes doing it. The Gemorah says that each person’s way is straight in his own eyes. But if we can get over this natural tendency, and simply admit with sincerity and honesty to Hashem or to our peers that we made a mistake, we will enjoy countless fruits from such a confession.
I would like to relate an interesting story I heard last week which illustrates this point of sincere repentance. There was a young boy named Samuel who lived in the United States, and whose father passed away when he was only 5 years old. Samuel’s mother could not take care of him, so he went to live with his wealthy and reclusive Uncle, Rob. Rob was extraordinarily wealthy, but his business techniques were not entirely Kosher, and he was strongly connected in the underworld of crime. Nonetheless, he raised Samuel with diligence and compassion, and made sure that he was always taken care of, but Rob never wed, and chose an isolated, hedonistic lifestyle. When it came time for Samuel to go to college, Rob made sure he was accepted to the top schools, and Samuel received a classic Ivy League education. However, in the middle of university, Samuel became interested in Judaism, and left university to pursue a life of Torah study and observance in Bnei Brak. Samuel excelled in his Torah studies, and it wasn’t long before he was fully observant, and engaged to a wonderful young Jewish girl, who shared a similar background, and dreams for the future. They wed and built an authentic Jewish home together, with a plethora of sons and daughters all following the ways of Hashem in every detail. Throughout Samuel’s religious experience, his uncle Rob supported him financially and even emotionally, but whenever Samuel, or Shmuel as he was now called would broach the subject of his uncle’s life style, he would immediately be cut short with the response, “I am married to, and worship my money, and nothing could ever sever that relationship”. This went on for forty years, when one day, Shmuel got a call he never expected to get. It was his uncle Rob who was now 85 years old. He began, “Samuel, as you know I am not a young man any more, and I know that my end is near. I now realize that I am going to be standing in front of Hashem in a very short time, and I have nothing to show for my life. I know He isn’t going to care about my bank accounts. I wish I could live the way you live, and take back the years I’ve wasted, but I cannot. What am I going to say to Hashem when I get there, and what can I do. Please promise me that you will say Kadish for me after I go, and help me to repent fully”. Shmuel reassured his uncle that every accomplishment he had made, was owed to his uncle, and that all the merits he had accrued would be attributed to his uncle in the world to come, and hung up the phone in a daze. He thought to himself that he had always wondered on what merit his uncle was allowed to stay on this earth. He lived for 85 years, never once doing a single Mitzvah. He didn’t keep Kosher or Shabbos, and wasn’t honest in his business endeavors. But only now did Shmuel realize that Hashem was patiently waiting 85 years for this man to come to this realization, and was keeping him around only for this moment in his life, and only now, when his uncle Rob had the maturity and the honesty necessary to come to his senses, could he begin his life at the tender age of 85. Indeed, shortly afterward, Rob’s life was taken by one of his disgruntled business “associates”, as if to strengthen this notion that he was kept around only for that moment in his life.
May we all merit to always take seriously the importance of our speech, and to have the honesty necessary to admit when we have erred!