פרשת מטות-מסעי
This week’s Parsha opens with Hashem commanding Moshe Rabenu to smite the Midianites in recompense for the underhanded way in which they ensnared the Jews to sin thereby causing the deaths of over 100,000 men. The Torah tells us that Moshe Rabenu fulfilled this commandment with diligence, even though he knew that it would ultimately lead to his death since this was the last task the Jews were commanded to perform before entering the land of Israel. The Jews as well were somewhat hesitant to go to battle against Midian since they too understood the implications it would have on their beloved leader, but in the end bowed to the will of their Maker. The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh asks two interesting questions on the Parsha. Firstly, he wants to know why this commandment, out of all the other wonderful things Moshe had done in his life, was chosen by Hashem to be the last one of Moshe’s actions on this earth. It seems like a somewhat anticlimactic finish for such an extraordinary human being. Secondly, the Ohr Hachaim points out a fascinating inconsistency in the verses. Hashem commanded Moshe to destroy Midian as we mentioned, yet Moshe doesn’t actually carry out this command himself, rather he gets Pinchas to lead the Jews into battle. Doesn’t this seem a bit audacious on Moshe’s part to dump the responsibility onto someone else?
The Ohr Hachaim elucidates that a careful examination of the text will resolve these difficulties. The verse doesn’t command Moshe to merely go to war with the Midianites, rather it says to take revenge upon them. For this reason, Moshe was justified in sending Pinchas out to battle. Hashem didn’t tell him specifically to fight, rather commanded him to exact revenge. It was therefore completely acceptable for Moshe to fulfill this command via proxy. But in order to deal with the first difficulty we asked, let us attempt to define the word revenge. The world thinks that vengeance is a form of justice – setting the books straight. He stole from me, so I am going to steal from him. But we must ask ourselves, if vengeance truly is justice, why would the Torah have forbidden it? We must therefore recalibrate our understanding of vengeance to incorporate the two separate categories. The first aspect of vengeance is a sense of retaliation against a wrong done and the pleasure that one gets from seeing his enemies suffer. This is something which the Torah expressly forbids because it is an act of self-gratification. A person should let Hashem worry about true justice in the world and trust in the Divine plan to work out events in a way that will be most beneficial to all parties involved. However the second aspect of retribution is a concern for the diminishment of Hashem’s honor. This type of “vengeance” truly is a form of justice, and is not only permitted, but as we see in the case of the Midianites, considered honorary and praiseworthy because it essentially vindicates Hashem. Whenever a human being perpetrates an act of evil, this act is a direct affront to Hashem’s omnipotence, because it begs the question, how can a perfect Hashem allow something evil in His world? When the criminal who committed the offense gets punished, the sense of well-being is restored to the world as we instinctively know that Hashem (and by extension His world) is intrinsically just. If a human being chooses to be the one to exonerate Hashem by demonstrating to the world that evil is unacceptable, then this kind of “vengeance” can be entirely appropriate. It emerges that a reliable barometer to determine whether a person is doing the “good” kind of revenge or the bad one is whether his intention is to increase the honor of Hashem in the world, or to give himself personal pleasure to be a vigilante and affect his own form of justice.
Based on what we have said, we can easily resolve our difficulty. When Zimri publicly committed an act of immorality, Moshe stood by and forgot this Halacha that he was supposed to restore Hashem’s honor at that moment by slaying the perpetrator. It was therefore incumbent upon him to close that circuit before he passed away by “taking revenge” against the Midianites – the good kind of reprisal which we discussed in order to reinstate Hashem’s status as a fully just ruler of the world. With this in mind, we can easily appreciate why Moshe chose only soldiers who were not even slightly involved with the sin of the Midianites. We know that the Jews, who actually sinned, were killed in a plague and by the other Jews by sword. But Rashi says that there were many Jews who didn’t actually sin, but they were quite tempted, and perhaps thought about sinning. These men were not conscripted to exact revenge against Midianites, because this would have resembled the first kind of “forbidden” revenge, as if it were to settle some sort of personal vendetta. Moshe therefore had to choose men that were totally impartial to go to war with Midian, in order to demonstrate beyond the shadow of any doubt that his action was solely to reinstate Hashem’s good repute.
The former Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponevich Yeshiva, R’ Shach points out how far Moshe Rabenu was willing to go to glorify Hashem’s name on this earth. We don’t find anywhere in the verses that Moshe was commanded to carry out this task right away. He certainly could have delayed it a bit, which of course would have extended his own life. But the minute he realized that this mission would increase Hashem’s splendor; he set himself to it immediately. Moshe understood that the whole purpose of life it to increase Hashem’s honor in the world, it was therefore anathema for him to remain alive if his life meant Hashem’s honor would be diminished. He therefore chose to die and honor Hashem rather then live and dishonor Him. The lesson for us is rather obvious. We must do everything in our power to find ways to exalt Hashem’s reputation in this world by seizing every opportunity to point out Hashem’s fairness in the world, and attempt to demonstrate His evenhandedness to humanity. This message is especially pertinent during the time of year we find ourselves in. Exile is, almost by definition, a great challenge to Hashem’s honor. His people are scattered all across the seven seas and abused on this earth. His home is laying in ruin in Jerusalem. His service in the Temple has been interrupted for over two thousand years. These facts make it very easy for a scoffer to question Hashem’s existence. For this reason, Chazal went out of their way to decree very specific enactments during this time to help us mourn this awful state, and pine for a situation in which Hashem’s glory can be restored to the world. This is what should be breaking our hearts a whole year, and even more so during this period. We don’t pray so desperately for the redemption so that we can wiggle out of our own petty problems, but rather so that Hashem’s grandeur will be clear to every inhabitant of this earth.
Perhaps we could conclude with the beautiful words of R’ Dessler. He quotes the Baal Hatanya who points out that we only have three weeks to mourn the destruction, and then afterward seven weeks of consolation. We see from this Halacha that Hashem prefers our happiness to our mourning, and indeed, joy is a necessary component in proper Torah observance. But it behooves us during these three short weeks to focus on what we should be sad about! He explains that the laws of mourning we observe during this time are not meant to be a punishment, but rather a tool to remind us of what the world should look like when Hashem’s full glory is reinstated. We must yearn for such a time from the bottom of our hearts, and attempt to fully bring out and experience the pain of what we are lacking by not living in that state.
May we all merit to utilize this painful interlude to remind ourselves how desperately we crave to see a time when the world is once again filled with the knowledge and appreciation of our wonderful Creator!