Doing The Right Thing פרשת מטות וידבר משה אל העם לאמר החלצו מאתכם אנשים לצבא ויהיו על מדין לתת נקמת ה׳ במדין – “Moshe spoke to the nation saying: take from yourselves people for the army and they will be onto Midyan to place the revenge of G-D in Midyan.” After the episode of the Moavites and Midyanites teaming up in an attempt to cause Klal Yisrael to sin, G-D commands Moshe to destroy the Midyanites. Rashi tells us that G-D made it clear to Moshe rabbeinu that after this war he would die. Despite this knowledge, Moshe rabbeinu immediately set out to war against the Midyanites. To us, this might sound strange. If Moshe rabbeinu knows that he will die after this war, then surely he should procrastinate starting the war against them. Furthermore, if G-D says that Mshe rabbeinu will only die after this war, then in essence Moshe rabbeinu could live forever! Why did Moshe rabbeinu forgo such a golden opportunity? And if we analyze this point a little deeper we will realize something interesting. Wouldn’t it e amazing if Moshe rabbeinu was still alive today? Any time there is a dispute he would be able to settle it. More significantly, Moshe rabbeinu would put an end to much of the suffering and divisiveness the plague us today. In short, the entire world would be in a much better situation. Why didnt Moshe rabbeinu think of us when he went to war knowing full well that this would cause his death? Perhaps the answer to these questions is as follows. Moshe rabbeinu did in fact think of us. He understood full well the consequences of his actions. He also understood that going to war against Midyan was G-Ds will. Therefore, he subjugated his will to G-D’s will. He placed all of his thoughts aside and did that which G-D wanted from him. Moshe rabbeinu understood that something which seems good to us mere mortals is simply shortsighted. G-D has other plans, and that which seems good to us, in G-D’s eyes is bad and vice versa. We should try and learn this very important lesson from the teacher of Klal Yisrael. There are times in our lives that it seems that if we do something wrong or don’t do what G-D wants, it will ultimately be good (for example Chizkiyah Hamelech did not want to get married and procreate because he saw that a very wicked person would come descend from him. Chizkiyah’s mistake was that he should have procreated anyway because that is G-D’s will. This very same wicked individual that descended from him ended up causing a permanent change in the spiritual world for the better). If someone blocks a driveway in order to pray then he is doing the wrong thing. It might feel like he is so righteous and is doing G-D’s will. However, the reality is that G-D despises his prayer. If someone steals or cheats in order to give charity then G-D does not want his charity. The ends do not justify the means. The end. Tidbits The Midyanites caused twenty four thousand Jews to sin and thereby increased the strength of the evil in the world. In order to counterbalance this evil force, twelve thousand people and Pinchas were sent to fight Midyan. Pinchas was considered to be equal to the twelve thousand soldiers. In this way, the evil force was balanced. Meloh Haomer The Torah should have written that Elazar spoke to the people that returned from the war. Instead the Torah writes that he spoke to the people that returned to the war. The Chovot Halevavot brings down a story of a pious person that saw a group of people returning from a war. He told them that they just came back from the small war and are now going to face a big war. The war is the war with the evil inclination that comes with the haughtiness of winning a battle. With this story we can understand why the Torah writes that Elazar told the soldiers that were going to battle. This is also why they were given the commandment of purifying vessels to hint to them that they need to purify themselves from haughtiness. Shaar Bat Rabim Why does the Torah say that this is the statute of the Torah in regards to purifying vessels? An answer is that the Torah is teaching us that we need to purify ourselves from sin. Therefore, someone that sins has w way of fixing his sin. This is the entire Torah, that a person should never despair rather he should hasten to repent. Additionally, one of the laws of purification is that the same way that the vessel was impurifyed it must be purified (for example is something non-kosher was boiled in the pot, the pot must be boiled). A person must do repentance to the same extent that he sinned – Rabbi Moshe Feinstein Conceptual Textable Dvar Torah (160 Characters or less) The reason why the laws of vows were told to the leaders first is because a person must be G-D fearing before making a vow. Meor Vashemesh. Shabbat Shalom! Story There was a community in Europe that unfortunately had among its midst an informer. This wicked person used to inform government officials about the various activities that happened within the community. When he passed away he left the behind a letter in which he openly asked for forgiveness. In order to help him obtain forgiveness he requested that the Jewish people should desecrate his body by tying it to a donkey and having it drag his body around the town. In addition they should also not give him a proper burial and not bury him in the Jewish plots. The Jews that read this letter were unsure of what their course of action should be. They showed the rabbi (I’m pretty sure it was Rabbi Moshe Feinstein) the letter. The rabbi said that we should still bury him with all the respect that we normally give to a dead person because we must follow the halacha (Jewish law). A few days later, some government officials went to this informant’s grave and dug it up. They examined the body and then re-closed the grave. A Jew that witnessed this asked them why they just did what they did. They responded that they received a letter from this informant shortly before he died that his Jewish brothers hate him so much that they will desecrate his body! Even in his death this informant tried to harm his fellow Jewish brothers!
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 19:40:22 +0000
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