This Week In The Torah



Parsha Chukas Bamibar/Numbers Ch.19-22 V.1

Moshe The Transmitter
by Rabbi Yechezkel Fox

Then Moshe raised his arm and struck the rock with his staff twice; abundant water came forth and the assembly and their animals drank. G-d said to Moshe, "Because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation to the land that I have given them". Ch.20/11-12

The people had no water, and Moshe was instructed to talk to the rock in order to extract its waters (V.8). Instead, he hit the rock with his staff, and for this he was severely punished: he would not be permitted to lead the people into the Land of Israel, and he would die in the desert. Why was Moshe punished so harshly for this one mistake?

Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky explains that this punishment was actually vital to the success of Moshe's mission as the transmitter of the Torah. The people had to have total confidence that he had faithfully given over the Torah, exactly as it was given to him by G-d. When Moshe hit the rock, it cast doubt over his whole mission. It allowed people to think that perhaps Moshe had made other deviations from the Word of G-d, as well. Therefore, to show that this was Moshe's sole deviation from the truth, G-d had to punish Moshe by removing him from his position of leadership prematurely (for had there been any other changes, he would have been removed earlier). In this way, Moshe's integrity---and that of the Torah---was preserved.

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The Clothing Makes The Man
by Rabbi Yechezkel Fox

The Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelled in the south, heard that Israel had come by the route of the spies, and he warred against Israel and captured a captive from it. Ch.21 v.1

Rashi comments on who dwelled in the south This is Amalek as it says "Amalek dwells in the area of the south."

So why does the verse refer to the king of Arad as a Canaanite? Rashi continues... Amalek changed his language to speak in the Canaanite tongue, so that Israel should pray to the Holy One, Blessed is He, to give the Canaanites into their hands, but they were not Canaanites. Israel saw that their clothes were like the clothes of the Amalakites but their language was the language of Canaan. They therefore said "Let us pray without specifying which nation we wish to defeat," as it says in the next verse, "If you will deliver this people into my hand"

An obvious question we can ask here is, if Amalek went to the trouble of changing their language, why didn't they complete their disguise by changing their clothes, as well?

The answer lies in another Rashi back in Shemos/Exodus 17:9. As here, Amalek was making war with Israel. The verse says: And Moses said to Yehoshua: Choose men for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the hill with the staff of G-d in my hand. Rashi comments on choose men: select men for us who know how to neutralize sorcery, for the sons of Amalek were sorcerers.

Sorcery was a real power in the ancient world; and Amalek's warfare depended on it. By certain prescribed methods they could harness the forces of evil for their desires. The Rabbeinu Bechaya in his commentary to the Torah prohibition of sorcery (Deut./ Devarim 18:10), says that a sorcerer had to wear black clothes. And that is why Amalak was stuck. Without their special black clothes, they were power- less to do their sorcery. Their power became their weakness. Our power on the other hand, lay in being completely faithful to G-d---the antithesis of sorcery (see ibid 18:13), which expressed itself in sublime prayer.

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A Cure For Snake-Bite...And Whatever Ails You

G-d said to Moshe, "Make yourself a fiery serpent and place it on a pole, and it will be that anyone who had been bitten will look at it and live." Moshe made a snake of copper and placed it on the pole; so it was that if the snake bit a man, he would stare at the copper snake and live. Ch 21/8-9.

The Children of Israel were being punished for complaining once again. Fiery serpents came and attacked them and many were dying. The cure---to stare at the image of a snake atop a pole. The Ramban comments that according to nature, when a person is bitten by a rabid dog or poisonous snake, the danger to his life will increase if the victim thinks about the creature that bit him. For a person dying of snake bite, then, the worst thing he could do would be to stare at the image of a snake.

With this in mind we can understand our Sages' comment, quoted by Rashi: Could a snake (on the pole) cause death (by not looking at it. According to nature it would be much better not to look at it!) or give life (by looking at it. It would usually hasten death!). Rather, at the time Israel would look upward and subject their heart to their Father in Heaven, they would be cured; but if not, they would waste away.

Their healing consisted solely in attaining the perception that a Jew is meant to live above the natural order of things. By looking at the snake, they demonstrated their trust in G-d and His healing power, and thus they were saved.

Can this work today? Will we get over a stomach virus by swallowing a cyanide pill and trusting in G-d? Definitely not! But although we avail ourselves of modern medicine, we must not forget that the medicine of our forebears---faith in G-d---is the only way of treating the root cause of what ails us.




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