"Torah Lights"
 
Video Insights on the Parsha
 
 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel: “This is the statue of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.” (Numbers 19:2)  

This week's Torah portion contains two major episodes which initially seem completely unconnected. The first is the strange ritual of the red heifer, whereby an individual defiled by contact with death is purified by being sprinkled with the heifer’s ashes mixed with living spring waters. This mystical and puzzling procedure is considered to be beyond human understanding: the very mixture which purifies the impure serve to defile the priest/kohanim who are involved in making the mixture and in transporting it to the designated place where the ritual is to be performed.

The second incident is the castigation of our great prophet Moses. The Israelites once again find themselves without water, and the Almighty asks Moses to speak to a rock from which water will emerge. However, instead of speaking to it, Moses strikes the rock. G-d then turns upon His faithful servant, informing him that he will not bring the congregation of Israel into the Promised Land. This ‘punishment’ also seems be beyond human understanding. Why is Moses being judged so harshly? Is it any less of a miracle when water emerges from a rock which has been struck by a rod than from a rock which has been spoken to by a prophet? Did the young prince who abandoned Pharaoh’s palace and elite power structure in order to liberate the Hebrew slaves, who nurtured his freed nation throughout its wanderings in a difficult and alien desert, deserve the staggering punishment of being refused entry into the Promised Land merely because he didn’t conform to the exact details of the Divine command? And in addition to our attempt to understand the essential nature of these two incidents, can we discover the subtle thread that both links them and yet at the same time causes them to be juxtaposed within the same biblical reading?  

I believe that the connecting thread between both incidents is the empowering strength of love.  The ritual of the red heifer is a prime example of a hok, or a law for which there is no obvious or rational reason; there are many such laws within our Bible, like the law of circumcision and the laws of kashrut. The performance of the more understandable or rational laws – such as returning lost objects and giving charity to the poor – emanates from the conscious understanding of the Jew that he/she must strive to form a more perfect and moral society. The existence of hukim, however, emerges from the need to create a reality that will allow the individual to love the Divine simply because the Divine wills it so. Performing a mitzvah rooted in hok allows us to express this profound love. Even if I do not understand why, my relationship with G-d is such that I will joyfully do whatever He asks of me, whether the reason is apparent or shrouded in mystery.  

Moreover, my teacher Rav Soloveitchik explains that the ritual of the red heifer is really not so difficult to understand. If someone falls into a muddy pit, and I lift him out of it, I shouldn’t be surprised if mud sticks to my cuffs and I now have to send my pants to the cleaners; similarly, if the kohen/priest leaves the Temple precincts or the House of Study to purify the impure, his very contact with impurity will result in his own defilement. This is almost built in to human life and the daily exchanges that take place between people. But we need to clarify what exactly is it in the red heifer ritual that causes the kohen to purify others at the risk of his own defilement? I believe the answer is the enormous love that he has for every Jew, a love expressed by the fact that he is ready to lose a little bit of his world-to-come so that his fellow Jew can receive some spirituality. Such is the power of love!  

From this perspective we can more readily understand Moses’ punishment. The most important quality of a leader of Israel must be his unconditional and uncompromising love for his people. Moses was just such a leader. By slaying the Egyptian task-master because of his love for his Hebrew brethren, he was willing to give up the luxurious comforts bestowed upon a member of Egypt’s First Family, if not a pyramid of his own certainly burial in one. Later, when he descends from Mt. Sinai right into the shocking tableau of the nation worshipping a calf of gold, Moses was willing to be blotted out of G-d’s book -- uprooted from this world -- unless G-d agreed to forgive the Israelites after the sin of the golden calf.

But then Moses went through 39 difficult years in the desert with complaining Jews; they refuse to conquer the land of Israel, they cry out for meat and fish and watermelon and garlic and they support every manner of rebellion against his leadership. Their ‘kvetch’ never ends. At this point, G-d instructs him “to take a rod, to gather together the witness-assemblage (edah) and to speak to the rock before their eyes.” (Numbers 20: 8). Moses however gathers the assemblage (kahal), cries out “…listen now rebels,” and strikes the rock with the rod twice. (20:10,11).

Rav Charlap, a major student of Rav Kook, points out that a transformation has taken place: Moses can no longer see the Jewish people as a nation of witnesses (edah) but rather as an aggregate assemblage of rabble (kahal). Long before Rav Charlap, Maimonides also alerts us to the fact that Moses refers to the Israelites as rebels. And the 19^th century figure (1823-1900), Rabbenu Zadok of Lublin, prefigured Freud in his understanding of the rock incident. His interpretation of the striking of the rock sounds almost like a Freudian interpretation of a dream in which objects can symbolize people: G-d instructs Moses to speak to the people; Moses sees the people as a hard, stiff-necked rock, which is why he strikes the rock because in his mind Moses has created an identity between a stubborn nation and a ‘stubborn’ rock. Thus he’s not just striking a rock to produce water, but striking a nation out of anger.

A leader of Israel must love his nation; he will then empower them with his love to improve and ultimately redeem. Striking the rock instead of talking to it is not simply a curious variation of heeding G-d’s command, in the end producing the same results –water for a thirsty people. Rather it marks the perfectly understandable deterioration of what had once been Moses’ total and inexhaustible love for his people. Not being allowed to enter the land is less of a punishment and more of an indication of the kind of love required for the final effort of bringing the nation to the promised land. Only a leader with empowering love could do that. And this is why Moses must step aside, and remain behind, as the mantles of love (and leadership) are passed down to Joshua.  

Shabbat Shalom

Enjoying Rabbi Riskin's Shabbat Shalom commentaries? 

Click to support OHR TORAH STONE Institutions or contact
 parshat_hashavua@ots.org.il to sponsor a shiur in honor or memory of a loved one.