MOSES MADE A COPPER SNAKE AND PUT IT ON A POLE, AND WHENEVER A SNAKE BIT A MAN, HE WOULD GAZE UPON THE COPPER SNAKE AND LIVE.

(Bamidbar 21:9)

 

AND IT WAS IN THE THIRD YEAR OF HOSHEA THE SON OF ELAH, THE KING OF ISRAEL, THAT HEZEKIAH THE SON OF AHAZ THE KING OF JUDAH, BECAME KING...

AND HE DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD, LIKE ALL THAT HIS FATHER DAVID HAD DONE.

HE ABOLISHED THE HIGH PLACES, AND SMASHED THE MONUMENTS, AND CUT DOWN THE ASHERAH, AND CRUSHED THE COPPER SERPENT THAT MOSES HAD MADE, FOR UNTIL THOSE DAYS THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE BURNING INCENSE TO IT; AND HE CALLED IT NEHUSHTAN.

(II Kings 18:1,3,4)

 

for until those days the children of Israel were burning incense to it - From the time that the kings of Judah became wicked and Israel erred in pursuing idolatry until the days of Hezekiah's reign, the Israelites would offer incense to it. Having found it written that he who looks upon it would live, they thought it could serve well as an intermediary [between humans and God] and that they should worship it. It was kept from Moses' day as a memorial to the miracle, as had been done with the jar of manna. Asa and Yehoshafat did not destroy it when they destroyed the other objects of idolatry because during their reigns they did not find it being worshipped and being offered incense. They left it as a memorial to the miracle. However, Hezekiah saw fit to destroy it when he destroyed the idols because it was being worshipped as an idol in his father's day. Even though the good people used it to commemorate the miracle, he said: "Better that it be destroyed and the miracle forgotten than to leave it so that the Israelites will err after it today or tomorrow."

(ReDaK ad loc)

 

Make a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shall recover (Bamidbar. 21: 8). Could it be that the snake kills or the snake revives? Rather, when Israel gaze upwards and subjugated their hearts to their Father in Heaven they would be healed, and if not, they would waste away.

(Mishnah Rosh HaShana 3:8)

 

"Could it be that the snake kills... Could it be that Moses' hands make war?"

Pinchas Leiser

The Mishnah (Rosh HaShana 3:8) connects "Moses' hands" in the story of Joshua's battle against Amalek (Shemot 17:11) with the "Copper Snake" and a halakha regarding the blowing of the shofar:

Could it be that Moses' hands make war or break war? Rather [the verse's intention is] to tell you that when Israel gazed upwards and subjugated their hearts to their Father in Heaven they would prevail, and if not they would fall. Similarly, you say, Make a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shall recover (Bamidbar 21: 8). Could it be that the snake kills or the snake revives? Rather, when Israel gazed upwards and subjugated their hearts to their Father in Heaven they would be healed, and if not, they would waste away.

A deaf person, a fool, or a minor cannot serve as a proxy to help others fulfil an obligation [such as blowing the shofar for them]. This is the rule: Anyone who is not obligated to do some thing cannot help others fulfil that obligation.

In the 48^th issue of Shabbat Shalom (Rosh HaShana 5759) we dealt with the connection between the mishnayot dealing with the kavana ["state of intention"] associated with the commandment of shofar and the aggadic section of this mishnah, which, according to the Meiri, also relates to the importance of proper kavana. There we wrote:

It may be that the halakhic principle that appears at the conclusion of the mishnah - "Anyone who is not obligated to do some thing cannot help others fulfil that obligation" - lends us a key for understanding the significance of this connection. That is to say; it is the shaliah tzibbur's ["emissary of the community's"] own ability to take personal obligation upon himself that allows for the creation of a covenant between him and the community that empowers him to "fulfill" the community's obligation, to act in its name and as its representative in the performance of the commandment. This is linked, on the one hand, to "intention of the heart" which requires consciousness of liberation and redemption alongside consciousness of the moral and spiritual significance of that liberation. On the other hand, it is linked to the objective and subjective ability of the person in question to communicate with the community and to be thought of by the community as bearing proper kavana.

It is perhaps possible in this connotation to understands the halakha that does not allow "A deaf person, a fool, or a minor" (at least as matters were undertood in the Sages' days - the concept of deafness has changed through the years, causing halakhic decisors to rethink the halakhic status of the deaf) to take the obligation upon themselves with full intention of the heart and to serve as shlihei tzibbur for the performance of the commandment of shofar. RaMBaM states that the commandment of shofar requires special kavana: "One does not fulfil one's obligation unless both the one who hears and the one who is heard have proper intention" (Hilkhot Shofar 2:4). That is to say: there is a need for maximal ability to have awareness, intention, and effective communication that allows the community to depend upon the shaliah tzibbur it has appointed to perform his commission faithfully and for the shaliah tzibbur to know that the community is with him.

Like Moses' hands and the copper snake, the sound of the shofar possesses no magical powers. The sound of the shofar is, in itself, neutral and meaningless. It gains its significance from those who perform the commandment - both those who hear the shofar and he who blows it.

I think that we can learn quite a bit from this wonderful mix of halakhah and aggadah arranged by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi when he compiled this mishnah.

In the Book of Kings we read of how King Hezekiah destroyed the copper snake because the people began worshiping it.

The Sages (in a braita appearing in Berakhot 10b and various other locations) praise Hezekiah for three of his deeds and criticize him for having performed three other deeds:

Our Rabbis Taught: King Hezekiah did six things; of three of them they [the Rabbis] approved and of three they did not approve. Of three they approved: he hid away the Book of Cures, and they approved of it; he broke into pieces the copper snake, and they approved of it; and he dragged the bones of his father [to the grave] on a bed of ropes, and they approved of it. Of three they did not approve: He stopped up the waters of Gihon, and they did not approve of it; he cut off [the gold] from the doors of the Temple and sent it to the King of Assyria, and they did not approve of it; and he intercalated the month of Nisan during Nisan, and they did not approve of it. (following Soncino translation)

A common denominator may be found among Hezekiah's three praiseworthy deeds:

His father Ahaz was an idolator: he passed his son through fire in the abominable manner of the nations (II Kings 16:3) and he slaughtered sacrifices and burnt incense on the high places (16:4). That made it important for Hezekiah to announce his dissociation from his father's idolaterous tradition and connect up with his father David.

Similarly, he battled against the people's "idolatrous" attitude towards the Book of Cures and the copper snake and destroyed those idols as well.

In Sanhedrin 98b we find R. Hillel's opinion: "Israel has no Messiah, for they have already used him up in the days of Hezekiah." Even if this dictum does not reflect the common wisdom of the Sages regarding the Messianic Era, it certainly expresses the feeling that the days of Hezekiah's reign possessed a messianic potential.

Hezekiah's iconoclastic activities remind us of how Moses broke the Tablets, a deed which also earned the Sages' approbation: "Which you broke - more power to you for having broken them!" (Shabbat 87a and other locations). In his commentary, Meshekh Hokhkma, R. Meir Simkha of Dvinsk expands upon the topics of holiness and the shattering of the Tablets:

The point is that the Torah and faith are what is essential for the Israelite nation. All of the types of holiness, [that of] the Land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple, they are but details and branches of the Torah, and they are sanctified through the Torah's holiness. Therefore, there is no distinction between different places in regard to matters of the Torah, and it is the same both within and without the Land of Israel, except for those commandments whose observance is conditional upon residence in the Land....

Do not imagine, God forbid, that the Temple and the Tabernacle are intrinsically holy objects! God dwells among His sons, and if they, to a man, have transgressed the Covenant (Hosea 6:7), all holiness is removed from them, and they become like profane vessels "intruders came and desecrated it." Titus entered the Holy of Holies with a prostitute and was not harmed (Gittin 56b) because its holiness had been removed. More than that - the Tablets - God's handwriting - are not holy in themselves, but only for you. When the bride fornicated under her canopy [i.e., the Israelites committed the sin of the golden calf], they [the Tablets] became as mere pottery shards - they lacked any intrinsic holiness - they are only [holy] for you when you observe [that which is written on] them. The conclusion is that there is nothing in the world to which holiness can be attributed and which can be an object of worship and submission, except the Holy One blessed be He, Who is holy in His necessary existence, and to whom praise and worship is befitting. (Meshekh Hokhma Shemot 32:19)

Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who often quoted the Meshekh Hokhma and identified with it wrote (Sheva Shanim Shel Sihot al Parashiyot HaShavu'a, pg. 709):

It is clear to all of us that if there was ever an object in the world that deserved to be called holy, the term should have been applied to the copper snake that Moses made following God's instruction. However, with the goal of following the command you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, King Hezekiah did not hesitate to destroy it, since it had become a stumbling block for Israel, becoming a ritual item to which they offered incense.

Concluding his treatment of this topic, he wrote:

Due to the historical associations connected with these stones [the stones of the Western Wall] we have become witnesses to how they have become, in the eyes of people who think of themselves as "believers and the children of believers" a kind of mail-box for the delivery of messages and requests to the blessed Lord. However, it must be emphasized that from the moment those stones become objects of holiness, it all becomes the very opposite of holiness. It might be said that in this instance the Torah has again failed to uproot these idolatrous concepts and practices which have settled deep within them from the hearts and minds of believing Jews who have accepted the Torah.

During his lifetime, Yeshayahu Leibowitz awakened the anger of many against him, since he never hesitated to express his opinions even when he found himself in a minority within the national-religious community and within Israeli society following the Six Day War. However, it seems to me that his consistent and radical approach to the issue of holiness and its opposite, following the Meshekh Hokhma, demands our serious consideration. True, it is undeniable that we must develop a respectful attitude towards tashmishei kedusha ["holy objects"] such as Torah scrolls, mezuzot, tefillin, holy books and the like.

However, there is a difference between the obligatory attitude towards such tashmishei kedusha, which define our commitment to observing the word of God and the turning of stones, trees, graves, and land into "fetishes."

The interpretation of the Sages, RaMBaM and others of the Song of Songs makes use of its erotic imagery between man and woman - seen as the "Holy of Holies" - to illustrate the loving relationship between a person or people and their God.

We distinguish genuine love, which involves complexity, deepening of connection and interpersonal awareness from "fetishism" that seeks short-lived, egoistic, and immediate gratification stemming from stimulation by a partial object.

Sometimes, when the other or part of the other is grasped as an object for the gratification of needs, violent expressions of this perversion may appear. In such cases, the other is not a "subject" but rather an object, a thing. Unfortunately, there is no need to illustrate these matters in our own day, when every news broadcast and daily newspaper includes accounts of sexual exploitation or other forms of abuse.

Perhaps there is room to recall the words of the Meshekh Hohkma and to study the Song of Songs in detail and to internalize the fact that even if we as individuals, as a society, and as a people want to aspire to the love of God, the love of Israel, the love of the Land, the love of Torah and the love of humanity, we must learn to distinguish idolatrous fetishism and other perversions from true love.

Pinchas Leiser, the editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist

 

And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: the Torah Requires Humility

 

What is the purport of the Scriptural text, And from the wilderness to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamot, and from Bamot to the valley (Bamidbar 21)? "If," the other replied, "a man allows himself to be treated as the wilderness upon which everybody treads, the Torah will be given to him as a gift [Mattanah = "gift"]. And so soon as it is given to him as a gift, he will become the inheritance of God as it says, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel [Nahaliel = nahalei El = "inheritance of God"]. And as soon as he is the inheritance of God he rises to greatness, since it says, and from Nahaliel to Bamot [Bamot = "high places"]. But if he is haughty, the Holy One blessed be He, humbles him, as it says, and from Bamot to the valley. If, however, he repents, the Holy One blessed be raises him, as it says, Every valley shall be lifted up (Isaiah 40).

(Eruvin 54a, Soncino translation).

 

Our Rabbis have taught: A man should always be as gentle as the reed and never unyielding as the cedar. Once R. Elazar ben Shimon was coming from Migdal Gedor, from the house of his teacher, and he was riding leisurely on his ass by the riverside and was feeling happy and elated because he had studied much Torah. There he happened to meet an exceedingly ugly man who greeted him, "Peace be upon you, Sir." He, however, did not return his salutation but instead said to him, "Empty-one, how ugly you are. Are all your fellow citizens as ugly as you are?" The man replied: "I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman who made me, ‘How ugly is the vessel which you have made!'" When R. Elazar realized that he had done wrong he dismounted from the ass and prostrated himself before the man and said to him, "I submit myself to you, forgive me." The man replied: "I will not forgive you until you go to the craftsman who made me and say to Him: ‘How ugly is the vessel which You have made.'" He [R. Elazar] walked behind him until he reached his native city. When his fellow citizens came out to meet him greeting him with the words, "Peace be upon you O teacher, O Master," the man asked them, "Who are you addressing thus?" They replied, "The man who is walking behind you." Thereupon he exclaimed: "If this man is a teacher, may there not be any more like him in Israel!" The people then asked him: "Why?" He replied: "Such and such a thing has he done to me." They said to him: "Nevertheless, forgive him, for he is a man greatly learned in the Torah." The man replied: "For your sakes I will forgive him, but only on the condition that he does not act in the same manner in the future." Soon after this R. Elazar ben R. Shimon entered [the house of learning] and expounded thus, "A man should always be gentle as the reed and never be unyielding as the cedar. And for this reason the reed merited that of it should be made a pen for writing Torah scrolls, Tefillin, and Mezuzot."

(Ta'anit 71a-b, following Soncino translation)

 

Let me pass through your land -Even though they had not been commanded to offer peace, they asked for peace.

(Rashi, Bamidbar 21:22)

 

Let me pass through your land -They did not say please let us pass (Bamidbar 20:17) as they did to the king of Edom, for here they did not come to make a request but rather to announce that it was necessary. They told him because if he so wished they would not fight him, for Moses did not want to conquer Transjordan first [before conquering Canaan], since it says in Sifrei parashat Eikev that God was angry with David for having captured Syria before [capturing] the Land of Israel, and also because of a secret reason: that it caused great evil for a later generation.

(The NeTziV MiVolozhin's HaAmek Davar on Bamidbar 21:22)

 

The Heritage of Jacob; the Heritage of Esau: Of What are We Proud?

It says about Moses: We cried to the Lord and he heard out voice (Bamidbar 20:16). [Edom] said to [the Israelites]: You are proud that your father bequeathed to you the voice is the voice of Jacob and He heard our voice, while we are proud of what our father bequeathed to us: By your sword you shall live as it says And Edom said to him, you shall not pass through our territory, lest I come out with a sword against you (Bamidbar 20:18).

(Yalkut Shimoni Isaiah 41)

 

It is written in Bamidbar (21:21) And Israel sent messengers to Sihon. It is written elsewhere, in parashat Devarim (2:26) And I sent messengers... to Sihon. Based on these two verses, our sages said that two messages were written: one by Moses for peace, and one by Israel for war.

(Hizkuni Bamidbar 21:21).

 

When a person dies in a tent

You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend [and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin]: He said before him, "Lord of the world, why should I die? Is it not better for people to say, ‘Moses is good,' because of what they have personally seen, than that they should say, ‘Moses is good,' based on what they have heard? Is it not better that people should say, ‘This is that very same Moses, who brought us out of Egypt, split the sea for us, brought down the manna for us, did wonders and acts of might for us,' than that they should say, ‘Such and so is what Moses was, such and so is what Moses did'?"

He said to him, "Go your way, Moses, it is a decree of mine that applies to every mortal." For it is said, This is the Torah that applies to a mortal; when a person dies in a tent (Bamidbar 19:14). And further, This is the Torah of a mortal, O Lord God (2 Samuel 7:19).

The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Lord of the world, why did the first man die?"

He said to them, "Because he did not carry out My orders."

They said to Him, "Lo, Moses did carry out Your orders."

He said to them, "It is a decree of Mine that applies to every mortal." For it is said, This is the Torah that applies to a mortal; when a person dies in a tent.

(Sifrei Ha'azinu 339, Neusner translation)

 

 

 

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