THE WHOLE COMMUNITY BROKE OUT INTO LOUD CRIES, AND THE PEOPLE WEPT THAT NIGHT. ALL THE ISRAELITES RAILED AGAINST MOSES AND AARON. "IF ONLY WE HAD DIED IN THE LAND OF EGYPT,"THE WHOLE COMMUNITY SHOUTED AT THEM, "OR IF ONLY WE MIGHT DIE IN THS WILDERNESS! WHY IS THE LORD TAKING US TO THAT LAND TO FALL BY THE SWORD? OUR WIVES AND CHILDREN WILL BE CARRIED OFF! IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR US TO GO BACK TO EGYPT!

(Bamidbar 14:1-3)

 

She weeps, weeps in the night (Lamentations 1:2) - Why does she weep twice? Ravah said that Rabbi Yohanan said: Once for the first Temple, and once for the second Temple. In the night - regarding matters that occurred at night, for it is said, the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night (Bamidbar 12:1).

Ravah said that Rabbi Yohanan said: That night was the night of the 9^th of Av.

God told Israel: You wept needlessly - I will establish [a night of] weeping for you that will last through the generations. Another opinion: [She weeps...] in the night - that any weeping at night induces weeping in those who hear it.

 (Sanhedrin 104b)

 

For if you will not give heed, my soul will weep bamistarim [in a hidden place] (Jeremiah 13:17).

Rabbi Shemuel bar Inyah said in Rav's name: God has a place called mistarim...

But could there be weeping before God? After all, Rav Pappa said: There is no sorrow before God, for it is said: Glory and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His place (I Chronicles 16:27)!

There is no contradiction: This refers to [what happens in] inner dwellings, that refers to outer dwellings...

The Rabbi taught: God weeps for three every day: For he who could study Torah, but does not, for he for whom it is impossible to study Torah yet does, and for the leader who lords over the community.

(Hagigah 5b)

 

 

One Torah and One Law

Nahem Ilan

The expression one Torah appears four times in the Torah: Once in reference to the Pessach sacrifice, where it is said, there will be one Torah for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you (Shemot 12:49); once to mark the priest's equal right to both guilt and sin offerings - the guilt offering and the sin offering - the same Torah applies to both, it shall belong to the priest who makes expiation thereby (Vayikra 7:7); and twice in our parasha, Shelah. First it is said in reference to the stranger's equal standing vis-à-vis the burnt offering, sacrifice, and peace offering - Congregation! There shall be one law for you and for the resident stranger; it shall be a law for all time throughout your generations. You and the stranger shall be alike before the Lord (Bamidbar 25: 15-16). Finally, regarding one who sins by accident, it is written: For the citizens among the Israelites and for the stranger who resides among them - you shall have one Torah for anyone who acts in error (25:29).

The Sages learned various laws from these verses. The great majority of them deal with different sacrifices - I will not touch upon them here. I will also not deal with the contrast between deliberate and accidental sins which they derived from these verses. Instead, let us focus our attention on an aspect that is not particularly associated with the sacrifices, and whose roots go back to the early laws of the Tannaim. The Mekhiltah De-Rabbi Yishmael makes an aside while treating the laws of the Pessah sacrifice:

...I only see the stranger's status begin counted as equal to that of the citizen in connection with the Pessah sacrifice; how is this established for all of the other commandments of the Torah? We learn it from the verse, there will be one Torah for the citizen and for the stranger - here Scripture equates the stranger with citizen regarding all of the commandments of the Torah. (Mekhiltah De-Rabbi Yishmael, Horowitz-Rabin edition, Jerusalem, 5730, Massekhta De-Pascha 15, pg. 57).

This deduction is very important because it expresses how the Tannaim dramatically altered the meaning of the biblical word ger ("stranger"). In Scripture, ger means "stranger," but in the Tannaitic halakhah, a ger is precisely that person who is no longer a stranger. He is one who has fulfilled all of the requirements and has completed the established procedure for joining the Jewish People. This halakhah which was studied in the school of Rabbi Yishmael describes the Jewish community's complete and total acceptance of the ger. This acceptance is expressed by the ger's equal status vis-à-vis the commandments, a status that creates many duties and endows few rights. In short: Rabbi Yishmael contends that the profound equality enjoyed by the various members of the community regarding ritual matters overwhelms in importance differences of class and origin between members.

However, legislation alone cannot shape culture and identity. Law defines the ideal rather than the reality. Along the way it often points out the deviant, the criminal; the one who does not follow the law. May statements found in Talmudic and post-Talmudic literature demonstrate that it was difficult for the public to abide by this law; in practice, the ger was often not related to as an equal. Even when the letter of the law was preserved, it was hard to obey its spirit, many times too hard to obey. I will mention just one example, which to my eyes is a literary and moral gem; RaMBaM's responsum to Rabbi Ovadia the Ger (It may be found in Blau's edition of Tshuvot HaRaMBaM, Jerusalem, 5720, vol 2, pp. 725-8). This responsum shows us how difficult it was for Rabbi Ovadia's rabbi to relate to him as an intelligent and literate person, eventually provoking the RaMBaM's critical comments.

Let us attend to an additional literary expression, one which lends meaning to our parasha's inner structure. The transition from the narrative of chapter 14 to the laws of chapter 15 is not self-explanatory, and it invites comment. In the course of discussing the role of God's mercy in His treatment of Israel, Seder Eiyahu Rabba says the following:

...At that very hour [in which the people grieved over their disaffection Bamidbar 14:39) God told him: Moses, go and comfort those poor people, they have lost heart.

He said to Him: Master of the Universe, how shall I comfort them?

He said to him: Go comfort them with words of Torah - When you enter the land in which you shall settle...and you present a burnt offering to the Lord... the person who presents the offering to the Lord shall bring, etc. (15: 2-3).

At that very hour there was a dispute between Israel and the gerim.

God said to Moses: Why do these disagree argue with each other?

He said to Him: Master of the Universe, You know!

He said to him: Did I not say, Congregation! There shall be one law for you and for the ger, etc. There shall be one Torah [and one law, etc.] (15:2-4).

From here they said: There are three kinds of gerim... (Seder Eliyahu Rabba, Ish Shalom edition, Jerusalem 5729, pg. 146)

What is this colorful drasha saying? Firstly, it utilizes a psychological method which deals with times of stress, depressions, and crisis by drawing the sufferer's attention away from the problem at hand to some other, positive, future-oriented concern, thus allowing the sufferer to regain confidence in his own abilities. This renewal of self-confidence allows the sufferer to function properly, live a better life, and overcome his crisis.

Secondly, the darshan extends the compass of the exegetical connection between chapters fourteen and fifteen all the way to the end of the passage involving a burnt offering of pleasant odor (15:14), claiming that even its final verse is of relevance to the story of the spies. In other words: In answer to the challenge of connecting the story of the spies with the equality of status between natives and gerim the darshan employs the narrative appendage, "At that very hour there was a dispute between Israel and the gerim" in order to forward an additional psychological claim. To his mind, crises are accompanied by a shut-down of self-criticism and an inability to take responsibility. The natural inclination in such circumstances is to transfer responsibility - indeed to transfer blame - to someone else, especially if that someone else is the "other." Scripture's ultimate "other" is the ger qua stranger, whether he remains a stranger, or merely was a stranger in the past. According to this drasha, the verse from chapter fifteen is intended to confront the false charge that the unfortunate outcome of the episode of the spies is the fault of the "other." One may hear a hidden claim in the darshan's words, according to which if the ger is a citizen, one may read the equation backwards as stating that every citizen is a ger, at least potentially. These notions are not only appropriate to the search for guilty parties in that ancient crisis - they have wider application, extending beyond time and place of that particular concrete incident.

In every "citizen" lurks something which, in certain circumstances, could transform him into a ger, into an "other." The fundamental equality afforded by scripture to the ger's status is a noble challenge, which is always and everywhere difficult to meet, especially in times of crisis.

The passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael and Seder Eliyahu Rabbah describe ideals rather than reality. The Mekhilta demands that we develop a religious consciousness that does not emphasize one's pedigree or societal status, but rather has us see ourselves standing as gerim before our God. Seder Eliyahu Rabbah describes a flawed world, in which the ger is not seen as the citizen's equal. To his mind, the challenge is for every one of us to be aware of the "otherness" of each of us, while also recognizing the commonalties which allow us to function as a group. The equations ger = the "other," and the awareness that gerut [the state of being a ger] = otherness constitute challenges we face here and today, as well as in the past.

Dr. Nahem Ilan teaches in the department for interdisciplinary Jewish studies in Bar Ilan University and in the Arabic Department in Haifa University.

 

 

Do not Follow Your Hearts: Two Perspectives on Human Nature

Look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord (Bamidbar 15:39): Remember that you are servants of Blessed God, and that you received His commandments with a vow and oath. When you see the tzitzit, which is like a king's seal upon his servants, you will stop following after your hearts' inclination to gain wealth and honor, even through theft.

(Seforno Bamidbar 15:39)

 

Man's soul and its powers were created upright, and the heart naturally tends towards the good. However, man spoils his nature, devising evil in his heart. That is why it could not simply say velo teilkhu aharei levevkhem (do not go after your hearts), but rather velo taturu aharei levavkhem (literally: do not go scouting after your hearts). If one were to walk according to the paths paved by the heart in its original nature, his ways would be good and straight.

 (Malbim on Bamidbar 15:39)

 

On the Torah and "Natural Morality"

Morality in its naturalness, in all of its power and deep majesty, must be established in the soul to serve as the receptive ground for the Torah's great influences. Proper behavior is the prerequisite [for the acceptance of] any part of the Torah. If it [some aspect of the Torah] is a matter to which common sense and natural integrity agree, it must go [into the soul] through the straight path, in accordance with the heart's inclination and in agreement with the pure [good] will imprinted in man. The Torah was given to Israel so that gates of light that are brighter, wider, and holier than any of the gates of light associated with man's natural understanding and with the spirit of natural morality, might be opened for us, and through us, to the entire world.

(HaRAYaH Kook ztz"l, Orot HaTorah 69-71)

 

And if Moses had Sent Women to Scout the Land?

He specifically mentioned [that] men [would be sent to scout the Land] because the Sages said (Yalkut Shimoni Pinhas 5773: 27) that the men hated the Land and [this is evident since the men] said let us make a leader and return to Egypt (Bamidbar 14:4), while the women loved the Land and said, give us a holding (27:4). And so, God said: To my mind, I see from future events that it would be better to send women who love the Land, for they would not speak badly of it. But [God told Moses]: [Send ] yourself [men] - that is, in accordance with your own opinion, for you think that they are fit and that they love the Land. [Go ahead!] send men! That is why [it says] yourself, i.e., according to your opinion, but in My opinion, it would be better to send women.

 (Keli Yakar Bamidbar 13:2)

 

There are Giants and Grasshoppers of Various Types

The fact that there were still remnants of the antediluvian Nephilim living in the Land of Israel could be in accordance with the opinion, given in Zevahim 113a, that the Land of Israel was spared from the flood. Then the Land could have kept some of the original strength of the earth which under a Canaanite people showed itself only in production of bodily greatness. But it could also have made it suitable to be the soil for the People of God, who, by fulfilling the Torah of God, strive to achieve the ideal of spiritual and moral greatness, and who were thereby to begin a Paradise-like rejuvenation of the world. Let us not forget that the Gemarrah teaches us that bodily strength and health form one of the preliminary conditions for the highest spiritual development, and, if we are not entirely deceived, that, which, where the mind lies fallow, begets gigantic bodies; in races which are inclined preferably to mental and spiritual directions can become used up by such activities without the great bodily growth having the benefit of it.

(R. Shimshon Raphael Hirsch on Bamidbar 13:33, Levy translation)

 

 

 

 

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