Rabbi Weiss – We Have the Secret

THANKS TO THE TORAH, WE HAVE THE SECRET TO A SUCCESSFUL SOCIETY. DON’T LET OUR ENEMIES RUIN IT AND DESTROY US!

BS”D

Looking at the parshiyos of Balak and Pinchas, there is a stark contrast. First, Bilam the Rasha sings the praises of Klal Yisrael, highlighting the secret to our success – our scrupulous adherence to the Torah laws of morality in marital matters. Immediately afterwards, when Bilam advises Balak how to trip us up, this purity becomes grievously tainted, resulting in a tremendous loss of life.

The tragedy is heartbreaking. Bilam’s cunning, cruel counsel to Balak – to trick the Jews into sinning with foreign women in order to bring about their downfall – succeeded, although not on the scale he hoped for. Many more Jews died as a result of the lack of moral purity, than from the sin of the Golden Calf. The numbers are mind-boggling - 24,000 members of our Nation were lost because of the sin of Baal Pe’or, in comparison to 3,000 who died because they had worshipped the aigel.

I challenge anyone to read these parshiyos with Rav Hirsch’s commentary, written in the 1800’s, and not see the exact parallels to our situation in the world today. Will there be another Pinchas to save Klal Yisrael now?

In Bamidbar 24:2, at what was Bilam’s third try to find an opening to curse our Nation at Rosh HaPe’or, he gives up when he sees us camped according to our tribes, grouped by households and families – signifying absolute moral purity. This is when Bilam uttered the famous words “Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov.”

וַיִּשָּׂא בִלְעָם אֶת־עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל שֹׁכֵן לִשְׁבָטָיו וַתְּהִי עָלָיו רוּחַ ה׳

Rav Hirsch explains:

“Balak’s question to Bilam was “What view do you have of this nation from the vantage point of the Peak of Pe’or? What is its attitude toward modesty and morality in (marital) relations?” The camp “according to its tribes” that he now beholds, the “tents of Yaakov,” the “dwelling places of Yisrael” that make it possible for every child to know who his father is, the fact that households, families, and tribes are grouped according to paternal descent… these are the criteria by which the (marital) morality of this people could be judged.״

כִּנְחָלִים נִטָּיוּ כְּגַנֹּת עֲלֵי נָהָר כַּאֲהָלִים נָטַע ה׳ כַּאֲרָזִים עֲלֵי־מָיִם

(24:6)

“… The homes of Israel’s families… are like brooks that carry the blessings of abundance, and like gardens that are themselves richly blessed. Like a brook, each household and each family branch causes the blessings of material prosperity and spiritual and moral welfare to descend upon every future generation.”

יִזַּל־מַיִם מִדָּלְיָו וְזַרְעוֹ בְּמַיִם רַבִּים וְיָרֹם מֵאֲגַג מַלְכּוֹ וְתִנַּשֵּׂא מַלְכֻתוֹ

(24:7)

“… The secret that confers the character of “goodness” upon the tents and dwelling places of Jacob-Israel and that makes all the life unfolding within them such a “garden of mankind,” bestowing blessings upon others and itself blessed in turn, lies precisely in the morality of this people. It lies in the complete sanctity and hallowing of family and (marital) life, which, immune to every taint of vulgarity symbolized by Pe’or, regards the strength inherent in man’s seed as most intimately linked with G-d and sacred to Him alone. According to this view, every human seed can be sown and planted only by G-d and only in accordance with His directions, at the wellsprings of His Teaching and His Law, to glorify Him and implement His will on earth…. It is precisely from this morality in the most intimate aspects of (marital life) that that the people of Israel derives its triumphant strength and invincibility against every foe from without..”

אֵל מוֹצִיאוֹ מִמִּצְרַיִם כְּתוֹעֲפֹת רְאֵם לוֹ יֹאכַל גּוֹיִם צָרָיו וְעַצְמֹתֵיהֶם יְגָרֵם וְחִצָּיו יִמְחָץ

(24:8)

“This (marital) morality, this freedom from gilui arayos and from all the lewdness symbolized by Pe’or, represented the hereditary patent of nobility held by all the sons and daughters of Israel even in Egypt. … Indeed, it is repeatedly pointed out in the chapter on arayos (Vayikra 18) that the inhabitants of Canaan were doomed by G-d because of their excesses of immorality.”

This holiness – the lack among us of any relationships forbidden by the Torah – that Bilam saw was, he knew, the key to our Nation’s phenomenal, blessed success. And he wanted to destroy that – in order to destroy US.

So then, upon his eitza to Balak…

וַיֵּשֶׁב יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּשִּׁטִּים וַיָּחֶל הָעָם לִזְנוֹת אֶל־בְּנוֹת מוֹאָב

(25:1)

Rav Hirsch:

“Neither the sword nor the curse of a foe from without can cause Israel’s downfall. Only Israel can bring destruction upon itself by defecting from G-d and His Law..”

Where were the people of conscience as the horrific violations of the Torah were occurring? Tragically, nobody stood up for Hashem (until later, when Zimri took Kozbi, and Pinchas sprang into action.) Hashem commanded us to be a Nation who sees something and SAYS something – and now, we failed. That was a cause for Hashem’s great anger towards the People.

As Rav Hirsch elucidates:

“… under Jewish law the entire nation acts as the prosecutor through its male members who are legally of age. When an individual is about to commit a crime, two men from among the people must warn him, informing him of what law he would violate and to what punishment he would be liable. If, despite the warnings, he commits the crime, these same two men who warned him must apprehend him, produce him physically before the judges and, in the name of the Law, demand that he receive the punishment due him….

“Now in this widespread open defection from the Law, no men from among the people intervened to warn the criminals of the authority of the Law and, after the deed had been done, no men intervened to seize the guilty parties and bring them before their lawful judges, to put a stop to these outrages. Therefore, everyone who stood idly while these acts were committed became an accessory to the crime, and so the entire nation was responsible for what had happened. For this reason we are told “and the anger of G-d was stirred against Yisrael.”

When Zimri defiantly, publicly, took Kozbi – and then Pinchas saved Klal Yisrael from destruction, as Hashem testified, by his extremely brave action “b’kan’o es kin’asi,” Hashem gave Pinchas a great reward, “es brisi shalom,” His “covenant of peace.”

פִּינְחָס בֶּן־אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן־אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן הֵשִׁיב אֶת־חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת־קִנְאָתִי בְּתוֹכָם וְלֹא־כִלִּיתִי אֶת־בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקִנְאָתִי

(25:11)

Rav Hirsch explains how “peace” is actually a result of what the enemies of Hashem would call “disturbances of the peace.”

“… There can be true peace among men only if all men are at peace with G-d. Hence anyone who wages war on the enemies of what is good and true in the eyes of G-d is a champion of the bris shalom on earth even while he is engaged in war. Conversely, one who, for the sake of what he considers to be the preservation of peace with his fellow men, cedes the field without protest to individuals who are truly in conflict with G-d, actually makes common cause with the enemies of the bris shalom on earth.”

What saved the people was not the passivity of the masses – but Pinchas’s brave act, which restored them to peace with Hashem and the Torah.

It is absolutely amazing to see how ONE PERSON standing up for Hashem can save all of Klal Yisrael.

In fact, we also have other instances of a lone individual’s brave actions spelling all the difference for our Nation. Mordechai Hatzaddik and Mattisyahu are clear examples.

I want to conclude with Rav Hirsch’s remarks concerning the war against Midyan which Hashem commanded Moshe Rabeinu in Parshas Matos. He explains that the purpose of the war was to effect Klal Yisrael’s spiritual and moral liberation from the effects of Midian’s plots.

וַיְדַבֵּר מֹשֶׁה אֶל־הָעָם לֵאמֹר הֵחָלְצוּ מֵאִתְּכֶם אֲנָשִׁים לַצָּבָא וְיִהְיוּ עַל־מִדְיָן לָתֵת נִקְמַת־ה׳ בְּמִדְיָן

(31:3)

“Israel’s true enemy is not the one who seeks its physical destruction but the one who plots its moral and spiritual demise… any disturbance of Israel’s moral and spiritual integrity tears the people away from G-d. That is why He himself now sends them forth to work His retribution on Midian. By its policy of corrupting other nations, Midian has been guilty of the gravest international crime and has therefore lost its right to exist as a nation among other nations before G-d.”

History repeats itself today.

Rav Hirsch points out that the “theories of evolution” are the modern form of worship of the Pe’or cult. Since they define man as a “highly developed animal,” ignoring his neshama, they promote the idea that he is entitled to devote his life to satisfying his animal instincts.

A person has to be blind to not realize that Klal Yisrael is again being seduced into losing our moral purity, for the sake of our destruction, chas veshalom.

Hashem has made it perfectly clear to us in these parshiyos what follows a breach in arayos. Will we wake up in time to throw JQY and all the other purveyors of death into the garbage bins they belong in – before they bring a holocaust upon us, Heaven forbid?

(Quotes from Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch zatzal taken from The Pentateuch by The Judaica Press.)

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