Parshat Beha�alotecha
16 Sivan 5764

June 5, 2004
Daf Yomi: Chulin 134

Guest Author:
Rabbi Chaim Landau

Associate Member, Young Israel Council of Rabbis

 

The story is told in the Talmud Pesachim of how a certain rabbi laid a trap against an a non-Jew who had claimed he had gone to Jerusalem and participated in the eating of the Korban Pesach, and fooled the Jerusalem rabbis into thinking he was Jewish. �Next time you go,� the rabbi told him, �ask for the tail of the offering, it being the most tasty of all the parts.� So the following year, that is what he did, unbeknownst to him that this is the particular section of the animal that is totally burnt on the altar. The Jerusalem rabbis became suspicious about this person, made investigations, found out his duplicitousness, and had him killed. The rabbi who laid the trap was Rabbi Yehuda ben Beseira.

The question that the Tosfos deal with is: why didn�t Rabbi Yehuda himself go directly to the authorities at the appropriate occasions during the year when he would have been expected to have travelled up to Jerusalem, to have this jokester exposed. They respond by teaching that it was because Rabbi Yehuda owned no land in Israel and therefore, he was not obliged to go three times a year to offer sacrifices during the pilgrim festivals. Nor was he obligated to bring a Korban Pesach since he was not in Jerusalem on Pesach eve.

To this answer of the Tosfos, the Mishneh LeMelech asks: �where did Tosfos get this idea that one who owns no land in Israel is not obligated to bring a Passover offering?� The Meshech Chochma answers by referring to our Parshah, chapter 9, verse 14. There are many occasions where the Torah directs a command to include the born Jew and the convert - the "ezrach" and the "ger". But in Behaalotchah there are three occasions where the phrase "ezrach ha'aretz" is found in regards to the Passover sacrifice, from here we learn that you have to be a citizen who owns land in order to bring the korban.

But how does Tosfos know that Rabbi Yehuda ben Beseira owned no land in Israel? The Vilna Gaon responds by noting a disagreement in the gemara of Sanhedrin 92 as to whether the dry bones witnessed by the prophet Ezekiel that came back to life were real or imagined. Rabbi Yehuda ben Beseira states that this was a real event, and that these bones returned to human form and married, and that he, the rabbi, was one of the descendants of these marriages. Who were these dry bones? From where had they originally come? The Vilna Gaon answers that they were from the tribe of Ephraim who, because they tried to leave Egypt before their time, they were wiped out and thus they never came to Israel to settle and own land. Thus from this story we are informed that Rabbi Yehuda was descended from a portion of the people who never made it into Israel. And that is why he did not have land and therefore had no particular command to go to Jerusalem to bring sacrifices.
Now, as an aside, if you have to be a permanent owner of land in Israel to bring a Passover offering, how is it that a Ger (convert), who owns no such land, remains under this obligation? Verse 14 states, �if a Ger sojourns with you and makes a Passover offering...� not that he should, but that he desires to do so. His act is guided not by command but by a wish to be part of the community.

The difference is stark. The non-Jew who attempted to participate through his duplicitousness receives the most extreme punishment for his act. But the Ger, who out of a simple wish to attach himself to the Jewish people, is supported by the Parshah to bring a Passover sacrifice.

To be a part of the Jewish community, there must be a connection based on goodness and love, untarnished by falsehood and lies that break the parameters of halachah. The paradigm of Ruth, who wished to be a member of the Jewish community, received the total support of the Torah that recognizes there are "strangers" outside of the community who desire a spirituality only fulfilled when involved in a fully committed Jewish life.

We too need to learn not only to love G-d through the mitzvot of bein adam le'makom (between man and G-d), but also to love Him through our mitzvot bein adam le'chaveiro (between man and man). To love each other, overcoming unnecessary disputes and divisions amongst each other, creates a Jewish community sanctified not only by our actions but also by a desire to unite ourselves as one people committed to being the light unto the nations.

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