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THE WEEKLY SIDRA- MASEI
Rabbi Moshe Greebel
Our Rabbanim of blessed memory, often utilized the art of the parable or the allegory, to make matters more understandable. Yet, while we may assume these parables and allegories to be simple illustrations, they are anything but simple, as we shall shortly see from this week’s Sidra, in relation to the forty two journeys and encampments made by the B’nai Yisroel in the Midbar (wilderness) over a forty year period:
“These are the journeys of the B’nai Yisroel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moshe and Aharon.” (Bamidbar 33:1)
Concerning the listing of journeys and encampments mentioned here, the Midrash Bamidbar Rabbah 23-3, and the Midrash Tanchuma, cited by Rashi, offers the following parable:
“It is a parable to a king, whose son was ill, and he (king) took him (son) to a specific location to have him healed. When they journeyed back, his father began to enumerate all the places (they first went through), ‘Here we slept, here we cooled ourselves, here your head ached you.’ So, HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe, ‘Recount to them all the places where they provoked Me.’”
Now, while this parable seems understandable, there is something ‘deliberate’ about the language of ‘Here we slept, here we cooled ourselves, here your head ached you.’ Why indeed, would the Midrashim, the Bamidbar Rabbah and the Tanchuma, utilize this specific literary style? And, what are the Midrashim really teaching us about the listing in the Torah, of the forty two journeys and encampments of the B’nai Yisroel? Consider the following.
Within this list of forty two journeys and encampments, monumental events such as the splitting of the Reed Sea, the descending of Manna, the miracle of Marah (where the water was made drinkable), the giving of the Torah, the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), and other significant occurrences, are skipped over, never made mention of at all. And, in place of these most significant events, we have instead:
“For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which HaShem had struck among them; upon their gods also HaShem executed judgments.” (Bamidbar 33:4)
What exactly has this abstract burial of the first born by the Egyptians, or the executed judgments against Egyptian idolatry to do with journeying and encamping? And, when our list of forty two speaks of the places of the encampments of the B’nai Yisroel, we read:
“And they moved from Aisam, and turned back to Pi Hachiros, which is before Ba’al Tz’phon; and they camped before Migdol.” (ibid. 33:7)
While the end of the Passuk (verse) notifies us that the B’nai Yisroel did camp before Migdol, the beginning of the Passuk has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any camping. Additionally, we see:
“And they departed from before Pi Hachiros, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Aisam, and camped in Marah.” (ibid. 33:8)
When it comes to the other forty one journeys, the Torah is very vague, by never giving us any chronology of how much time each took. Yet, here we are told that they journeyed through the wilderness of Aisam for three days. Why is this journey different? As well, we see:
“And they moved from Marah, and came to Elim; and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and seventy palm trees; and they camped there.” (ibid. 33:9)
What have twelve fountains of water and seventy palm trees to do with any journeying or encamping? Along the same lines, we read:
“And they moved from Alush, and camped in R’fidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.” (ibid. 33:14)
Again, what does ‘No water for the people to drink’ have to do with journeying and encamping? And, when the place of Hawr HawHawr is reached, we see the Torah being involved with the death of Aharon, which as well, has nothing to do with journeying or encamping:
“And Aharon Kohain Gadol (high Kohain) went up to Hawr HawHawr at the commandment of HaShem, and died there, in the fortieth year after the B’nai Yisroel came out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month. And Aharon was a hundred and twenty three years old when he died at Har HaHar.” (ibid. 33:38-39)
Resolving these queries of the list of forty two journeys and encampments, will result in a richer and more meaningful understanding of the language of ‘Here we slept, here we cooled ourselves, here your head ached you’ of our Rabbanim in the original parable. We turn our attentions to the text Mai’Ain Bais HaSho’Aiva by Rav Shimon Schwab of blessed memory (1908- 1993).
Based on the above Midrash, began Rav Shimon, of ‘Recount to them all the places where they provoked Me,’ the purpose of the list of forty two is certainly not to recount every incident of those forty years, but rather, only those specific journeys and encampments wherein particular events should have ennobled the B’nai Yisroel in their love and awe for HaShem. Yet, regrettably, the B’nai Yisroel did not rise to the occasion.
This is what is meant by the language of ‘Here we slept’ in the above Midrashim. The Egyptians, were always very meticulous in embalming their dead, according to the dictates of their idolatry. However, after the incredible Makkos (plagues) and other countless miracles performed by HaShem, the Egyptians gave up on their idolatry by forgoing embalming for burial:
“For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which HaShem had struck among them…..”
The rest of the Passuk illustrates the condition of their idolatry after the Egyptians forsook it:
“…..Upon their gods also HaShem executed judgments.”
Now, the Egyptians abandoning their idolatry is certainly a major miracle, never even imagined prior, which should have caused the B’nai Yisroel to love and fear HaShem to an even greater extent. Yet, the parable states, ‘Here we slept.’ And so, the list of forty two reminds us of the failure of the B’nai Yisroel to have been overwhelmed by the strength of HaShem.
The parable, went on Rav Shimon, continues with ‘Here we cooled ourselves,’ which speaks of when the B’nai Yisroel camped across from Ba’al Tz’phon. This Ba’al Tz’phon was the last standing Egyptian Idolatry, after all the others were destroyed (see Rashi Sh’mos 14:2), a fact which should have overwhelmed and awed the B’nai Yisroel, resulting in even more love and fear for HaShem:
“…..Upon their gods also HaShem executed judgments.”
Yet, ‘Here we cooled ourselves.’ The B’nai Yisroel unfortunately, were not astounded by the greatness of HaShem, but, were rather cool to it instead.
As well, continued Rav Shimon, the list of forty two makes known to us that after only a three day march from the Reed Sea, instead of still being astonished at the miracles that occurred at the Reed Sea, the B’nai Yisroel were already complaining in Marah, about the bitter water:
“And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore its name was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moshe saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (Sh’mos 15:23-24)
Instead of being astonished at the miracles of the Manna, taught Rav Shimon, they soon grumbled over the lack of water again in R’fidim:
“Therefore the people complained to Moshe, and said, ‘Give us water that we may drink…..Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?’” (ibid. 17:2-3)
In essence, reasoned Rav Shimon, ‘There we cooled ourselves’ of the parable denotes a coldness, a disinterest, and inability of the B’nai Yisroel to be awed by the miracles of HaShem. And, as to the significance of twelve fountains and seventy palm trees:
“And they moved from Marah, and came to Elim; and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and seventy palm trees; and they camped there.” (ibid. 33:9)
Rav Shimon instructed that according to the M’chilta cited by Rashi (Sh’mos 15:27), the twelve fountains symbolized the twelve tribes of the B’nai Yisroel, and the seventy palm trees were the seventy elders. The Torah however, writes of them all with the very vague words ‘And they camped there,’ to illustrate to us that even though the heads of the twelve tribes and the entire seventy judge Sanhedrin (high court) were with the B’nai Yisroel, they all nonchalantly went about the business of camping, without very much consideration of the miracles that HaShem wrought for them.
The concluding language of the Midrashim of ‘Here your head ached you,’ taught Rav Shimon, is a reference to the loss of the ‘heads’ of the B’nai Yisroel. For, shortly after the passing of Aharon, the B’nai Yisroel stood at Har N’vo (Mount Nebo), which would be the eventual burial site of Moshe Rabbeinu.
And here, thanks to Rav Shimon, we discover the profundity and depth of what might, at first glance, have appeared as a simple parable. It is instead, as Shlomo HaMelech put it:
“To understand a proverb, and a figure; the words of the wise, and their riddles.” (Mishlei 1:6)
May we soon see the G’ulah Sh’laimah in its complete resplendency- and in our times. Good Shabbos.
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