Matot Portion

Two weeks ago I wrote about the gentile prophet Balaam. I said that we perceive him to be an evil person, but I'm sure that some people can disagree with this and claim that he was actually righteous, because he believed in G-d, and he constantly and repeatedly told King Balak of Moab that he would only say that which G-d puts in his mouth. So far so good - wonderful. But really, if you give this whole episode another look, you realize that something is very wrong with this picture. King Balak wanted to curse the People of Israel to bring a calamity, a disaster upon them. This is a horrible thing. And he tried to get prophet Balaam to help with it - so that he would curse them for him. Balaam should have said right then and there: No! I cannot do so. They didn't do anything to harm you to deserve this. But instead he said: OK, but let me ask G-d first. Can you imagine? If someone would have told you to kill an innocent person - instead of saying 'no', you would ask G-d for permission to do it, and not just once? Again and again and again? To defend Balaam, you can say that he knew G-d wouldn't allow this. If this is the case, then why did he ask Him in the first place, and so many times at that? You can also claim that he didn't have any choice. The mighty King Balak asked him to do it, and it was dangerous for him to disobey him. Wrong again! In the end, when Balaam blessed Israel instead of cursing them, King Balak was not happy, but there was no punishment or revenge to Balaam. They parted peacefully. Balak was king of Moab, and Balaam was from another nation, Midian. So no excuses for Balaam. But if you needed more proof than that to indict Balaam, it comes in this week's Portion.

Do you remember that last week I wrote here that the women of Midian seduced the Israelite men to sin with them, and while doing so - to worship their idol, Peor? This caused thousands and thousands of Israelites to die in a plague, until Pinchas did what he did and stopped the plague. How is this episode related to anything? In this week's Torah Portion we hear that the scheme to make the Israeilte men sin with the Midianite women so that G-d would be angry with us, and punish us as a result - this evil advice came from... Balaam!!! In this week's Torah Portion, in Numbers 32:16, Moses tells the People of Israel about the Midianite women: "Behold, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to revolt so as to be unfaithful to G-d in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck G-d's people". Peor was the Midianite "god", their idol. Do you need any more evidence that Balaam was truly an antisemite who hated G-d's people and wanted to cause them harm? 

The fact that Balaam talked about G-d doesn't make him a righteous person. Senior Nazi officials were talking about G-d all the time. Hitler in his infamous book, "Mein Kamph", talked about G-d quite a lot. In fact, he saw himself as a messenger of G-d to eradicate the inferior parts of humanity (in his view). He said things like: "I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator". "Even today I am not ashamed to say that I fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time". "Anyone who dared to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent Creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise." In Israel we cannot get our hands on this book - it is forbidden to sell, and I believe it is a respectful gesture for the millions, Jews and non-Jews, who lost their lives due to his distorted worldview. But I read the first volume of the book "The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich" and it was abundant with quotes like this from that book. 

Adolf Eichmann also talked about G-d in his trial. I was shocked to read it. How can they be so evil and at the same time talk about G-d? Do they think G-d likes their ways? They committed the most horrendous crimes humanity has ever known, and they talked about G-d in the process of doing so. When I think of this, verses from Psalm 50 come to my mind: "But to the evil person G-d says: 'What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him. You throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother's son. When you did these things, and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now charge you and set my accusations before you." 

The moral of all of this is that people can seem very religious and G-d loving, and talk so much about G-d, but their hearts are not upright and clean. And Balaam was exactly such a person. I'm constantly checking myself to make sure that I don't only talk about this, but actually be this - the cleanest I can be. Not easy, but this is our life's task, to take the weeds out and leave the blossoming flowers in. 

I think of a person who is the exact opposite to that of Balaam: Rabbi Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog, who passed away 60 years ago, and did everything in his power to fulfill G-d's will and help the Jewish people. His Jahrzeit was just recently. He was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland. When the British published their White Paper (a resolution to limit the number of Jews who can immigrate to Israel), he tore it apart and said: "We cannot agree to the White Paper. Just as the prophets did before me, I hereby rip it in two". During WWII, he went to the USA to meet with President Roosevelt and ask him to help the Jews of Europe. He didn't get help from Roosevelt, and was heavily sorry and disappointed. Some people who were there say that his hair turned white as he was leaving the meeting. It shows just how deeply he cared. After the war, Rabbi Herzog went to Europe and together with many other people from Israel tried to bring Jewish children who were hidden in monasteries and local families back to their nation. In some of the monasteries, they met with resistance from the monks and catholic priests who didn't want them to take the children back and didn't tell them who of the children was Jewish. But the Israeli people were very clever. When they got to the monasteries, they cried in Hebrew "Shema Israel..." ("Hear, oh, Israel..."), and suddenly, from all the many orphans present, a few children closed their eyes by putting their fingers on their eyes, and completed the verse aloud "HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem Echad" ("G-d is our L-rd, G-d is One!"). It was almost like a secret password, a Shiboleth, that runs through the Jewish People for generations since time immemorial, and unites us all in one unbreakable chain. This is how they identified the Jewish children and took them back to their nation, to their homeland, to their religion. There were some righteous gentiles who helped the process and did everything they could to help find the kids and return them to their people. Their purpose was to build, whereas Balaam's purpose was to destroy. May we always merit to be among the builders and not among the destroyers, among the Herzogs, and not among the Balaams. 

There is much more to say, we'll leave it to other times. 

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach!

R. 

Pinchas Portion

Tomorrow will be the 50th anniversary of "This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" - the landing and walking of the first man on the moon. What an amazing achievement, something that is so hard to imagine. Until this very day it is simply unbelievable to think that human beings flew to outer space, to discover parts of the universe outside of our planet. How did they do it? How is it possible for a human to do that? It is so amazing.
I sometimes think of the fact that our planet, a huge, immense, indescribably heavy body of material, is floating in space... can you imagine? It sounds so so unbelievable, so hard to grasp! This planet that weighs who knows how much, floats in the space, and does it in a fixed orbit... and not only that, it also turns around itself while doing so. If anyone would have told me that a thousand years ago, I would have burst out laughing. What? No way! Not in a million years! But... it is true. The pictures from outer space show it. And sometimes, when I need perspective on things, when things weigh me down and I need to put things in perspective, I think about this. I realize that we live in a mysterious universe, created by a really, truly omnipotent G-d, who can make huge planets float in space without falling, without crashing, without deviating from their orbit. A G-d that created not just this planet but all the endless number of other planets and stars. A G-d that created our planet with the perfect conditions to sustain life, all kinds of different forms of life, in a perfect way. If our planet would have moved a little too close to the sun, everything here would have burned and died. If it were moving a little too far from the sun, everything here would have been dark and cold. When you look around and see all the myriad forms of life - all the different types of plants and animals: sea creatures, reptiles, mammals, birds, butterflies, etc, you can't help gasping in awe. So much creativity, so much beauty and wisdom and perfection! And when you look inside one species, no one specimen is identical to the next. Think of us, humans. Our faces are so different from each other's. Even identical twins can be told apart by their relatives. We each have our unique finger prints. We each have our unique DNA. Each of us has a different voice, by which we can be recognized. Have you thought once that it is so incredible that there are SO MANY different kinds of human voices in this world? And you can tell by someone's voice so many things about them: their gender, their age (more or less), their current mood, their intentions. And it is not just within one generation. I would doubt that any time in History there was someone with exactly the same voice like mine, or who looked exactly like me, who had the exact DNA that I have. Isn't it amazing? So much creativity - endless! So much wisdom - unfathomable, and endless! How could anyone look at the world, live in this world, and not recognize that there is a Creator to all of this wonderful universe? So in relation to these thoughts, I'd like to share the following:
It is so interesting to see how things happen. I recently felt a deep desire to go deeper in my Torah learning, to penetrate some more mystical layers of commentary and wisdom. I felt a desire to read the book of Zohar, which is an ancient Torah commentary, that reveals a lot of deep secrets about this world and its reality, based on the different layers of the Torah texts. So inside of me I felt like I wish I could learn the Zohar, and then a couple of days later, when I went into my favorite synagogue in the world, the one of the university on Mt. Scopus, I saw there, in the entrance to the synagogue, a Zohar book. It was placed where people usually leave books to give away. I took it in my hand. It wasn't the WHOLE Zohar, just a part of it, but it was interpreted in a way that is easy to understand, even for people with not much background. I started reading it, and I try to read a part of it every Shabbat. It is interesting. I want to continue. I feel that without intending to, I'm also learning Aramaic in the process, because the original text is in this language, and then it is translated to Hebrew.
The Zohar is the main book of the Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism). Our tradition holds that it was written in the 2nd century by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Secular researchers want to think that it was written in the 13th century. Either way, everyone agrees that it was written many hundreds of years ago - before anyone ever thought of establishing NASA, the American space agency, which provided us with satellite pictures from outer space. When you read some of the things that are written there, you are left with a feeling of awe and wonder: 'How did they know these things back then?'. I'll give you an example. The Zohar on the Book of Leviticus (page 10, A) says the following amazing truths on astronomy, at a time and age that humanity didn't possess such knowledge. The following is my translation of it, so don't expect it to be perfect:

"The whole world is turning around in a circle like a ball. Some people live in its bottom, and others live above. And all those who live in the different parts of Earth are different from each other due to the changes of weather, according to the weather that is in every different place. This is why they look different. There are places in which some have day light while the others have night. And there is a place in the world that is always with light without night, except for a very short time". 

If you want to see the original, I'll keep it at the bottom of this post. But - isn't it amazing? Long before Copernicus and Galileo, whether it was in the 2nd century or the 13th century, humanity didn't yet possess this kind of knowledge, and this Zohar book of Torah commentary tells this so explicitly! I'm so impressed!!! What else does this book know that we do not know today? Whatever it is, I would like to know it, so I've started learning. I wish there was more than just one Shabbat a week, so that I could read and study a lot more. I feel so privileged to be able to read it!

And also - the way it happened - I just felt the desire in my heart to study this book - and here it appeared in front of me at a place where they give books away. It was SO amazing! And it is not the first time that something like this happened to me. I wanted to study more about some areas of Jewish Law, and a specific book appeared (in exactly the same place!) just on time. HaShem listens.

We're experiencing a very hot summer here, which makes one want to stay indoors and not go out, and I've started feeling that I just don't move enough, and it is not good. Last Shabbat I took a walk to explore some streets in my neighborhoods and I discovered a street that I wasn't familiar with before. It's a villa street, and it is circular and quiet. I decided to start a walking routine every morning, and have this street as a regular part of my track. It's a big circle, with uphill and downhill parts, and I do it twice every day. To give myself the motivation to do it, especially in this heat, I listen to Torah classes while I walk, and then I feel like I'm not wasting my time on physical things, I actually gain some spiritual gains at the same time. When I need to give myself the motivation to go on a walk, I tell myself that it's time to listen to a Torah class on my smartphone, and so I go.

This week's Torah Portion is that of Pinchas. In last week's Portion, it was told how the Israelites started worshiping the Medianite's foreign god, and this happened because of their sexual promiscuity with the women of Median. A very prominent Israelite person, the prince of the tribe of Shimon, brought a Medianite woman and sinned with her in front of Moses and the whole nation, and in front of the Tent of Meeting. G-d punished us with an epidemic because of these sins. Then Pinchas, grandson of Aaron, took a spear and killed the Jewish prince and the Medianite woman. By doing it, the epidemic stopped and G-d gave him the gift of priesthood. You may ask why a gift of priesthood, isn't he a priest already, just by being Aaron's grandson? The answer is: no. Descendants of Aaron who were born AFTER Aaron was anointed as priest - they and their offsprings are priests, for ever. But Pinchas was born BEFORE Aaron was anointed, and therefore was not a priest. There is a lot to say about this whole episode. But I think the main message here is courage. Courage to be just, even if it is politically incorrect, non popular. Even if everyone around says and does the exact opposite of G-d's will - the courage to stand for what G-d wants. This is very relevant to our day and age. The Torah commands us to keep certain moral laws. But modern society has started fashioning their own laws, calling that which is good 'bad', and that which is bad 'good'. Horrible phenomena of people who do the exact opposite of G-d's will, proudly, without apologizing, and society celebrates them and prides them, and parades them. The cost for society in the long run, in the future, is going to be immense. It affects us in all kinds of different ways and we do not know where it would end. G-d stated His will in the Torah, but these people trample His word with their behavior and parades. He tells them in so many ways that this is wrong - including creating a disease that is specific to this kind of behavior, but they use modern medicine to get over it, to get healed from it, to avoid it. They don't want to listen. I think the whole world is washed with this wave, and it is very regrettable. If you don't agree with this now, you'll be forced to agree with this in the future, when the societal consequences of such behaviors will be evident and apparent to all, when it will be clear that the Torah is truly divine and unchangeable, and that "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17). And Pinchas got a covenant of peace from G-d. None of us should kill, ever. But we should speak against that which is wrong. Not easy to do, but we should, each in our own way. So I did it now, in my own way.
Shabbat Shalom!

This is the original text from the Zohar book - in Aramaic with Hebrew translation in brackets. 

"כל ישובא מתגלגלא בעיגולא כדור (כל העולם כולו מתגלגל בעיגול ככדור). אלין לתתא ואלין לעילא (חלק מבני האדם מתגוררים למטה בתחתית כדור הארץ, וחלק למעלה). וכל אינון בריין משניין בחזווייהו משנויא דאוירא, כפום כל אתר ואתר, וקיימין בקיומייהו כשאר בני נשא (וכל אלו המתגוררים בחלקים השונים של כדור הארץ - שונים אחד מהשני בגלל שינוי מזג האויר, כפי מזג האויר של כל מקום ומקום. לכן תראה אותם שונים). ועל דא אית אתר בישובא כד נהיר לאלין, חשיך לאלין. לאלין יממא, ולאלין לילא (ישנם מקומות שלאלו יש אור ולאלו יש לילה). ואית אתר דכוליה יממא, ולא אישתכח ביה ליליא בר בשעתא חדא עירא (ויש מקום בעולם שמואר תמיד ולא יימצא בו לילה, אלא זמן מועט). 

Balak Portion

This week's Torah Portion is that of Balak (starting in Numbers 22: 2). It tells the story of Balak, King of Moab, who was afraid of the People of Israel and sends the non-Jewish prophet, Balaam, to CURSE the Israelite nation because of this fear! Balaam is considered to be an evil person in our tradition. And why is that? If you read the Portion superficially, he may appear a very good person, perhaps even righteous - he believes in G-d, and he constantly says that he will only say that which G-d will put in his mouth. So why do we view him as evil? Because he wasn't against this cursing - he didn't mind cursing Israel, it was OK with him to do it, and he even agreed to try again and again and again to change G-d's mind about it. But every time he was about to curse, G-d put blessings in his mouth instead, including the verse: Those who curse Israel will be cursed, and those who bless Israel will be blessed. Balak and Balaam tried three different times to curse Israel, but three different times G-d put blessings in Balaam's mouth. 

We learn from this a few things. One, the power of words is so great. Blessing or cursing people is not a mere useless speech. Our speech, according to Jewish tradition and Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism) has power to create reality, to change reality, to build worlds, to destroy worlds. We have to be very minded of the way we use speech. When I was a little girl, I remember thinking to myself that perhaps each person can only say a fixed number of words in life, and if he talks too much and wastes his words, his life will be over sooner than it was supposed to. When I grew up, I found this idea in one of Shai Agnon's books, and it was nice to feel like someone else in this world had this idea too. I no longer think this way, but I am trying to always be very minded of the things I say, and I try not to say much and stay away from gossip and evil speech as much as I can. 

We also learn from this that G-d has His will, and even if it is not compatible with what we want, His will will prevail. I'm sure you have felt it in your life - that you seek G-d's guidance. In certain junctions in life you ask Him whether you should turn right or left. And the answer comes, in G-d's wonderful, mysterious ways - either through a clear feeling in our hearts, or a clear thought in our minds, through a line in a song that plays on the radio or a casual conversation taking place behind us on the bus. We get a clear answer, and we KNOW this is the answer. But if we don't like the answer - if we wanted a different answer, we ask G-d again, hoping He will change His mind and give us a different answer. But He doesn't. And we do this again and again, and He, with His endless patience, keeps sending us guidance, even though we try to have things our own way. 

I find it so strange that Moab, an established nation, was afraid of Israel - a small, physically week, peaceful nation - I remember many years ago, a very special meeting I had when I visited Seoul in South Korea for a couple of weeks. I was staying in a special guest house - the guest house was actually the real home of the landlady and manager. They had many rooms in the house and the guests slept in the rooms. During the day or in the evenings, the guests would meet with each other in the living room, and the landlady would cook and give food to everyone. I remember a few things from that time, but I'll focus here on the one that left a big impression on me. One day, I saw in the living room three men. From their appearance, it seemed like they came from a Muslim country, which of course, made me tense - how will they react when they'll here I'm from Israel. Will they be hostile to me? I tried to avoid them, but they turned to me, asked where I was from and we started talking. They were from Pakistan, and yes, at first they were cold and suspicious, but little by little they warmed up to me and I felt that eventually they even respected and liked me as a person. They asked me if everyone in Israel was like me. I took it to mean that they no longer felt any hostility towards me. Anyway, since it was in a time that was very hard for my country, with buses exploding and coffee shops and restaurants blowing up in the air, I told them frankly about how we feel, and the fact that we feel fear of the situation. I wasn't religious at that point, and I didn't know to look at the situation with a wider perspective like I do now, that even if we have rough time, we are moving forward to a future of redemption, a good future. I told them we feel that the whole Muslim world is against us, and (I'm ashamed now to admit that I said something like this to them!) - I told them we were afraid. When they heard that, they opened their eyes wide and looked at me with amazement. I felt like they were laughing in their hearts thinking something like: "What, are YOU afraid?!". You know, as non-religious as I was back then, I FELT there was an undertone, a subtext in their question, telling me something like 'how can YOU, with G-d behind you and at your side, be afraid of US?". I felt from the tone in their question that THEY were afraid of US, of that tiny nation that we are, a nation that just emerged from the holocaust not too long ago, and who returned to its country from a long, bitter exile everywhere. I was shocked at their reaction, and it is etched in my mind forever. Just like Balak, King of Moab, was afraid of the peaceful nation of nomads, former slaves, that we were, so the huge Muslim world is afraid of that same nation - and not because of our physical power, but because of the spiritual Power that stands behind us. I will never forget them, or the conversation we had. I know now that if that same conversation would have happened today, I would have never said to them something like 'we are afraid', simply because we, the believers, are not afraid. We see the bigger picture. 

My new neighbors next door, Ruth and Boaz, who came to Israel from America a few weeks ago, asked me where should they run if there is a missile attack on Jerusalem. I checked it for them and told them where the shelter is (in the basement of our building), but I also told them that it had never occurred to me to look for a shelter, not in this neighborhood, not in my former neighborhood. Last time there was a siren warning us of a missile attack in Jerusalem a few years ago, it was a Friday night, just before Shabbat, and I went to the synagogue like everyone else did. The siren was hauling outside, and we were peacefully praying inside, without any proper shelter other than our trust in G-d. 

Now that I wrote about that visit in Seoul, two more episodes cross my mind from that time. One, in the living room I met a young man from Germany. When he heard that I was from Israel he was SO nice, SO sweet, too nice, too sweet, too polite. He asked me out for coffee in the city, and I know that he wasn't asking ME out, he was asking the Jewish people out, to talk about what had happened in WWII. I didn't want to go, but didn't want to offend him, so I reluctantly said yes. And in the coffee shop he asked me: "Do all people in Israel think that all Germans are bad?". Straight to the point, just like that. Again, that was another conversation that I will probably not forget too quickly. It made me feel so uncomfortable. Do I know what every Israeli think? Most probably some think that, and others don't. I think most people don't think that. Yes, there is suspicion, and there will always be, probably, but whenever I myself feel suspicion when I meet some people from Germany, I try to remind myself of all the saintly Germans who saved Jews from the Nazis while risking their own lives. I'd rather look at every German and think that they would have chosen to be heroes, and not villains, during that war. It is not easy. I've met many people from Germany during my travels, and there is always a tension when they hear that I'm from Israel. They suddenly become very cautious and polite, like they're walking on eggshells. When I studied in Japan, the family of one of the German students in my dorms, a very sweet girl, came to visit her. They sat at the communal kitchen in my floor, and for some reason I went in to take something that I needed. She introduced me and said where I was from, and the moment she did, for some reason my eyes fell on her father's face. His face became pink, I felt the food he was eating was stuck in his throat, and I only wanted to run away from there, which I did, without being impolite. I don't know why he reacted like this. Was it guilt? Was it antisemitism? Was it that his parents or grandparents did something wrong during the war? Is is a simple prejudice? I don't know. But not with every German it is like this. With his daughter I always felt very comfortable. I've met many Germans with whom there was no problem, perhaps just a bit of a tension. One German girl that I traveled with told me bluntly one day that as a German, she's had enough of hearing about the Holocaust in her country, that they teach it to them too much in the school system, etc. I was shocked. Too much? Is there such a thing as 'too much' after their nation and culture brought about something so unimaginable? I don't think there is 'too much'. Her generation is innocent, for sure, but they are bred in the same culture that brought about Nazism and the Holocaust to the world. No one asks them to pay for their fathers' sins, of course, but the least they could do is accept the fact that they need to learn from it and study about it, and there is not 'too much' in this respect. 

One more thing I remember from that visit to Seoul was my friendship with the landlady of the guesthouse. She really liked me and kept in touch with me later as well, for a long time. She was so nice to me, spilled her heart to me, told me about her aches and pains, and was eager to hear everything that I had to say. I remember her very fondly, except for one incident that broke my heart. As I said, I wasn't religious at the time, but I grew up in a traditional home, and for me - eating shrimp, crabs and all those sea creatures was an absolute no-no, even then. I would never do something like this, even as a secular person. She promised me that the food she served me was 'kosher-style' - without things I'm not supposed to eat. She introduced Kimchi to me, a national dish of Korea, and I liked it. It was healthy and tasty. I thought it was 'kosher' until one day I returned to the guest house in the middle of the day, and saw her preparing Kimchi. She was scrubbing the cabbage leaves hard with shrimps... to give it a taste. When she realized that I saw her, her face 'fell'. She was so embarrassed and ashamed to be caught in a lie, and my heart was broken. How could anyone do something like this to anyone else? Even if you feel that the other person's habits and customs are strange and meaningless, don't promise them that you do everything to keep it, and then violate it without their knowing. When I lived in my previous neighborhood in Jerusalem, I used to host many Shabbat dinners. And some people were vegetarians or Vegans. Even though I myself am not, I was so meticulous to cook for them food that didn't even TOUCH chicken, fish or meat. 

Anyway, all these memories from Seoul all of a sudden. 

The Prophet Portion that we read this week is from Micah, 5:6 - 6:8. The first verse in this Portion has my name in it in Hebrew: "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many nations as dew from the Lord, as showers upon the grass, that do not wait for anyone, nor are awaited at the hands of the sons of men". This verse says that when the people of Israel will be in exile, they will be like a gift from Heaven to those nations. They will be a blessing to those nations - but a blessing that the nations don't ask for, don't wait for, perhaps even don't want. And still, the blessing will be there. And when you think of all the blessing that the Jewish presence brought to the nations in which they were scattered, the blessings are so many; not just intellectual, cultural and economic blessings, but also - spiritual ones. Look around you in the world. All the nations which the Jewish people was scattered to - turned from being idol worshipers to being believers in the One G-d. Jews were exiled to Europe, and Europeans became Christians. Jews were exiled to the Middle East and Arab countries, and those nations turned into Muslims. Jews were NOT exiled to Japan, Papua New Guinea, India, etc., and in those countries - people remained idol worshipers. Now everything changes, and Christianity and Islam are growing in such countries as well, but for most of history, there was no awareness or worship of the One G-d in those areas. 

Anyway, the Prophet Portion ends with another verse that I like so much: "It has been told to you, Oh man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you. Only to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your G-d." This verse is not directed only towards Israel. It is directed towards all the nations of the world. HaShem expects greatly of the nations of the world as well. He loves them too, He guides them too, and through our scriptures, He instructs them and brings them closer to Him. I like the universal aspects of the Torah and the Prophets. 

Shabbat in Jerusalem will start tonight at 7:12.
So I'll quit here to be able to prepare. 

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem!

Chukat Portion

I'm sitting now in my favorite library in the whole world - the one on Mt. Scopus. It's the first time ever that I'm here on a Friday. The campus is open for a few hours today because of some exams, and I decided to take advantage of it and come here to write my blog. I love this campus - it looks like paradise to me. I often wondered how it would be to experience Shabbat here. Now that I'm here on a Friday, and not so many people are here, I know I would have loved to experience a Shabbat here, if that was possible at all. If only I had food and where to stay, I would have been happy. It is one of the most beautiful corners of Jerusalem, in my opinion. 

First of all, thank you so much, Knut, for the comment you left on my previous post here. So nice to read! It's amazing how sometimes we do things, without realizing what effect it has on other people. When I read what you wrote, it was a moment of joy for me. I hope you continue this good habit :-) 

Other readers are welcome to leave comments too, if you want. It makes me happy. 

This week's Torah Portion is that of Chukat (Numbers 19:1 - 22:1) talks about so many big, interesting things: the mysterious Red Heifer ritual, ritual purity and impurity, the death of Miriam, the incident in which Moses hit the rock to bring out water, instead of talking to the rock, as G-d commanded him, the death of Aaron, the refusal of the nations around to let Israel pass in their territory on their way to Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel), the complaints of the people that there is no food and no water, their dislike of the Manna from heaven, the snakes that G-d set free against them as reproach, the copper snake that Moses made to life the Israelites eyes upwards and remember G-d, etc. I feel that I can write a separate post about each of this matters, but I'll write shortly about a few of these. 

First, the mysterious ritual of the Red Heifer: If you read the text, you see that G-d asks of us to perform a very strange kind of ritual in order to become ritually pure. We have to take a completely red cow, and use its ashes for the purification of the impure. I won't get into details. Just like you, it is hard for me as well to understand it. But - this kind of commandments, that are hard for us human beings to understand, are the most precious ones. Why? Because they give us the opportunity to show G-d that we follow His commandments even if they do not make sense to us. That we obey Him only because He commanded us. We do not argue. We do not obey only those commandments that we understand. We perform all of the commandments, including the ones that are hard to understand. And it is precisely this kind of commandments, that are hard to understand, that are a correction of the original sin of Adam and Eve. Why? Because they too were given a commandment. Just one. And it didn't make sense. They were told not to eat from the fruit of a certain tree (it wasn't an apple...). They were not given a reason for it. They didn't find any reason in it - after all, the fruit looked good! And the snake said a few things that made them realize it is indeed good. So they trusted their own reason, and because they didn't understand the reason behind G-d's one commandment, they disobeyed him. And we all suffer since. So such commandments that make absolutely no sense to us whatsoever are our way of correcting this sin, of showing G-d that we follow Him and do it even though we do not understand it. So we do not perform this commandment these days because no perfect Red Heifer is found in our days, but religious Jews go all over the world searching for one! And believe me - they will find. 

Some lady from another nation recently asked me in a ridiculing way if I'm waiting for the Red Heifer to be found and what will we do with it then. I realized from the tone of her voice that she has no true belief in G-d and His teachings. Otherwise, she would show more respect to such matters. Even if we do not understand something - if G-d said it, we should do it. That's it, no arguing, no disobeying. 

 Another part of the Portion is about the death of Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron. The text says that Miriam died, and immediately after it, it says that the People had no water. Rashi, a famous Jewish Torah commentator, who lived in France in the Middle Ages, says that the proximity of these two matters - the death of Miriam and the fact that suddenly the People had no water, is not coincidental. There is a hidden hint here that as long as Miriam lived, the people had water. The Midrash (an ancient Jewish commentary) says that Miriam had a special well that gave water to the Jewish People and followed them wherever they went, in her merit. When she died, the well disappeared. Water is a symbol of Torah and perhaps the meaning of this commentary is that as long as Miriam lived, the people had a living example of how a true Torah person lives. When she died, the well died with her (even though Moshe and Aaron were still alive and served as wonderful examples of Torah people). There is another Midrash that I like that says that really, the Well of Miriam didn't disappear. Instead, just before Shabbat it appears in different seas, rivers and lakes around the world, and if you chanced to touch the water from a certain lake just when the Well of Miriam was there, you can be healed from every disease you have. Such a beautiful story. Again - water is Torah - and perhaps the message is that Torah heals. I know it does. 

Then there is the story of Moses and Aaron that were commanded by G-d to TALK to the rock to bring forth water: "Speak to the rock before THEIR EYES, that it give forth its water". G-d wanted to show the People how just speaking to the rock in G-d's command can bring forth water. But Moses hit the rock. As a punishment he and his brother were decreed to die in the desert and not to merit to go into the Land of Israel, even though they were the leaders who led the People all the way from Egypt until here. It is so sad, and I remember that as a child, when we studied this part of the Bible in my secular school, I often felt it wasn't fair. But I know now that everything is for the best. The fact that Moses and Aaron are not buried here, and no one really knows where they are buried, helps to prevent people to turn them into 'gods'. They are not gods. There is only one G-d. True, Moses was our savior, the agent through which G-d brought about our salvation, but G-d is G-d, and Moses is human being, and as such - should never be deified. Never. We never pray to Moses even though he was the agent who brought down Torah to the world. We never worship him. We respect him and cherish him, but that's it. We do not turn him into a god. That would be a very dangerous thing to do. 

One last point - the snakes. The people complained again that they have no food, no water, they don't like the Manna... etc. As a result, G-d sends against them poisonous snakes. If you read the text in Hebrew, you may notice some nuance. It doesn't really say that G-d "sent" the snakes against the people. Instead, it says that G-d set the snakes free! The words "sent" and "set free" are very similar in Hebrew, and most people will not get this nuance. But what it means is that throughout all the 40 years in the desert, up until that moment, G-d did not send the snakes free. It means - for 40 years, G-d was holding the snakes back so they wouldn't hurt the Israelites. Only when we were ungrateful and complaining (even about the Manna!), He released His hold over the snakes and just let the snakes go wherever they want and do what ever they want - which is to bite the Israelites who in the desert. So the big miracle is that for 40 years G-d held back the snakes - and you can learn it from just one small word in the Torah. What an amazing text, and what an amazing language. It is only natural that snakes in the desert will bite people. So the big miracle is that they didn't, for 40 years. 

Anyway, to be cured from the biting of the snakes, G-d commanded Moses to make a copper snake and put it on a pole. Whenever the bitten people will lift their eyes up to see the snake - and remember G-d who commanded to make the snake - they will be cured. The word for snake (Nachash) and the word for copper (Nechoshet) have the same root in Hebrew, and until this day, pharmacies in Israel and all over the world have the symbol of the snake on a pole as their logo. The danger with such a copper snake is that people might start forgetting that G-d commanded the snake to be created. Instead, they might worship the snake. And this is indeed what happened hundreds of years later in the times of the kings, and one righteous king decided to destroy the copper snake, for this reason. 

OK, they're closing the library. I have to leave, and start preparing for Shabbat. I don't even have time to read what I read. Forgive me if there are any typos, etc. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Revital

לשלח את הנחשים

נחש הנחושת, בתי מרקחת