פרשת מסעי
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah lays out the interesting laws applicable to somebody who kills another Jew by accident. The Torah states that if one Jew kills another inadvertently, he is to seek refuge from the disgruntled relatives of the victim in one of six cities designated specifically for this purpose, and to wait there until the Kohen Gadol of that generation passes away, at which point he is free to go. There were two things bothering me about this chapter in the Torah. First, what is the connection between the Kohen Gadol of the generation, and the accidental homicides that have taken place. This dependency seems completely random. And second, aside from being random, it seems unfair. Theoretically, there could be one murderer who enters into the city of refuge when the Kohen has recently been appointed as a young man, and the murderer will have to remain there for seventy years, and there could be another murderer, who goes in when the Kohen is already an older man, and only have to stay incarcerated in that city for a few short months. Where is the justice in such a system?
The Seforno explains that the Chumash is teaching us a very deep lesson in proper Torah outlook from these laws relating to manslaughter. Regarding the second question we posed, we need to point out that it was based on one faulty premise – that the events which occur in this world are as random as they appear. However, in reality, we know that every single event that happens in this world, happens only because Hashem allowed it to, and each of the far reaching ripple effects of those events, were administered with great forethought by the Creator of the universe who is capable of making such an exquisitely complex calculation. When a court of law decided to punish a criminal for his wrongdoings, they do not (and cannot) take into account how that punishment will affect the criminal’s spouse, his parents, his close friends, his children, and all the people he may have positively affected were it not for their punishment. They simply punish the wrongdoer commensurate with his crime. But when Hashem punishes somebody, each and every one of those aforementioned possibilities is taken into great account, and scrutinized with a magnifying glass, before exacting punishment on a sinner. Bearing this in mind, the second difficulty we raised falls away on its own, but for us, this is a very powerful, and comforting lesson to always keep in mind. The world’s events can seem quite random at times, with no rhyme or reason to help us explain why wonderful things, and horrible things seem to befall certain people completely arbitrarily. But after what we have explained, it is clear that each and every event, from the heaviest, to the most mundane, is well thought out by our father in Heaven, who loves us boundlessly, and knowing that, it behooves us to really contemplate why any event, or even ripple effect has befallen us.
However, we still haven’t dealt with the first question, which was to understand the apparent connection between the murderer going free, and the death of the Kohen Gadol. The Rambam, in his famous work, “Moreh Nevuchim” offers a possibility to explain this correlation. He says that when we analyze what is going on inside the relatives of the murder vicitm’s minds, we find that they are very upset that they lost somebody they were close to, and the Torah took into account the possibility that they may be unable to control themselves in exacting revenge. But revenge and retribution can be frozen by grief. When a person suffers tremendous grief, he is not really capable of planning his revenge, as his emotions are completely occupied with grief. When the Kohen Gadol of any generation passed away, the grieving period was so intense, that it assumed all control of that generation’s emotions, and obviated the need to keep the murderers incarcerated.
I once asked one Gadol, why specifically the Kohen Gadol. Why not the head of the Sanhedrin, or the king of the Jewish people, why specifically was the Kohen responsible for generating the greatest amount of grief in his passing? He explained that today we are not fully sensitive to the damaging effects of sin, and that is why we’re capable of asking this question. The Kohen Gadol was capable of atoning for the sins of every single Jew of the generation, and that atonement was so appreciated by each and every citizen, that they all mourned the tragic loss of their beloved “Mechaper”. The other leaders of the generation were giants, to be sure, but didn’t have that added factor that they could erase the Jewish people’s sins. The famous first known Jewish history book, Josephus, depicts in great detail the awe in which the Jewish people felt toward the Kohen Gadol, and how they revered and respected what he did for them.
The lesson for us in all this, is how seriously we have to view even the slightest of sins, and how careful we must be to avoid any action that even smells like it might lead to a sin. My father, ZT”L, wrote in his notebook that whenever he went outside, he would always remind himself how careful he must be to avoid looking at anything improper, and how inappropriate it would be to use these magnificent ocular machines, which each are more complicated then the most advanced technology on earth, which we call eyes, in looking at anything which the Torah wouldn’t approve of. It would be like a rebellion against our creator, using the very instruments He generously gave us, to implement that rebellion. There are those who would get so emotional when they would reach the word, “Ashamnu” in the confession we make during the repentance process, that they would fall down in a dead faint from the realization that they had rebelled against their creator. An additional advantage we can gain by knowing how serious even the smallest infraction can be, is in how we view the difficulties we encounter in life. When we know that each discomfort we suffer helps us to purge ourselves of some of the iniquity we may have perpetrated, we will be a lot more appreciative of the ability to cleanse ourselves.
May we all merit to always recognize how every event in life which befalls us, does so only because Hashem allowed it, and guard ourselves against even the most trivial wrongdoings!