פרשת מטות
In this week’s Parsha, Hashem commands the Jewish people to take revenge against the Midianites for the low blow they administered to the Jews in sending their daughters out to them and causing the Jews to sin. The Torah seems to repeat this commandment twice, first when Hashem commanded it to Moshe, and then again when Moshe conveyed it to the Jewish people. However, there is one slight discrepancy between these two renditions which the Torah records. In Hashem’s version, Moshe is told to take revenge on behalf of the Jewish people, whereas in Moshe’s version, the Jews are told to avenge Hashem’s honor. My great uncle, The Meshech Chochma explains this apparent inconsistency by saying something similar to what our senior Rosh Yeshiva has often said. When a person is in love, they are always trying to cover for the other person. In whatever they do or say, they go out of their way to conceal their partner’s faults, and accentuate their strengths. Anyone who has ever been in love knows this to be true. Similarly, when Hashem who loves us boundlessly, gave Moshe the commandment to seek out revenge, He did it for our sake and stated that clearly. However, when Moshe – who loved Hashem back powerfully – wanted to demonstrate his love, he reciprocated by commanding the Jews to take their revenge for Hashem’s honor. Such is the nature of two parties in love.
We find two great leaders in Jewish history, Moshe Rabenu, and Yirmiyahu the prophet who both voiced identical difficulties with how Hashem runs the world. They asked Hashem the age old question, why it is that many righteous people seem to suffer greatly in this world, and many truly evil characters seem to thrive. Hashem answered them both by explaining that the righteous suffer in this world so that they can have an even greater portion in the world to come, and the wicked flourish only in order to exhaust whatever small portion in the world to come they may have accrued, so that they will receive the full brunt of the results of their nefarious actions. However, the Meshech Chochma is very dissatisfied with this interchange. Were great leaders like Moshe and Jeremiah not capable of coming up with these seemingly simple solutions to their problem? For one thing, this concept is explicit in the Talmud in a number of places and for another, it seems absurd to question Hashem’s ways when Hashem is so far beyond human comprehension! R’ Meir Simcha explains that what they were really expressing was not a difficulty, but rather a prayer. They certainly knew why Hashem seems cruel to the righteous, and kind to the wicked, but they wanted to lodge a grievance over this choice in how Hashem runs his world. You see, every time Hashem enters this mode of conduct, His name becomes greatly weakened in the world’s eyes because the world sees an impotent God who is either unable or unwilling to set the record straight and bring justice to the world. This false impression of injustice greatly aggravated Moshe and Yirmiyahu, and they would have rather taken a smaller portion in the world to come and take the fall for Hashem instead of the other way around. So essentially, what they were saying was, “Please Hashem, run your world differently so that we can take the fall for you instead of you taking it for us”. Hashem responded to this moving plea by saying that because they were willing to absorb corporal punishment on His behalf, He would ensure that no matter what the cost would be to His name, the Jewish people would always receive the highest possible reward in the world to come, which of course far outweighs the relatively minor discomforts a Jew will have to suffer in this world. Such is the battle of love constantly raging between Hashem and the Jewish people.
Perhaps the lesson which emerges most prominently from these moving words of R’ Meir Simcha, is how imperative it is for every Jew to always be looking out for how he can draw attention to the greatness of the Master of the World, and to do anything in his power to avoid casting any negative impressions about the Creator. This should be every Jew’s mission statement and constant focus. Most Jews become very intimidated when they contemplate the vastness of the Torah, and the intricacies of every Halacha, and it is especially daunting to deal with the constant pressure involved with knowing that we as Jews are on display 24 hours a day for our entire lives to try and represent Hashem’s name in a positive light, but the Chofetz Chaim offers a very practical piece of advice in how to overcome this issue. He points out that we find for the right price, a human being will be agreeable to perform even the most menial and daring of tasks, even at great risk of bodily harm. Similarly, when we are aware what is at stake when it comes to performing a commandment and potentially glorifying Hashem’s name, or Heaven forefend, shaming it, we will certainly be willing to put in the extra effort to push a little further in keeping the commandments properly and glorifying Hashem’s name.
The Gemorah in Berachos (20) tries to illustrate somebody who epitomized the ability to sanctify Hashem’s name and relates the story of R’ Ada the son of Ahava. R’ Ada was once walking in the street and saw a woman clad in an inappropriate overcoat. He was so incensed that a Jewish woman could roam the streets dressed so immodestly, that he ran over to her, and ripped her overcoat. He later found out that she wasn’t even Jewish, and therefore had to pay for her ripped garment. This, the Gemorah asserts, was the personification of bringing splendor to Hashem’s name. R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz points out that this Gemorah seems to make very little sense. I could have brought many diffenent examples of Jews who brought greater honor to Hashem’s name rather than R’ Ada’s seemingly impetuous, embarrassing mistake! R’ Chaim explains that it was specifically R’ Ada’s impetuousness which the Gemorah wished to accentuate. When R’ Ada acted so quickly and without thought, he showed that his deepest desire, all the way down to his raw subconscious, was to bring honor to Hashem’s holy Torah and its commandments, and even though he may make a fool of himself, nothing was more important to him than defending the Torah’s statutes. This indeed, concludes R’ Chaim, is a great sanctification of Hashem’s name.
R’ Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, the late Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponevich Yeshiva, was one of the choicest of the number of Torah scholars who have recently been taken from us to atone for our sins. For seventy years, he tirelessly educated the Jewish nation, and brought each student in the Ponevich Yeshiva closer to Hashem. He was well known for his outstanding empathy in sharing, caring, and encouraging each Jew who visited him, and would weep copiously whenever another Jew would confide his problems with the Rosh Yeshiva. All of the heights Rabbi Lefkowitz reached could be attributed primarily to the number one quality he possessed, which was his deep passion to always bring honor and glory to Hashem’s name. Once, when he was a young dashing Yeshvia student, he was riding the train home in Poland, when a teenage girl riding in the cabin with him noticed him and came over to flirt with him. When he realized what she was doing, he quickly ran over to the separation between the two train cars, and flung himself off of the train to the paralyzed shock of this unsuspecting girl and all the other passengers. He broke most of his ribs on that day, and spent months in the hospital, but I don’t think anyone would argue that R’ Ada Bar Ahava would have been most proud of what R’ Michel did on that day.
May we all merit to always bring great esteem to our noble King!