A.
This week’s parasha, following as it does on the heels of the
tragic story of the mahloqeth, the dispute which split the mëraggëlim
and doomed the generation of the yotzë’ei Mitzrayim to perish in the
desert and not enter the Promised Land, tells of yet another great mahloqeth
which rocked Israel, the challenge to Moshe’s authority mounted by Qorah.
Rashi explains Qorah’s motivation: נתקנא על נשיאותו
של אליצפן בן עוזיאל שמינהו משה נשיא על בני קהת על פי הדבור אמר קרח אחי אבא
ארבעה היו שנאמר "ובני קהת" וגו' עמרם הבכור נטלו שני בניו גדולה אחד
מלך ואחד כהן גדול מי ראוי ליטול את השני' לא אני שאני בן יצהר שהוא שני לעמרם
והוא מנה נשיא את בן אחיו הקטן מכולם הריני חולק עליו ומבטל את דבריו (“He was jealous of the nësi’uth of
Elitzafan ben ‘Uzzi’él, whom Moshe appointed nasi’ according to Divine
statement. Said Qorah, Father had four brothers, as it is said: ‘And the
sons of Qëhath....’ [Exodus VI, 18]; ‘Amram was the first-born, and his two sons
took greatness, one the king [Moshe] and one the kohén gadol. Who is fit
to take the second rank? Is it not I, for I am the son of Yitzhar, second to
‘Amram, and he appointed nasi’ the son of the youngest of all! I am
disputing him, and nullifying his words”).
As our parasha relates, the rebellion did not go well. Moshe’s
Divinely-ordained authority was confirmed when a giant earthen mouth opened
underneath Qorah and his 250 followers, and swallowed them up. Aharon’s
position was also miraculously confirmed the next day (XVII, 16-26).
Accordingly, G-d informs Aharon through Moshe: ואתה
ובניך אתך תשמרו כהנתכם לכל דברי המזבח ולמבית לפרכת ועבדתם עבדת מתנה אתן כהנתכם
והזר הקרב יומת: (“And you and
your sons will preserve your këhunna for all the things of the altar and
within the curtain, and you shall serve; an ‘avodath mattana I am
granting your këhunna, and the stranger [i.e. non-kohén] who
approaches will be put to death”; XVIII, 7). Rashi explains the phrase ‘avodath
mattana to mean במתנה נתתי' לכם, tentatively, “as a gift [mattana] I have given it to
you.”
The explanation is striking, in light of Proverbs XV, 27: עכר ביתו בוצע בצע ושונא מתנת יחי' (“He uproots his house
who acquires plunder, and who hates gifts will live”; וע"ע
מגלה כ"ח. וחולין מ"ד:).
As Hazal tell us, מכלל לאו אתה שומע הן, from a statement one may infer its
opposite; in this case, that one who loves gifts is not long for this world.
What, exactly, does the proverb mean, and how are we to understand the ‘avodath
mattana given to Aharon’s descendants, the kohanim?
B.
To understand what “one who hates gifts will
live” means, it is necessary to grasp that the universe has been set up in such
a way by the Creator that its sustenance and maintenance are (in the words of
Rabbi Hayyim Volozhiner) תלוי במעשיהם הטובים של עם
קדושו שהן המה אכילה ושתי' של העולמות להעמידם ולקיימם ולהוסיף כח קדושתם ואורם על
ידי התחברותו יתברך אליהם כראוי. כפי הרצון העליון יתברך שמו, הכל לפי רוב המעשה
של עם סגולה שהמה המתקנים ומאחדים העולמות שיהו ראויים לקבל שפעת האור ותוספת
קדושתו יתברך כענין המזון שהוא מוסיף כח בגוף ומעדן אותו (“dependent on the good deeds of His holy people, which are
[the equivalent of] eat-ing and drinking of the worlds, to establish them and
sustain them and to increase the power of their sanctity and their light by
means of His proper connexion to them. According to His supernal will,
everything is according to the aggregate action of the treasured nation, who
are the rectifiers and integrators of the worlds so that they will be fit to
receive the abundance of light and increase in His sanctity, in like manner to
food which increases strength in the body and improves it”; נפש החיים שער ב' פ"ו).
In other words, the universe “earns it keep”, so to
speak, through Israel’s Torah-study and mitzva-observance; this is
Israel’s role in the universe, as G-d informed Moshe just before Mattan
Torah: ועתה אם שמוע תשמעו בקלי ושמרתם את בריתי והייתם
לי סגלה מכל העמים כי לי כל הארץ: ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש וגו' (“And now, if you listen diligently to My
voice and keep My covenant and I will have you [as] a treasure, more than all
the nations, for Mine is the entire earth. And I will have you [as] a kingdom
of kohanim and a holy nation”; Exodus XIX, 5-6).
Concerning this mission, Hazal proclaim:
מאי דכתיב "כי בארבע רוחות השמים פרשתי אתכם" כו'
כשם שאי אפשר לעולם בלא רוחות כך אי אפשר לעולם בלא ישראל (“Why is it written, ‘For by the four directions of the heavens
have I spread you out....’ [Zechariah III, 7]? Just as it is impossible for the
world with the directions, so is it impossible for the world without Israel”; תענית ג:), on
which Rashi insightfully comments: שאין העולם
מתקיים אלא בשביל ישראל והכי אמר קרא כי כד' רוחות השמים פרשתי אתכם לרוחות העולם
כדי שיתקיים שנאמר "אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חקות שמים וארץ ךא שמתי" (“for the world is only sustained because of [bi-shvil]
Israel, and so Scripture states that like the four directions of the heavens I
have spread you out to the directions of the world in order that it be
sustained, as it is said, ‘If My covenant is not [in effect] by day and by
night, the laws of heaven and earth I did not set’ [Jeremiah XXXIII, 25]”). Part
of the reason that Israel are scattered over the globe, with Jewish communities
in Australia and New Zealand, throughout North and South America, in South
Africa and across Eurasia, is to guarantee that there will be no moment in a
24-hour day when Torah will not be learnt and mitzvoth done, to ensure
the world’s sustenance. Elsewhere (בהערתו לברכות
י"ז:) the Shëlah notes
that the word which Rashi uses here for “because,” bi-shvil, really
means “by the path, the conduit” of Israel.
Indeed, Hazal tell us elsewhere שהתנה הקב"ה עם מעשה בראשית וא"ל אם ישראל מקבלים התורה
אתם מתקיימים ואם לאו אני מחזיר אתכם לתהו ובהו (“that the Holy One, Blessed is He, made a condition with
Creation and said to it, If Israel accept the Torah, you are sustained; and if
not, I am returning you to primordial chaos!”; שבת
פ"ח.).
But the Torah came into the world in anno mundi 2448,
that is, 3328 years ago; what sustained the world before then?
C.
Hazal again come to our rescue:
Commenting on Psalms CXXXVI, we learn: אמר ריב"ל הני
עשרים וששה "כי לעולם חסדו" כנגד מי כנגד עשרים וששה דורות שברא
הקב"ה בעולמו ולא נתן להם תורה וזן אותם בחסד (“Said Rabbi Yëhoshua‘ ben Lévi, these 26 [verses ending in]
‘for His kindness is the world’s’ are apposite whom? Apposite the 26
generations which the Holy One, Blessed is He, created in His world and did not
give them Torah and nourished them through kindness [hesed]”; פסחים קי"ח.).
If we open a Humash and begin counting in Genesis, we discover
ten generations from the first man to Noah; a further ten genera-tions
thereafter to Avraham; then Yitzhaq, Ya‘aqov, Lévi, Qëhath, ‘Amram, and
Moshe; twenty-six generations until Mattan Torah.
Rashi famously comments on the first verse in Genesis שבתחלה עלה במחשבה לבראתו במדת הדין וראה שאין העולם מתקיים
והקדים מדת רחמים ושתפה למדת הדין
(“that at first it arose in thought to create [the universe] with the measure
of din [‘judgment’], and He saw that the world would not be sustained,
and He placed mercy [rahamim] before [din], and
associated it with the measure of din”). He did not remove or replace
the din, it was still there; He placed mercy before it.
The Nitzotzei Oroth defines rahamim:
כי ברחמים יש דין ויש רחמים שהוא רחום בדין ולכן רחמים
כולל חסד וגבורה כו' שאם יתנהג העולם בחסד אינם ראוים ואם בגבורה לבד יחרב העולם
אלא שיהי' מסטרא דרחמי רחום בדין כנזכר
(“For in rahamim there is din, and there is [being]
merciful in din [rahum bë-din]; and therefore rahamim
contains hesed and gëvura, [‘strength, power,
valor’]...if the world would be conducted [only] with hesed, [it
would cease, for [its inhabitants] are not worthy, and if through gëvura alone,
the world would be laid waste; rather it must be from the side of rahamim,
rahum bë-din, as was mentioned”; בהערה
לזוה"ק ח"א קי"ט:).
Rahamim, it seems, is an amalgam of din and hesed.
As Hazal said, for the first
26 generations, the world was supported by hesed; but as
the Nitzotzei Oroth warns us, a world supported purely on hesed
is unworthy; as the proverb has it, only a שונא מתנת
יחי', one who hates gifts, who
wishes to earn his way, can flourish. Hence, rahamim did not
supplant din, but preceded its implementation, an expedient situation until
Mattan Torah could be effected.
But if so, if this is the purpose of Israel, the mamlecheth
kohanim, then what is this ‘avo-dath mattana being given to the kohanim
within Israel, Aharon and his sons? Is G-d trying to render those who
serve Him in the Mishkan or Béyth ha-Miqdash unworthy?
D.
G-d forbid! Examine carefully the phrase ‘avodath
mattana and the reader possessed of a חוש חי לשפה
העברית, a living sense of the
Hebrew language, will note that the sëmichuth relationship means that
the word mattana serves to define the ‘avoda of the koha-nim. This
becomes very clear in light of another ma’amar Hazal which
describes the function of the kohanim within Israel: כהנים אוכלים ובעלים
מתכפרים (“The kohanim eat
[the mattënoth këhunna, those portions of the sacrificial meat which are
theirs] and the owners [of the sacrifice] find atonement”; פסחים נ"ט:). Far
from being a “gift” in the sense of a hand-out, then, the mattënoth këhunna of
our parasha are essential tools for their service, which cannot be carried
out without them.
And so we revisit Rashi’s comment on our
verse, quoted at the beginning: במתנה נתתי' לכם, “through a mattana, by means of a mattana,
have I given you [this service; the feminine pronominal suffix on the verb
agrees with the feminine ‘avoda]”).
And now all should be clear, ולא
קשה מידי.
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