A.
Moshe begins his farewell address to Israel on the plains of Mo’av by recounting the events which had brought them there, amongst them: ונפן ונסע המדברה דרך ים סוף כאשר דבר ד' אלי ונסב את הר שעיר ימים רבים: ויאמר ד' אלי לאמר: רב לכם סב את ההר הזה פנו לכם צפנה: ואת העם צו לאמר אתם עברים בגבול אחיכם בני עשו הישבים בשעיר וייראו מכם ונשמרתם מאד: אל תתגרו בם כי לא אתן לכם מארצם וגו'
(“And we turned and went to the desert by way of Yam Suf, as Ha-Shem spoke to me, and we circled Har Sé‘ir many days. And Ha-Shem told me, saying: Enough for you of circling this mountain; turn northwards [tzafona]. And command the people, saying: You are crossing the border of your brothers, bënei ‘Ésav who dwell in Sé‘ir; and they will be afraid of you, and you should guard yourselves very much. Do not challenge them, for I shall not give you of their land....”; II, 1-5).
The prohibition of “challenging” the Edomim had repercussions in the future; the Yërushalmi tells us, e.g.: א"ר יודן בי ר' שלום כתיב "כי ששת חדשים ישב שם יואב וכל ישראל", א"ל הקב"ה אני אמרתי לך "לא תתגרו בם" וביקשת להתגרות בם, חייך שאינן נמנין לך (“Said Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Shalom, 'It is written "For six months Yo’av and all of Israel stayed [in Edom; I Kings XI, 16]"; said the Holy One, Blessed is He, "I told you 'do not challenge them,' and you have sought to challenge them; by your life, [these six months] are not counted for you"'"; ירושלמי ראש השנה פ"א ה"א).
Rabbi Yudan has noted an apparent contradiction between two verses; in I Kings II, 11 we read: והימים אשר מלך דוד על ישראל ארבעים שנה בחברון מלך שבע שנים ובירושלם מלך שלשים ושלש שנה (“And the days which David ruled over Israel were forty years; in Chevron he ruled seven years and in Jerusalem he ruled 33 years”), whilst in II Samuel V, 5 we find: בחברון מלך על יהודה שבע שנים וששה חדשים ובירושלם מלך שלשים ושלש שנה על כל ישראל ויהודה (“In Chevron he ruled over Yëhuda seven years and six months and in Jerusalem he ruled 33 years over all Israel and Yëhuda”). The question which he is trying to answer is what happened to those six months?
B.
The incident to which Rabbi Yudan alludes is described verses of I Kings XI, 17-21: King David won a massive victory over Edom (as the nation of the bënei ‘Ésav is also known), such that only an Edomi price and a few of his father’s retainers were able to escape and flee to Egypt, where they found refuge; there were so many Edomi dead that Israel undertook to bury them. The same incident is also briefly mentioned in II Samuel VIII (as Rashi notes), and the account there concludes: בכל אדום שם נציבים ויהי כל אדום עבדים לדוד ויוישע ד' לדוד בכל אשר הלך (“...in all Edom [David] placed governors, and all Edom were servants to David; and Ha-Shem saved David wherever he went”; v. 13).
The Divine disapproval which Rabbi Yudan cites as the reason for the six months being deducted from David’s reign on the basis or our passage above does not appear evident from the navi’s account; what, then, is going on?
The Tuv Yërushalayim comments as follows on the Yërushalmi: ביאור הדבר על פי דברי הזוהר הק' על פסוק "ואברהם זקן בא בימים" דהצדיק יש לו ימים הרבה שעושה בהם מצות ומעש"ט אבל הרשע אין לו ימים כלל. דהוא עוסק בהם בעבירות. ובזה א"ש דנקרא בחייו מת כיון דאין לו ימים וק"ל. וז"ש דאותן ששה חדשים שישב יואב באדום בצויו להכרית כל זכר לא נחשב לו בחשבון שנותיו (“The clarification of the matter is according to the words of the holy Zohar [עיי' ח"א קכ"ט. והלאה] on the verse ‘And Avraham was old, come into years’ [Genesis XXIV,1], that a tzaddiq has many days in which he performs many mitzvoth and good deeds, whilst a rasha‘ has no days at all, since he spends his time engaged in transgressions; on this basis it is well established that a rasha‘ is called a dead man during his lifetime, since he has no days [which count for anything]. And this is what [G-d] said, that those six months during which Yo’av stayed in Edom on David’s orders to wipe out every [Edomi] male were not to be considered in the count of [David’s] regnal years”).
Clearly we have encountered something very deep; what is it?
C.
The previous Ozherover Rebbe זצוק"ל reminds us (באר משה פרשתנו סי' י"ח) that ‘Ésav is the physical personification in this world of the yétzer ha-ra‘, and that his sar, his directing or guardian angel, as it were, is the שורש הרע, the “root of ra‘” (עיי' זוה"ק ח"א קמ"ו. וסכה כ"ט. רש"י דה"מ אלהי'), and goes on to note that the navi’ ‘Ovadya calls ‘Ésav a har, a “mountain,” comparable to Israel: ועלו מושיעים בהר ציון לשפוט את הר עשו (“and the rescuers will ascend Har Tziyyon to judge Har ‘Ésav”; Obadiah I, 23). The Zohar tells us of these rescuers ואילין צדיקים דאחידן בכנס"י ואקרון הר ציון, אינון הרים דסחרני ירושלים בגין דאינון מצויינין (“and these are the tzaddiqim who are concentrated in the assemblage of Israel and are called Har Tziyyon, which are the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, because they are distinguished [mëtzuyyanin]”; ח"א רנ"ו.). Thus, the navi’ ranks Israel’s tzaddiqim against the personification of the yétzer ha-ra‘.
An allusion to the yétzer ha-ra‘ can also be found in the word tzafona, says the Rebbe: The navi’ Yo’él declares ואת הצפוני ארליק מעליכם (“and the northerner [tzëfoni] will I distance from you”; Joel II, 20), and the Talmud comments זה יצר הרע שצפון ועומד בלבו של אדם (“this is the yétzer ha-ra‘ which is hidden [tzafun] and lurking a person’s heart”; סוכה נ"ב.). Indeed, ‘Ésav himself is mentioned in these terms: איך נחפשו עשו נבעו מצפוניו (“How are [the bënei] ‘Ésav discovered, drawn from their hiding places [mi-tzëfunav]”; Obadiah I, 6).
Paradoxically, Chazal tell us elsewhere that tzafona refers to Torah: אם ראיתם שמזדווג לכם ברחו לתורה ואין צפונה אלא תורה שנאמר "ויצפון לישרים תושי'" (“If you see that [the yétzer ha-ra‘ is arrayed against you, flee to the Torah, for tzafona is none other than Torah, as it has been said, ‘And He lays away [vë-yitzpun] for the upright counsel’ [Proverbs II, 7]”; דברים רבה פ"א סי' י"ט). From this juxtaposition on the same ground, so to speak, of the yétzer ha-ra‘ and Torah, the Rebbe deduces the battlefield on which we may confront our adversary, and the weapons effective against him. The yétzer ha-ra‘ is tzafun in the human heart; G-d has sequestered (tzafan) Torah for our use in dealing with it (ע”ע בבאר משה שם באריכות).
D.
Let us reëxamine our passage in the light of what we have learnt.
Rebuffed by ‘Ésav, Israel remained for a while in close proximity to his border, as was discussed in the A”Z Yashir on parshath Pinchas. They were then instructed to move northward, toward Mo’av, on whose territory they were now encamped, on the eve of the invasion of the Holy Land, and advised to leave Edom, the country of the bënei ‘Ésav, alone. That is the simple meaning of the passage.
‘Ésav, we are assured, occupies a territory legitimately his, surely true also of the yétzer ha-ra‘; the physical realm in which we find ourselves is the legitimate abode of the yétzer ha-ra‘.
The name of ‘Ésav’s country, Edom, is interesting (especially in light of the parallel “mountains” mentioned by the Rebbe supra), in that it shares its root with adam, a human being. Israel, when properly surrounded by and clad in Torah on the example of our tzaddiqim mëtzuyyanin, represent what an adam can and should be, in contradistinction to the similar Edom.
If we now turn back to the account of David’s victory over Edom, we discern that the reason for the Divine rebuke, and therefore for the six months deleted from David’s reign, was the tactics used. The attempt to exterminate the male line of ‘Ésav created an implacable, irredentist foe for David’s son in the Edomi prince who had been harbored by Egypt.
Similarly, the way to confront the yétzer ha-ra‘ is not on its own turf, directly through physical means. The means is to access the true, metaphysical realm which initiates and causes all activity in the physical world through Torah and mitzvoth. We cannot eliminate the yétzer ha-ra‘; it is a natural consequence of this world’s having come into existence. What we can do is bring it under control, and bend it to holy purposes, by heeding the wise counsel of the Torah. This is what the navi’ is conveying to us, I believe, when he tells us that all of Edom were servants to David, and that Ha-Shem kept him out of trouble wherever he went, through the medium of Torah.
We are now in the Nine Days, the period of the final assault on Jerusalem which culminated in the destruction of the Holy Temple at the hands of the Romans, descendants of Edom, as Chazal tell us. The Nefesh ha-Chayyim, in the first sha‘ar, points out that everything in our physical world exists only because there is a metaphysical counterpart in the ‘alma dë-qushta. It is the metaphysical roots of our world to which we have access through Torah and mitzvoth or, G-d forbid, their neglect. It was only possible for the Romans to breach the walls of the Holy City, and put the torch to the Temple, because first, through our many sins, the Heavenly Temple had been reduced to a tottering, hollowed-out shell.
When the Béyth ha-Miqdash shel Ma‘ala is restored, through our following our tzaddiqim mëtzuyyanin in application of Torah and mitzvoth, we shall once again have the Béyth ha-Miqdash shel Mata. Let that be our goal.
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