A.
וידבר ד' אל משה לאמר: נקם את נקמת בני ישראל מאת המדינים אחר תאסף אל עמיך: וידבר משה אל העם לאמר החלצו מאתכם אנשים לצבא ויהיו על מדין לתת נקמת ד' במדין: אלף למטה אלף למטה לכל מטות ישראל תשלחו לצבא: ותמסרו מאלפי ישראל אלף למטה שנים עשר אלף חלוצי צבא: (“And Ha-Shem spoke to Moshe to say, 'Take the vengeance of the bënei Yisra’él from the Midyanim; after, you will be gathered to your peoples. And Moshe spoke to the people to say, From amongst you men are to be equipped for the army, and they will be upon Midyan to wreak the vengeance of Ha-Shem on Midyan. A thousand per staff, a thousand per staff [elef la-matte] of all the staffs of Israel shall you send to the army. And there shall be given over from the thousands of Israel a thousand per staff, twelve thousand men equipped for the army”; XXXI, 1-5).
Israel had ample reason to wreak vengeance on Midyan, as we learnt in the last two parashoth. However, two oddities stand out in the passage supra which require comment, and suggest that this war was more than it seems on the surface:
(1) The change in language between G-d’s command to Moshe (niqmath bënei Yisra’él) and Moshe’s transmittal of that command to Israel (niqmath Ha-Shem); and
(2) The odd repetition of the phrase elef la-matte, occurring three times in the course of two verses.
B.
Hazal take note of the first issue: הקב"ה אמר נקמת בני ישראל ומשה אמר נקמת ד' במדין. אמר הקב"ה להם אינו אלא דיקו שלכם שגרמו לי להזיק אתכם. אמר משה רבון עולמים אם היינו ערלים או עובדי ע"ז או כופרי מצות לא היו שונאין אותנו ואינן רודפין אחרינו אלא בשביל תורה ומצות שנתת לנו. הלכך הנקמה שלך לתת נקמת ד' במדין: (“The Holy One, Blessed is He said, 'niqmath bënei Yisra’él,' and Moshe said, 'niqmath Ha-Shem bë-Midyan.' Said the Holy One, Blessed is He, 'It is only your injury which caused Me to hurt you.' Said Moshe, 'Master of the worlds, if we were uncircumcised, or idolators, or deniers of mitzvoth, they would not hate us and persecute us; rather, it is for Torah and mitzvoth which You gave to us. Therefore, the vengeance is Yours, "to wreak the vengeance of Ha-Shem on Midyan"’”; במדבר רבה פכ"ב סי' ב' וע"ע מתנות כהונה שם ד"ה בתנחומא ).
Rashi simply comments שהעומד כנגד ישראל כאלו עומד כנגד הקב"ה (“that one who stands against Israel is as though he stands against the Holy One, Blessed is He.”).
The Sifrei makes another point: that מואב ומדין מימיהם לא עשו שלום זה עם זה שנאמר "המכה את מדין בשדה מואב" וכשבאו להלחם עם ישראל עשו שלום זה עם זה ונלחמו בישראל (“since their beginnings, Mo’av and Midyan had never ,made peace, as it is written, ‘who smote Midyan in the field of Mo’av’ [Genesis XXXVI, 35], and when they came to fight with Israel, they made peace one with the other and fought against Israel”; פרשתנו פיסקא ה' בגירסת הגר"א), and the Nëtziv elaborates: דלכן קינא ד' יותר במדין ממואב משום שהמואבים הראו לישראל פנים של אהבה ולא גלו שנאת לבבם משום שהיו מתיראים שהיו שוללים אותם כו' אבל מדינים לא היו יראים מהם וגלו מצפוני לבבם ונתקוטטו ובזזו אותם וגו' (“that Ha-Shem was more zealous concerning Midyan than Mo’av, because the Mo’avim showed Israel a face of love, and did not reveal the hatred of their heart, because they were afraid of [Israel] that they would annihilate them... But the Midyanim were not afraid of them and revealed the sentiments of their heart and fought and plundered them....”; עמק הנצי"ב שם ד"ה אלא מאת מדינים).
It seems clear that the Midyani animus toward Ha-Shem and His Torah ran very deep and was of ancient origin, even pre-dating the founding of Israel, the Torah-nation, at Sinai, as evident from the Midyani hostility to Yithro, kohén Midyan, when he came to recognize the Most High (cf. Exodus II, 16-17), and from the later Midyani alliance with the equally implacable ‘Amaléq (cf., e.g., Judges VI, 3, I Samuel XIV, 6). It is plain that something very deep and significant was occurring in this war, something beyond a mere reprisal raid. What might it have been?
C.
The account of the Midyani War follows immediately on a passage concerning the laws governing oaths (shëvu‘oth) in Israel, which seems unrelated to the war. Yet, the account of the war begins with vav ha-hibbur, translated “and,” strongly suggesting a connection between the two.
The initial passage is also introduced oddly, Moshe saying, “this is the word (ze ha-davar) which Ha-Shem has commanded.” The Sifrei comments: כשם שנתנבאו כל הנביאים ב"כה אמר" כך נתנבא משה ב"כה אמר" ומוסיף "זה הדבר" (“Just as all the prophets prophesied with ‘Thus said [Ha-Shem]’, so did Moshe prophesy with ‘thus said’, adding ‘ze ha-davar’”; פרשתנו פיסקא א' בגירסת הגר"א).
The Bë’ér Moshe explains that the significance of this addition is that it denotes a revelation to Moshe, on a level far above that of the other prophets (and therefore certainly beyond us), of the metaphysical underpinnings of our universe. The universe came into being through G-d’s utterances, as a cursory review of Genesis I reveals. It continues to exist, and what we are pleased to consider the laws of nature remain consistent, because those utterances, those “words,” endure. This finds allusion in many biblical verses, e.g. לעולם ד' דברך נצב בשמים (“For the universe [lë-‘olam], Ha-Shem, Your word is established in the heavens”; Psalms CXIX, 89), or ודבר אלקינו יקום לעולם ודבריו חיים וקיימים לעד (“And the word of our G-d stands for the universe [lë-‘olam] and His words live and exist for ever”; Isaiah XL, 8).
The essence of all physical objects and phenomena in this world, the information content, the DNA, as it were, necessary for them to exist, is contained in the combinations of letters of the words in the Holy Language which describe them, ואלו היו האותיות מסתלקות כרגע ח"ו וחוזרות למקורן היו השמים והארץ אין ואפס ממש והיו כלא היו כלל כו' וכן כל הברואים שבכל העולמות עליונים ותחתונים וגו' (“and if the letters were to vanish for an instant, G-d forbid, and return to their Source, the heavens and the earth would literally be negated and nothing, and would be as though they never were... and so it is with all created things in all the worlds above and below...;עיי' תניא שער היחוד והאמונה פ"א ).
This also applies to the organization of all of the nations; each of them is sustained by the letters, whether that nation has in general a positive function in the world, or a negative one (עיי' תיקוני זהר קט"ז: ). Even in the latter case, ועוד כח אחד של קדושה המחיי' אותם וכו' וכשאנו מסלקים אותו הנקודה המחיי' אותם אז היו ספירות דקליפה נשארים מתים ואין להם חהות (“there is yet a single power of sanctity which sustains them... and if we remove that point which sustains them, then the negative forces remain dead and have no vitality”; פרי עץ חיים שער הקרבנות פ"ה).
This was Moshe’s task, explains the Rebbe; Moshe was the only one who thoroughly understood the combinations of letters which had been twisted and debased by the Midyanim, and was therefore the only one able to clarify those letters and return them to sanctity, thus disabling the very real disruptive capacity of Midyan. The root of nëqama, “vengeance,” נק"ם, implies the primal root קו"ם, “arise, stand up,” שהרי משה שורש הדעת של ישראל, לפיכך ציוה לו השי"ת "נקום נקמת בני ישראל" ויתפרש הלשון "נקום נקמת" על הקמת האותיות הנפולות בידי המדינים (“For Moshe is the root of Israel’s knowledge, therefore Ha-Shem commanded him nëqom niqmath bënei Yisra’él, and the phrase nëqom niqmath is clarified in reference to raising up the letters [haqamath ha-othiyoth] fallen at the hands of the Midyanim”).
Midyan, of Avrahamic origin like Israel, product of his union with Qëtura (cf. Genesis XXV, 1) represented so fundamental a warping of those letters that only Moshe was capable of reaching out and down to untangle the skein of their combinations and restore the letters to their sanctity.
After that it was up to Israel to keep them straight, and that is where the phrase elef la-matte comes in.
D.
The root of the word elef, אל"ף, has several connotations which appear unrelated: There is a sense of primacy or leadership (aluf, “chief”); of intensive, immersive learning and teaching (the verbs alaf and illéf; cf. Job XXXIII, 33, ואאלפך חכמה [“and I taught you wisdom”]); and the number 1,000 (elef). In my humble opinion, the root is indicative of the potential resident in every individual (alef, first letter of the alphabet with a gimatriya of one), which can be multiplied a thousand-fold and rising to leadership through the power of learning, the diligent study of the Torah taught Israel by Moshe. Indeed, Hazal define אל"ף as a notreiqon: א'מת ל'מד פ'יך שתזכה לחיי העה"ב (“Your mouth has learnt truth that you will merit the world to come’; אותיות דר' עקיבא א').
For the stability of the universe is not a given, it is conditional. אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה, G-d told Yirmëyahu, חקות שמים וארף לא שמתי (“If My covenant does not exist by day and by night, I did not set the laws of heaven and earth”; Jeremiah XXXIII, 25; ע"ע עבודה זרה ב:, שבת פ"ח. וזוה"ק ח"ג קצ"ג. וקצ"ח: ). Once Moshe made the world safe for the Torah-nation, the rest is up to us.
We see today that implacable enemies of Israel, Leftists and Muslim fanatics who otherwise have nothing in common, are united in their hatred of Israel, much as Midyan and Mo’av were, (interestingly, the Muslims also originating from the union of Avraham with a woman other than Sara), the Leftists, whose timidity might have prevented them from venting that hatred, now emboldened to do so. The secret of untwisting the skein, of nullifying this unholy partnership, is in our hands; as our parasha teaches us, it was placed there by Moshe, when he fought Midyan.
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