A.
This week’s parasha includes the account of Miriam’s and Aharon’s deaths. It is interesting to note that, far more than in the case of Miriam, the Torah is at pains to pin-point the location where Aharon died: ויאמר ד' אל משה ואל אהרן בהר ההר על גבול ארץ אדום לאמר: יאסף אהרן אל עמיו כי לא יבא אל הארץ אשר נתתי לבני ישראל על אשר מריתם את פי במי מריבה: (“And Ha-Shem said to Moshe and to Aharon at Hor, the mountain on the border of the land of Edom, to say: Aharon will be gathered to his peoples, for he will not come to the land which I have given the bënei Yisra’él because you rebelled [against] My word at Mei Mëriva”; XX, 23-24).
Mei Mëriva – “The Water of Strife” – is the name given the location where Miriam died, and the miraculous well which had followed Israel though the desert ceased to flow. The thirsty nation descended on Moshe and Aharon, who sought Divine guidance. G-d told them to speak to a certain rock, and water would gush forth. Accompanied by the maddening crowd, Moshe momentarily lost his temper, and in a fleeting flash of anger struck the rock instead of speaking to it. The water gushed forth anyhow, but G-d informed them: יען לא האמנתם בי להקדישני לעיני בני ישראל לכן לא תביאו את הקהל הזה אל הארץ אשר נתתי להם (“...Since you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the bënei Yisra’él; therefore you will not bring this community to the land which I have given them”; ibid., 12).
The second person plural is used relentlessly throughout the account when G-d speaks to Moshe and Aharon – clearly, the commandment to speak to the rock was incumbent on both of them, and Aharon’s failure to restrain Moshe in his momentary excess of exasperation, or at least speak to the rock whilst Moshe was striking it, which would have rendered the situation somewhat more ambiguous, is presumably the failure which led to Aharon’s being included in the punishment with Moshe.
But why did he die when he did, and where he did? Why does the Torah care that we know it was at “Hor, the mountain on the border of the land of Edom”?
B.
In order to appreciate what the Torah is trying to tell us here, it is first necessary to grasp what the Torah means when it tells us that G-d is א-ל אמונה ואין עול (“G-d of faithfulness and there is no injustice”; Deuteronomy XXXII, 4).
The Maharam Hagiz explains the underlying concept thus: כבר נודע גודל חסדיו ית' שתמיד הוא מטה כלפי חסד וקודם שיגמר דינו של אדם א' להתחייב בו דן אותו לא לפי מעשיו לבד אלא לפי הצער שיגיע תחלה לבניו ולבני ביתו אם ראויים לכך או לאו ואם מצאן ראויים דן אותו לפי הצער שיגיע לכל בני משפחתו ואח"כ עם כל בני המדינה ואח"כ בכללות כל העולם. ואם בכל כלל ופרט מהנזכרים נמצאו חייבים באותו צער אשר יגיע להם או עונש במיתת אותו המסוכן שנכנס לקולר אזי ימות או יענש כפי המשפט צדק שנתחייב בו. אמנם אם איזה פרט מהנזכרים אינו ראוי לקבל אותו צער בזכותו של אותו פרטי ניצול אע"פ שהוא מצד עצמו נתחייב בדין (“The greatness of His kindnesses is already known, that He always leans toward kindness, and before the judgment of any person is sealed to convict him, He judges [that person] not according to his deeds alone, but according to the pain which will reach first, all his children and the members of his household; are they deserving of it or not. And if He finds them deserving, He judges him according to the pain which will reach all of his family members, and afterwards with all the residents of his city, and then will all the world. And if, every group and individual of those mentioned are found deserving of that pain or punishment which will come to them through the death of the endangered one who has entered into peril, then that one will die or be punished according to the just judgment with which he has been convicted; however, if any individual amongst those mentioned is not deserving to receive the pain or punishment, [the accused] is rescued, in the merit of that individual, even though he is objectively guilty in and of himself”; הקדמה לספר שו"ת שתי הלחם).
In other words, no properly constituted béyth din judges alone. Whilst they do the best they can to consider evidence and testimony and try logically to apply the principles of halacha to a given case, judgment also proceeds at a higher level, as the Divine Judge considers the impact punishing the accused might have on the broader world around him. Should his conviction impinge negatively on someone who has done nothing to deserve it, G-d calls the attention of the dayyanim to some mitigating factor in the evidence to acquit him, even if, considered solely from his own viewpoint, he is in fact guilty. The verdict of guilt or innocence which béyth din reaches is never arbitrary, and always logically justified on the evidence; however, if the accused has no positive impact on anyone around him, the evidence is different. This does not necessarily mean that he “gets away” with anything, only that, in such a case, judgment, if deserved is deferred to some other occasion; his fate hangs from a thread, and is dependent on others. So, if the dayyanim diligently do their job, G-d is “G-d of faithfulness; there is no injustice."
King David mentions this process repeatedly. For instance, he sings אלקים נצב בעדת א-ל בקרב אלהים ישפט (“G-d is present in the Divine assembly; in the midst of the judges, He render judgment”; Psalms LXXXII, 1; ע"ע סוטה מ"ז ואבות פ"ה מי"ח). Or, משפטי ד' אמת צדקו יחדיו (“Ha-Shem’s judgments are true, completely justified together”; ibid., XIX, 7).
If this is true of earthly courts, how much more so is it true of cases judged solely in the Heavenly Court. This concept underlies many Jewish practices; for example, it underlies the birkath ha-Gomél recited when has come successfully out of a dangerous situation refers to G-d as הגומל לחייבים טובות (“the One Who grants good things to the guilty”).
Considerations of the sort discussed by the Maharam Hagiz are part of halacha pësuqa. To cite only one example, Rabbi Eli‘ezer Yëhuda Waldenberg זצ"ל ruled in a case in which a man traveling by sea was in need of urgent (but not life-threatening) surgery, as a result of which he could safely wait until he reached land. Citing a comment of the Maharsha (ראש השנה י"ז:) that a seafarer is considered uniquely alone, Rabbi Waldenberg ruled that he should wait until he reached land and reëstablished his connection with his family and community, lest being judged solely on his own merits prove insufficient (ציץ אליעזר חי"ב סי' י"ח ).
With this in mind, let us return to our passage.
C.
Rashi was clearly bothered by our question, and sought his answer in the Midrash Tanhuma. מגיד שמפני שנתחברו כאן להתקרב לעשו הרשע נפרצו מעשיהם וחסרו הצדיק הזה וכן הנביא או' ליהושפט "בהתחברך עם אחזי' פרץ ד' את מעשיך" (“[The verse] relates that because they had joined together here to approach the evil ‘Esav [i.e., the ancestor of Edom; cf. vv. 14-21], their works were breached and they lost this tzaddiq [Aharon]; and so, too, does the prophet say to Yëhoshafat ‘Because you joined together with Ahazyahu, Ha-Shem has breached your works’ [II Chronicles XX, 37]”).
The Torah tells us that Aharon died because of his complicity in the sin of Mei Mëriva, as confirmed in the Talmud (שבת נ"ה:); but the timing of his demise was set by the general loss of merit caused by Israel’s attempt to rely on the Edomim.
The Sëfath Emeth (מובא במעינה של תורה) finds evidence of this in the subsequent verse, ויראו כל העדה כי גוע אהרן ויבכו את אברן שלשים יום כל בית ישראל (“And the entire community feared because Aharon had perished, and the whole house of Israel mourned Aharon thirty days”; XX, 29).
As the Talmud explains, the fear was caused by the disappearance of the ‘ananei ha-kavod, the “clouds of honor” which had accompanied Israel throughout their desert sojourn as the visible sign of the cocoon of Divine protection in which they had wandered. Indeed, the very next verse reads: וישמע הכנעני מלך ערד וגו' (“And the Këna‘ani, king of ‘Arad, heard....”, and the Talmud goes on to say that what he heard was that Aharon had died and the clouds had vanished, which he read as Divine permission to attack Israel (עיי' תענית ט.).
Why, asks the Sëfath Emeth, did Israel deserve the suffering at this juncture, which brought about the execution of Aharon’s sentence in the béyth Din shel Ma‘la? Because of their approach to the evil Edomim....
D.
The faith of Israel is that G-d indeed runs the world, and does so with perfect justice. It is simply the case that we are not allowed to examine the books, and so we do not always see the working out of every intricacy of that Divine justice. Sometimes, it may seem arbitrary; we are assured that it is not.
This core principle of assured reward and punishment, whether in this world or the next, also tells us that, thanks to the covenant into which we entered at Sinai, if we do our utmost to fulfill our end of the bargain by learning Torah and observing its precepts, then we will be taken care of as well. However dark things may appear, the remedy has been put in place before the malady. If we do our part, we need fear no oppressor or aggressor; it is when we forget this fundamental principle that such fears are all too justified.
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