Rabbi Frand on Parshas Beha'aloscha
These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher
Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: Tape # 376, Davening
For A Choleh. Good Shabbos!
The Source of Tzipporah's Error Was Her Husband's Modesty
The pasuk [verse] at the end of this week's parsha says that Miriam and
Aharon spoke about their brother Moshe "concerning the Kushis woman that he
married" [Bamdibar 12:1]. Rashi cites the Medrash, which elaborates on the
background of this conversation. The narration of Miriam's conversation with
Aharon is immediately preceded by the incident with Eldad and Meidad. Eldad
and Meidad were suddenly given the gift of prophecy. Apparently, Moshe's
wife was standing in the presence of Miriam. She made an off-hand comment,
"Oh their poor wives - they effectively just lost their husbands!"
Tzipporah bemoaned the fact that Mrs. Eldad and Mrs. Meidad were now going
to become "prophet widows." "Their husbands will not have anything to do
with them any longer. That is what happened to me. Moshe, my husband, became
a prophet and he has nothing to do with me anymore."
Miriam was taken aback by this comment. "Wait a minute," she thought to
herself. "I am a prophetess, my brother Aharon is a prophet. We do not have
this restriction with our spouses." They began questioning Moshe's behavior
with his wife.
G-d heard their comments. G-d testified regarding Moshe's uniqueness and to
the fact that Moshe left his wife under Divine instruction. They were
therefore wrong in criticizing Moshe.
This is the "story." But there is one pasuk in the narration that does not
fit in. In the middle of the narration, the pasuk says, "And the man Moshe
was the most modest man on the face of the earth" [12:3]. What is this pasuk
doing here? It is not germane to the subject matter! Perhaps a statement
testifying to Moshe's status as the greatest of prophets would be relevant.
However, his status as the most modest of people does not seem to fit in
with the rest of the story.
The Avos D'Rav Nassan explains the pasuk in light of Miriam's dialogue with
Aharon. Miriam had said "I am a prophetess and I did not need to leave my
husband." Aharon had said "I am a prophet and I did not have to leave my
wife." They concluded that the reason Moshe acted differently must be
because he was haughty (a ba'al ga-avah). "It must be out of conceit and
arrogance that Moshe concluded he is now above family life."
That is why G-d Himself came and testified that they were entirely wrong
in their analysis of the situation. "This has nothing to do with Moshe
Rabbeinu's arrogance. On the contrary - he is the most modest person who
ever lived."
It was, in fact, Moshe Rabbeinu's modesty that caused Tzipporah to
misinterpret his separation from her and caused her to conclude that the
wives of Eldad and Meidad would suffer the same fate. Moshe was too humble
to tell his wife that G-d told him he was special - the most special
prophet who ever lived - and that's why he had to separate from his wife.
Moshe just explained to his wife that they could not live together any
longer because he was a prophet. She assumed that this was a rule that
applied to all prophets. Moshe's modesty is very germane to the whole
story, because that is what caused his wife to err in the first place when
she assumed that Eldad and Meidad would now have to separate from their
wives.
It is ironic that Moshe's attempt at concealing the unique nature of his
prophecy brought about this whole sequence of events, and which required
G-d to openly declare his special status.
The other lesson is one which we see very often in life. When people attack
another individual about a perceived lack in a certain character trait, it
usually turns out that the particular character trait is the person's most
outstanding attribute.
Many times people attack someone for not being honest when in fact the
person is incredibly honest. People attack someone and call him conceited
when the opposite is true, he is extremely humble. Precisely the area
where people attack others, quite often is the one area where those being
attacked are beyond reproach.
The Special Sanctity of Yericho
The pasuk says, "And he said: Please do not leave us, for you know our
encampments in the wilderness and you will be for us as eyes. And it will be
if you go with us that the goodness that G-d will grant to us, we will share
it with you." [Bamidbar 10:31-32]. The Imrei Shammai makes an interesting
and timely comment regarding Moshe's plea with Yisro to not return back to
Midian:
Rashi comments that the 'goodness' refers to the division of the Land of
Israel. He mentions that there was a 500 square amah parcel of land that was
the most fertile area of Yericho which was not divided up in the original
partitioning of the land into tribal portions. This was set aside as a
portion to be given to that tribe in whose land the Bais HaMikdash [Temple]
was going to be built. This would offset and compensate for the fact that
the land used to build the Bais HaMikdash would in effect be taken away from
that tribe. Rashi says that the descendants of Yisro were given the right to
hold onto this land and settle there for the 400 plus years until the Bais
HaMikdash was built in the time of King Shlomo. When the Bais HaMikdash was
built, the Tribe of Benjamin in whose land the Bais HaMikdash was built
received this fertile area of Yericho as compensation.
The Imrei Shammai cites a Talmudic passage [Tamid 30b] which says that it
was possible to hear what was going on in the Bais HaMikdash from Yericho
(despite the significant distance that would make such a phenomenon
miraculous). The Ravad states that the sound waves only reached Yericho. In
other directions, the sounds were not heard anywhere near that distance. The
Ravad explains that since Yericho was the 'consolation' prize to the Tribe
of Binyamin for their lost property in Jerusalem, it contains within itself
some dimension of the sanctity of Jerusalem. Yericho was the first conquest
of Eretz Yisroel in the time of Yehoshua. Just as the first fruits and
Terumah [the first priestly gift] are holy, so too Yericho has a special
sanctity. It is a pseudo Jerusalem. That is why it was possible to hear the
sounds of the Bais HaMikdash in Yericho.
This week's write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher
Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah portion. The
complete list of halachic portions for this parsha from the Commuter
Chavrusah Series are:
Also Available: Mesorah / Artscroll has published a collection
of Rabbi Frand's essays. The book is entitled:
and is available through your local Hebrew book store or from
Project Genesis, 1-410-654-1799.
