Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShevua, Chukas is being sponsored by Dr. Ari and Rivka Stern of Ramat Beit Shemesh dedicated in honor of their children and grandchildren — that they should all be matzliyach to do the Ratzon Hashem and for a refuah shleima for all of the cholim as well as for the safe return of all Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages — and salvation and true peace for all of Am Yisrael. To the Stern family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses. To the Stern family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
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We open our vort for with an excerpt from Rabbi Shmuel Goldin Parsha summary in his sefer, “Unlocking the Torah Text,” Sefer Bamidbar Parsha summary on our Parshat Chukas (page 180) :
The people rose to complain against Hashem and Moshe over the rigors of the continuing journey and Hashem responds by releasing an attack of poisonous serpents. The Am turn to Moshe, beseeching him to pray for their salvation. In response to Moshe’s prayers, Hashem commands him to fashion a copper serpent and place it on a pole in full view of the people. Hashem instructs all victims of the serpent’s bites to gaze upon the copper serpent and thereby survive. (Rabbi Goldin summarizing Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 21, posukim 4 – 9)
Nechama Leibowitz renders to English Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 21, posuk 8 and provides commentary citing the Mishnah on Rosh Hashanah, the Zohar and Rav Hirsch in her Sefer, “Studies in Bamidbar (pages 263 – 264) :
“And the Lord said unto Moshe, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole: and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live.”
This verse has puzzled many commentators.
An answer is tendered by the Zohar (Shelah, 175) :
“Everyone that was bitten, when he looks upon, shall live.” Why? As soon as he (the victim) turns his eyes and sees the likeness of the serpent, he forthwith becomes filled with awe and prays to the Lord, knowing that this was punishment that he deserved. As long as the son sees his father’s strap, he is afraid of his father. Regarding this it is stated: “When he looks upon it, he shall live.” He saw the strap with which He struck — and this led to him being redeemed.
Rav Hirsch explains:
The serpents were sent to show the people that danger beset their every step and it was only thanks to the miraculous and perpetual intervention of Divine Providence that they were able to proceed, unharmed. Their path was so smooth that they failed to perceive the constant miracle in their unmolested progress. Every victim of the serpent’s venom had to concentrate his attention on the image of the brazen serpent, to enable him to realise that, even after Hashem had delivered him from the serpents, there lay ahead of him fresh dangers. He had to thank Divine Providence for every minute of security granted him. ….Happy is he who takes note of the unseen “fiery serpents” that beset his path, put to flight by the Almighty… In this lies the healing power of the serpent, Every victim had always to bear in mind the bite of the serpent “and everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it, he shall live.
Rabbi David Feinstein, z”l renders to English Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 21, posuk 9 and provides commentary on the posuk citing Rashi in his Sefer, “Kol Dodi” (page 234) :
“And Moshe made a copper snake and placed it on a pillar. If the snake bit a man and he looked at the copper snake, he would live.”
Rashi comments that Hashem had not told Moshe to make a snake from copper. Moshe did so on his own initiative, based on the following reasoning: “Hashem spoke of nachash: snake or magic, so I will make it from nechoshet: copper, since one word alludes to the other.” Surely, Moshe had something in mind other than a mere similarity in spelling; exactly what connection did he see between these words, and how did he plan to make use of it.
The fiery snakes that had been sent by Hashem to punish the Jews for speaking loshon hora (gossip or slander) about Hashem, by complaining that He had led the people out into the desert to die. If we look closely, we find a common thread between the sin, the punishment, and Moshe’s cure. It seems “magical” that a snake can kill just by spitting out venom. Similarly, when people speak loshon hora, they are “magically” fooling themselves into thinking that it is proper for them to spread a particular piece of gossip, when really they are transgressing one of the Torah’s most serious prohibitions.
Moshe saw this similarity between the snake’s magic and the magic of loshon hora, and he tried to fight it with a third form of “magic,” the copper’s ability to fool people into thinking it was gold, a far more precious substance. In Rashi’s explanation, this is how Moshe used a play on words to eradicate the pestilence.
Rabbi Goldin provides commentary, questions and Rabbinic understanding regarding the copper serpent (“Unlocking the Torah Text,” Sefer Bamidbar, pages 203 – 205) :
…Scholars…, unwilling to accept this episode at face value, struggle to find logical meaning in the symbol of the copper serpent.
How can Hashem Who commanded at Sinai “You shall not make for yourself a graven image nor any likeness of that which is in the Heavens above or that which is on the earth below or that which is in the water beneath the earth (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Sh’mos, Perek 20, posuk 4) now instruct Moshe to create what seems to be Divinely sanctioned idolatry?
Why doesn’t Hashem simply suspend the attack of the serpents without introduction of this strange symbol?
Rabbinic recognition of the serious philosophical issues raised by this episode is evidenced by a dramatic departure from the norm in the Mishne.
In the third chapter of the tractate of Rosh Hashana, the Mishne interrupts its Halachic discourse to raise two philosophical questions. The second of which reads as follows: “Does a [copper] serpent cause death; or does a [copper] serpent grant life? Rather, when Israel glanced Heavenward and submitted their hearts to their Father in the Heavens they were cured; and if not they perished.” (Rabbi Goldin citing Mishne Rosh Hashana Perek 3, posuk 8)
Clearly, to the Rabbinic mind, no supernatural powers can be attributed to the copper serpent. Any cure granted to Am Yisrael could only have been issued from Hashem Himself.
The Rabbis of the Mishne, however, seem to beg the central question. If the B’nei Yisrael were cured when they “submitted their hearts to their Father in the Heavens,” why was the copper serpent necessary at all? If this event is simply an example of Divine response to mortal prayer, what role does the copper serpent play?
Some… consider the episode of the copper serpent to be beyond the realm of human understanding. The Ibn Ezra… connects our questions concerning this event to the shroud of mystery that envelops all Divinely ordained miracles. Even during moments of clearest Divine Revelation, Hashem’s ways remain beyond our ken [noun: knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception].
We can no more comprehend why Hashem commands Moshe to perform a miracle through the medium of a manufactured serpent than we can understand why a tree branch should sweeten the waters of Mara (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Sh’mos, Perek 15, posukim 22 – 25) or why, much later in our history (Rabbi Goldin citing Melachim II, Perek 20, posuk 7), date honey should cure King Chizkiyahu’s affliction of boils (Rabbi Goldin citing Ibn Ezra on Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 21, posuk 8)
Just as the Am complained, spoke loshon hora about Moshe, and Hashem were punished with lethal, poisonous snake venom, with the only cure being to look up at a copper snake and pray to the Almighty, so too, in our generations sectors of our people, including certain high military command echelons, have spoken loshon hora about Torah, about Eretz Yisrael — our rights to our Land by Divine Covenant — by way of falsities — regarding Israel’s governance, judicial reform, myths and fakes such as the “palestinian
The military high command echelons, by their loshon hora against, and their mistreatment and threats aimed at their border guard subordinates, were soo enamored (adjective: charmed or captivated) and sold on their misconceptions of Hamas’ intentions, which soo fit in with their evolved warped ideologies and with their alignment with politicians seeking to topple the current governing coalition at any cost. In acting in this manner, the high command echelons not only violated Divine Commands against vexing (verb – used with object: to torment; trouble; distress; plague; worry) by words, but in vexing these female border guards by their words, they decimated the security of Israel’s border towns and risked the lives and security of all of Israel. The results: six-hundred plus days of war, over 1,200 Jews savagely murdered and over 850 Chayalim fatalities in the war.
This author prefers the pshat of casting eyes skyward toward Shemayim and submission of our hearts to Hashem. In this brutal, protracted (adjective: drawn out or lengthened in time; extended in duration) war we’ve been enduring, unified sincere hearts and tefillot, by all sectors of Am Yisrael — we who live in Eretz Yisrael and our brethren in Chutz L’Aretz, aimed toward Shemayim seem as crucial to victory by the Yad Hashem over an animalistic, barbarious, sub-human enemy as was casting one’s eyes and heart toward Shemayim via that copper serpent was in healing the wounds inflicted by live serpents in Bamidbar.
We seem to be seeing positive changes with appointments of a new defense minister, foreign minister and military chief of staff who seem to be signaling a more zealous, diligent command structure and strategy based on valid understandings of their adversary’s intentions and concern for Israel’s sovereignty and security. The pre-emptive and ongoing actions against Iran are nothing short of miraculous, B’Yad Hashem. May we see our government and military become Totally self-sufficient as to manufacture of military equipment and aircraft, weaponry, munitions, as well as showing independence of actions responding to any threat, regardless of so-called “super powers.” And may see, from here on, that border guard personnel at all points of possible danger are listened to and treated with respect and dignity. May these words come to fruition B’Esrat Hashem.
Not withstanding the previous horrendous “ceasefires” and drips and drabs of hostages in exchange for thousands of bloody-handed terrorists, may it be that our Chayalim, regardless of the machinations of malfeasance and nonfeasance by their previous high command to date, but now under command of both a new defense minister and chief of staff, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, Islamic Jihad, their other terrorist buddies, UNWRA and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds. May our Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. May we see a Final and Decisive victory by our Chayalim, mandated by a government secure in it’s foremost service of and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif e permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fifth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, the recent recovery of the remains of Tzvi Feldman as well as the recovery of the remains of Oron Shaul as should the remains of the other chayal from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we see, in 5785, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
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