Parshas Chukas
The Power of a Zechus
By: Daniel Listhaus
“...And Miriam died there....And there was no water for the assembly.”
-Chukas 20:1-2
Rashi1 comments that from the juxtaposition of these verses we see that for the entire forty years in the desert prior to this point, the well that the Jews had access to, which followed them on their journey, was only deserved through Miriam's zechus (merit). This is why when she died, the well disappeared and hid among the other rocks.
What was Miriam's zechus which had the capacity of providing drinks to an entire population and their animals in the hot desert?
Before Moshe Rabeinu was born, Pharaoh made a decree that all baby boys be killed. Rashi2 there writes that in response to this, Amram, the father of Moshe, divorced his wife, Yocheved. Once he divorced his wife, the rest of the Jews then divorced their wives as well, as Amram was a leading Gadol Hador (esteemed leader of the generation) and what he did was p'sak halacha (halachik ruling). Meanwhile, Miriam had a prophecy that her future brother would be the savior of the Jewish people. So, she went over to her father with the following argument. She said that his “decree” was worse than Pharaoh’s; for Pharaoh only decreed that the boys be killed, yet Amram was essentially preventing both boys and girls from being born. Miriam won the debate, Amram remarried his wife, and as a result, Moshe was born.
When it came to the point in time when it was impossible to hide Moshe from the Egyptians, Yocheved placed Moshe in a homemade basket and sent him along the Nile river. The passuk describes that Miriam stood on the side by the banks of the river to see what would happen to her brother, Moshe. The meforshim (commentaries) explain that Miriam received a tremendous mitzva and zechus from standing and watching Moshe. It was this zechus that merited her being the source of providing water to the b'nei Yisroel in the midbar.
The difficulty with this is that the Gemara3 states that the reason Miriam stood and waited by the river was because she was curious if her prophecy would come true. If so, it becomes harder to understand what the huge zechus was. Miriam had a prophecy and wanted to see if it was correct. It seems that the primary reason for her being there was not to babysit Moshe from a distance, but rather out of curiosity if she knew how to interpret her prophecy correctly.
At the end of this week's Parsha, amongst the wars that take place, the giant Og appears on the scene holding a mountain as long and wide as the entire Jewish camp. The fact alone that he was threatening the destruction of the entire Jewish population was indeed no threat to Moshe and the Jews, because they understood that they had the yad Hashem (“hand” of Hashem) on their side and that nothing could counter such a force. Yet, we see from the fact that Hashem had to tell Moshe, “Do not fear him...”4 that Moshe was indeed afraid, and seemingly, specifically of Og. Rashi5 explains that Moshe was afraid to fight because Og had a zechus on his side. In Parshas Lech-Lecha, the Torah writes6, “And they [the four kings] captured Lot (Avraham's brother-in-law).... And the fugitive came and told Avram...” Rashi there comments that the “fugitive” was Og; and that the reason he had suddenly decided to be such a nice, caring person was because if what he intended to do. His intentions were that he hoped Avraham would be killed in battle trying to rescue Lot, and that he would be able to marry Sarah. Nonetheless, despite his intentions, the mere fact that he did a good thing by aiding Avraham, merited him a zechus deserving of reward which, over five-hundred years later, Moshe was afraid to stand up against in battle.
Let us review this one more time, for it is truly mind-boggling. Moshe Rabeinu was the leader of b'nei Yisroel, he was the messenger of Hashem and the means of bringing forth the plagues upon Egypt, he split the sea, received the Torah, and spoke to Hashem face to face as one speaks to a friend. Og, on the other hand, was a low-life, self centered individual who had one merit, which is barely a merit at all as he did it for purely selfish reasons. The scale balancing Og versus Moshe should be that Moshe would weigh down the scale so much and so fast that Og would go flying in the air as if catapulted! Was this really something that Moshe had to worry about to the point that Hashem actually had to calm him down and tell him not to worry?
How could we understand these two zechusim working in this week's parsha? The zechus of Miriam and the zechus of Og each seem so small, and a surprising that these are even deemed as merits?
The only way to understand this, is that it must be we see from here the tremendous power of a zechus mitzva. Despite the true reasons behind the good deeds Miriam and Og did, in the end of the day, something good was done – the accomplishment of a mtzva. Such actions create a real force in the world which work as a zechus.
The Gemara7 quotes Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav as saying, “A person should always engage involve himself in [learning] Torah and [performing] mitzvos even if she'lo l'shma (for ulterior motives instead of learning Torah and doing mitzvos to become closer to Hashem), because from doing them she'lo l'shma, one will eventually come to learn Torah and perform mitzvos for their sake – l'shma. The Gemara then continues to demonstrate this from Balak. In next week's Parsha, Balak hires Bilaam to curse the Jews. Bilaam, though, first requests of Balak, to build seven alters and offer karbanos on them to Hashem8. The Gemara explains that because Balak brought forty-two animals to Hashem as karbanos9, he was zocheh to have Rus, and ultimately Dovid Hamelech come from him.
Balak was an extremely wicked person with only one thing in mind – to kill the Jews. Yet, despite the way through which he merited his zechus, his reward was still great. Again, we see the tremendous ramifications of a zechus in this world.
We do not understand how zechusim work, what type of control we have over them, or when Hashem decides to use them on our behalf. One thing is for sure, though, we see that even the power of a seemingly puny zechus is tremendous. Even when the mitzva is done shelo l'shma, for selfish reasons, or even “accidentally” in order to do something terrible, the mere fact that something positive occurred is enough to create a strong force. How much more so must be the zechus of learning or performing mitzvos l'shma!
May we all merit to recognize the real ramifications of our actions and see the effects of our positive actions in as clear of a way as was visible in the midbar.
1Chukas 20:2
2Shemos 2:1
3Sotah 13a
4Chukas 21:34
5Chukas 21:34
6Lech Lecha 14:12-13
7Horiyos 10b
8Balak 23:1-2
9He built seven alters in three places. On each he offered a bull and a ram. 7 x 3 x 2 = 42
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