Thoughts on the Parsha
Parshas Chukas
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 passukim
(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 for forty years?
Before
Moshe Rabbeinu
was born, Pharaoh made a decree that all baby boys be killed. Rashi2
writes that in response to this law, 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. After all, Amram was the
leading Gadol
Hador
(esteemed leader of the generation) and what he did was viewed as
p'sak
halacha (halachik
ruling) for others to live by. 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)3
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
(desert).
The difficulty with this is that the Gemara4
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 was correct in
her interpretation of her prophecy.
At
the end of this week's parsha5,
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.6
The fact alone that he was threatening the destruction of the entire
Jewish population should have indeed been 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...”7
that Moshe was
indeed
afraid, and seemingly, specifically of Og. Rashi8
explains that Moshe was afraid to fight because Og had a zechus
on
his side. In Parshas
Lech-Lecha,
the Torah writes9,
“And they [the four kings] captured Lot (Avraham's
brother-in-law).... And the fugitive came and told Avram...” Rashi10
there comments that the “fugitive” was Og; and that the reason he
had suddenly decided to be such a nice, caring person was because of
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
Rabbeinu
was the leader of b'nei
Yisroel,
he was the messenger of Hashem and the means of bringing forth the
plagues upon Mitzrayim.
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 puny merit, which is
barely a merit at all as he did it for purely selfish reasons. In a
scale balancing Og versus Moshe, the ressult should be that Moshe
would weigh down the scale so much and so fast that Og would go
flying, catapulted in the air. 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 mitzva.
Such actions create a real force in the world which work as a zechus.
The
Gemara11
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 Hashem12.
The Gemara explains that because Balak brought forty-two animals to
Hashem as karbanos13,
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 she'lo
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.
1Baidbar
20:2 see also Rashi
Gemara Shabbos 35a
2Shemos
2:1
3Sifsei
Chochomim Bamidbar 20:2 brings
this from Rabbeinu
Bechayai
4Sotah
13a
5Bamidbar
21:33
6See
Rashi Bamidbar 21:35 who
quotes the Gemara Berachos 54b
7Bamidbar
21:34
8Bamidbar
21:34
9Beraishis
14:12-13
10Ibid.
11Horiyos
10b
12Bamidbar
23:1-2
13He
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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