~ Thoughts on The Parsha ~
Parshas Chukas
The Power of a Zechus
By: Daniel Listhaus
וַיָּבֹאוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כָּל הָעֵדָה מִדְבַּר צִן
בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן וַיֵּשֶׁב הָעָם בְּקָדֵשׁ וַתָּמָת שָׁם מִרְיָם
וַתִּקָּבֵר שָׁם
וְלֹא הָיָה מַיִם לָעֵדָה וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ עַל משֶׁה וְעַל
אַהֲרֹן
“The entire
congregation of the children of Israel arrived at the desert of Tzin the first
month, and the people settled in Kadeish. Miriam died there and was buried
there. And there was no water for the assembly so they assembled against Moses
and Aharon.”
-Chukas 20:1-2
Rashi[1]
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. Rashi[2] 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 Gemara[4]
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 parsha[5],
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. Rashi[8]
explains that Moshe was afraid to fight because Og had a zechus on his
side. In Parshas Lech-Lecha, the Torah writes[9],
“And they [the four kings] captured Lot (Avraham's brother-in-law).... And the
fugitive came and told Avram...” Rashi[10]
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 result 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
Gemara[11]
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 Hashem[12].
The Gemara explains that because Balak brought forty-two animals to Hashem as karbanos[13],
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.
[1] Baidbar 20:2 see also Rashi Gemara
Shabbos 35a
[2] Shemos 2:1
[3] Sifsei Chochomim Bamidbar 20:2 brings
this from Rabbeinu Bechayai
[4] Sotah 13a
[5] Bamidbar 21:33
[6] See Rashi Bamidbar 21:35 who quotes
the Gemara Berachos 54b
[7] Bamidbar 21:34
[8] Bamidbar 21:34
[9] Beraishis 14:12-13
[10] Ibid.
[11] Horiyos 10b
[12] Bamidbar 23:1-2
[13] He 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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