~ Thoughts on The Parsha ~
Parshas
Mattos-Masei
Sickness or Symptom
By: Daniel Listhaus
וְאֶת מַלְכֵי מִדְיָן הָרְגוּ עַל חַלְלֵיהֶם אֶת אֱוִי וְאֶת
רֶקֶם וְאֶת צוּר וְאֶת חוּר וְאֶת רֶבַע חֲמֵשֶׁת מַלְכֵי מִדְיָן וְאֵת בִּלְעָם
בֶּן בְּעוֹר הָרְגוּ בֶּחָרֶב
“They killed the
kings of Midian along with their slain ones: Evi, and Rekem, and Tzur, and
Chur, and Reva, the five kings of Midian; and Billam son of Beor they killed
with the sword.”
-Masei 31:8
When describing the battle that took
place between B’nei Yisroel and Moav, the passuk (verse) singles
out Billam and mentions that he was killed by sword. Rashi[1] writes that
the passuk does so because when Billam came against B’nei Yisroel
he did so with their craft of tefillah (prayer) because Billam
knew that B’nei Yisroel triumph only with their mouth through prayer and
supplication. Therefore Billam came and seized their craft by cursing them with
his mouth. Rashi continues and explains that when B’nei Yisroel fought
back against him they too cleverly exchanged their craft for the craft of the
other nations[2]
and killed him with a sword.
This Rashi is hard to
understand. Rashi makes it sound like it was a good thing that B’nei
Yisroel switched their battle strategy to physical fighting instead of davening.
How could this be? Certainly there is never a time to fully rely on weapons
in battle. After all, as Dovid ha’melech writes in Tehillim[3] “Eileh va’rechev
v’eilah ba’susim va’anachnu b’sheim Hashem Elokeinu nazkir” – that while
the nations come to battle with their chariots and horses, we come solely with
the power of tefillah. We bring weapons to battle in order to be dressed
for the part but that is not what we believe wins the battle. If so, why does Rashi
emphasize here that killing Billam by sword was an exchange of craft as
opposed to merely the way that we were able to easily kill him after davening
to Hashem for help in battle?
The Rosh[4] comments
that the sword used to kill Billam was the same sword that Yaakov avinu stuck
into the pile of stones that was used as a treaty between him and Lavan. At
that time, Yaakov warned Lavan not to cross the line; with the stones and sword
symbolizing worthy punishment of being stoned and slayed. Interestingly, Lavan
and Billam were close relatives. In fact some maintain they were the same
person![5] Billam
should have known to stay away and yet he tried for the fourth time to be “arami
oveid avi”.[6] He tried
with Lavan (or as Lavan) to wipe out Yaakov and the shevatim, he tried
in Mitzrayim by advising to Pharaoh to kill all the Jewish babies,[7] he tried
again with Balak to curse B’nei Yisroel, and then as a final attempt
tried to cause B’nei Yisroel to sin. Billam crossed the line and was
therefore killed by that very sword which served as the original warning.[8]
Perhaps this was important just for the middah k’neged
middah aspect of it and that is the way Hashem wanted Billam to meet his
demise. However, perhaps there is a slightly deeper aspect to why B’nei
Yisroel killed Billam with that sword. Going to battle with that sword with
the objective to kill Billam put B’nei Yisroel in the right frame of
mind to internalize all that Billam had done and the borders he crossed. In
other words, of course B’nei Yisroel utilized the ko’ach ha’tefillah (power
of prayer); that is always a necessity and indeed the way we win in battle.
However it was also necessary for us to understand our enemy and the core of
the problem – that Billam was a sonei Yisroel who tried to wipe us out
many times. Once we as a nation understood the core issue, that Billam represented
the ideologies of Lavan and that he had crossed the line, they were able to
have the right kavanos in davening and then take the sword and
kill him. The power came from Hashem through tefillah but the mindset
was set by the sword. We had to understand the underlying issue before knowing
what to daven for and be successful in addressing it.
The simple, yet profound concept of needing
to know underlying causes in order to know how to address them is one which
expresses itself in many aspects of life. Just like in order to create a
treatment for a disease one has to research and figure out exactly what the
core ailment is and not get caught up with the symptoms, so too when solving
problems one has to research and analyze the root of the problem at hand
without getting caught up in the symptoms, in order to best know how to solve
it. Whether interpersonal issues or personal struggles, one must think about
the problem he is in, how he got there, and the tools he has at his disposal in
order to best understand how it could be addressed.
The Gemara[9] contrasts
the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash stating that the first Beis Hamikdash
was destroyed because K’lal Yisroel was doing avodah zarrah, sh’fichas
damim, and giluiy ar’ayos; whereas during the time of the second Beis
Ha’mikdash, K’lal Yisroel was acting appropriately in terms of Torah
and mitzvos but there was an underlying sinas chinum (baseless
hatred) that was present and caused the destruction of the second Beis
Hamikdash.
The Maharal[10] writes
that the understanding of this Gemara goes deeper than the surface. He
writes that it is not a mere coincidence that the first Beis Ha’mikdash
was destroyed from the “big three” and the second was destroyed due to sinas
chinum. After all, not every aveirah
is categorized as bad enough to destroy a Beis Ha’mikdash. Is the Gemara
just looking for things that were being done incorrectly at the time and
saying that that was the reason for the destruction? Had K’lal Yisroel
not been keeping Shabbos properly would the Gemara have automatically
attributed the destruction to that? There has to be something deeper about why
these specific aveiros had the capacity to destroy the Batei Mikdash that
the gemara feels comfortable pointing the finger directly and
specifically to those aveiros.
The Maharal explains as follows. During the first Beis
Hamikdash, we merited the privilege of having a Beis Ha’mikdash because
we were filled with tahara (purity) and had the Shechina amongst
us. Therefore, when we allowed tummah (impurity) to infiltrate,
the Shechina could no longer be present and the very foundation of the Beis
Ha’mikdash became rotten and was therefore destroyed. However the second Beis
Hamikdash was founded on slightly different grounds. The second Beis
Hamikdash did not have the same type of kedusha and was lacking in
some of the miracles that were present during the time of the first Beis
Hamikdash.[11]
It was founded on unity within K’lal Yisroel; that is how it was built
and that is what it depended on in order to last. If only we would have
internalized and understood that the Beis Hamikdash was founded on ahava,
then we would have been able to understand that that is what it would take to
keep it standing.
This is the lesson we learn from Billam and the sword. Time
must be taken to understand causes and roots in order to know how to deal with
whatever matters arise. In Billam’s case, our realization that Billam was a
real enemy who was overstepping his boundaries by trying to interfere with the continuance
of B’nei Yisroel allowed us to properly daven to Hashem and ultimately
succeed in killing him with the very sword he swore by. In the times of the Batei
Mikdash the contrast of destruction was directly correlated with the
proverbial types of legs that the Beis Hamikdash was standing on. Taking
the time to properly recognize causes of problems is what allows us to find the
right solutions.
This is really the relationship between the month of Av
and the month of Elul. During Av we are tasked to reflect and
give a state of the union address. Not just where we are at, but more
importantly how did we get there. Once we understand what got us to where we
are, we are then prepared to move on to the month of Elul to work on addressing
the causes of the problems. However if we choose to focus on symptoms instead
of causes, we risk getting lost and getting frustrated trying things that won’t
work; like throwing darts at a wall and trying to draw the target afterwards.
May Hashem help us have the clarity to find the root causes
of struggles that we face in our own lives along with those that we face as a
nation as a whole so that we could make progress in the areas of teshuva and
ahavas chinum. In this zechus the Beis Hamikdash should
be re-built on unbreakable foundations speedily in our days.
[1]
Rashi Bamidbar 31:8
[2]
Beraishis 27:40
[3]
Tehillim 20:8
[4]
Bamidbar 31:8
[5]
See Rosh, see Gemara Sanhedrim 105b, as well as Sefer Seder Olam
[6]
Devarim 26:5
[7]
Gemara Sotah 11a
[8]
The Rosh also says that the wall that Billam brushed up against with his
donkey was actually the very same pile of stones from the treaty between Yaakov
and Lavan.
[9]
Yoma 9b
[10]
Maharal Netzach Yisroel perek 4
[11]
Gemara Yoma 21b
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