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Beit Midrash
- Sections
- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bamidbar
- Masei
Moshe himself said: "You shall remember all of the path that Hashem had you take during forty years in the desert in order to afflict you, to test you" (Devarim 8:2). This was not a normal national existence. They did not occupy an inhabited land; they did not have normal houses or normal bread to eat. Everything was unnatural: bread from the sky, water that arrived miraculously. The travels were totally unpredictable, sometimes after a day, a month, ... (Bamidbar 9:22). It is not such a surprise that the people were short-breathed at times. It is not easy to always live in uncertainty and undergoing tests. Let us take a look at some of the test results.
The Torah does not concentrate on the praise due to the nation, but highlights that which was wrong and needed repair. However, we can see some of the good things in the nation specifically from the appraisal of one who was not so enthusiastic about seeing their goodness, Bilam. He was particularly impressed with Bnei Yisrael’s living quarters, among other things. Apparently they had slowly started fitting the mold for which they were destined, as the Nation of Hashem.
By the end of Sefer Bamidbar, there was a changing of the guard. The final census did not contain members of the generation that Moshe and Aharon originally counted (Bamidbar 26:64). The new generation was one that was poised to conquer the Land. They conquered nations on the east bank of the Jordan and were encamped just to the east of the Jordan, near Yericho. Perhaps the most daunting challenge was that their great leader, Moshe, was preparing to pass on from leadership and from life. He had to instruct them about the boundaries of the Land and the methods of dividing it. He had to warn them how to interact with the inhabitants of the Land of C’na’an, and to set up even cities of refuge for unintentional murderers.
The parasha ends in a manner that expresses the essence of the nation and the Land they were to inherit. "Do not defile the Land that you are living in, in which I dwell, for I am Hashem Who dwells in the midst of Bnei Yisrael" (Bamidbar 35:34). Chazal (Sifrei, Bamidbar 1) derive from here that even when the nation is impure, still the Divine Presence is among them. This the nature of the Land and the nation, whose sanctity does not cease even in a state of defilement. Indeed it was worthwhile to undergo 40 years of trials and tribulations in order to hear such a Divine assurance. Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazeik. May we be repeatedly
strengthened.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part II
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
Parashat Hashavua Happiness for the Right Reasons
[With painful longing, we share these divrei Torah from our co-Rosh Kollel for close to 40 years, Harav Moshe Ehrenreich zt”l.]
