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TORAH SPARKS

 

Parashat Pinchas

July 23, 2022 | 24 Tammuz 5782

Torah: Torah Portion: Numbers 25:10-30:1; Triennial 28:16-30:1

Haftarah: Jeremiah 1:1-2:3


 

Moshe s Forced Retirement

Ilana Kurshan

 

At the end of the Israelites journey in the wilderness, Moshe s job is terminated prematurely. He is not ready to die, and he wishes that he could accompany the Israelites in the next stage of their journey. But his time has come. Moshe, who initially resisted his leadership role at the burning bush Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh (Exodus 3:11) now realizes with the same degree of humility that he is no longer suited for the task. He will not be permitted to enter the land, and someone else will lead the people in his stead. The midrashic account of the transfer of power from Moshe to Joshua in this week s parashah offers us a valuable lesson in how we let go and move on, even when we are not quite ready.

Moshe wishes he could keep leading the people. As he later tells them, he pleads with God, Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 3:25). The midrash explains that even in our parashah, when bringing the case of Tzlofchad s five daughters before God, Moshe retained the hope that he would be the one to oversee the conquest and division of the land. In ruling about the case of the five daughters, God commanded Moshe, You shall indeed grant them a portion (27:7). Moshe heard this and grew excited, hoping that God s words might be interpreted literally and that it was indeed he Moshe who would grant Tzlofchad s daughters their portions following the conquest. Behold I am entering Israel, Moshe thought, as per the midrashic account (Tanchuma Pinchas 9). In response, God assured him, My decree remains in place it was not Moshe himself who would assign the land to the daughters, but his successor. The midrash, picking up on the juxtaposition of the case of Tzlofchad s daughters with the story of Moshe s request for a successor in the very next biblical passage, notes that it was God s reiteration of Moshe s forced retirement that prompted Moshe to plead with God to choose a new leader.

To Moshe s credit, he is able to put aside his own pain and dejection about his job termination and focus on the people s needs. Notably, it is not God who instructs Moshe to appoint a successor, but rather Moshe who initiates this transition: Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, source of the breath of all flesh, appoint someone over the community (27:15-16). Moshe is more concerned about the people than about himself; he is more committed to ensuring that they have a leader than to trying to retain that role. In nine concise but poignant verses, the Torah describes how Moshe appeals to God to appoint a new leader so that the Lord s community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd (27:17). As the midrash on this biblical passage teaches, This is to apprise us of the virtues of the righteous, that when they are about to die, they put aside their own concerns and occupy themselves with those of the congregation (Sifrei Bemidbar 138).

When Moshe invests Joshua with the authority to rule, he does so wholeheartedly. Immediately after God finishes instructing him regarding the transfer of power, Moshe complies: Moshe did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua…He laid his hands upon him and commissioned him as the LORD had spoken through Moshe (27:22-23). Moshe s lack of hesitation suggests that he is no longer thinking about his own regret at having to give up his role, nor is he resentful that his own sons or nephews were not chosen for the job. As the midrash puts it, He did so with joy, undiluted with regret for his son and his brother’s sons (Sifrei Bamidbar 141). Perhaps Moshe s awareness that his own authority as a leader comes from God enables him to put himself and his own needs aside.

When Moshe places his hands on Joshua s head, he seeks to fill Joshua with the same divine spirit that has accompanied him ever since God promised him at the burning bush, I will be with you (Exodus 3:11). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 105b) notes that whereas God commanded Moshe to lay your hand (27:18) upon Joshua, Moshe in fact laid his hands (27:23) upon him. In resting not just one hand upon his successor s head, but two, Moshe wished to impart to Joshua even more than God commanded him. He infused him not just with the divine spirit, but also with all the Torah he had received on Sinai. The very first Mishnah in Pirkei Avot teaches that Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua. The midrash explains that this moment of transmission took place here, in our parashah, when Moshe brought Joshua before Elazar the priest and before the whole community and laid his hands upon his head. In placing his hands upon Joshua s head, Moshe made Joshua into an overflowing vessel of Torah (Sifrei Bamidbar 141), capable of ruling independently in matters of law much like his teacher Moshe.

The Talmud cites this moment of transition as evidence that a person does not grow jealous of one s student (Sanhedrin 105b). A good teacher is not threatened by a great student, and this is true of a leader and his successor as well. As Moshe s example teaches us, a hallmark of a good leader is that one cares more about the mission than about his or her own involvement in it. Moshe s genuinely generous transfer of authority to Joshua is a reminder of the consolation that may come after we are forced to give up our role in an enterprise in which we are deeply invested. Though we may no longer be involved, we can hopefully rest assured that the enterprise will continue in good hands in our absence. Even after Moshe breathes his last breath, God Source of the breath of all flesh (27:16) will guide Moshe s successor as the people of Israel realize the next stage of the covenant, making their home in the Promised Land.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

This Land is My Land, That Land is Your Land

Vered Hollander-Goldfarb

 

Text: Bamidbar 26:51-55

51 These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel: six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty.

52Then the LORD spoke to Moshe, saying: 53 To these the land shall be divided as an inheritance, according to the number of names. 54To a large tribe you shall give a larger inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a smaller inheritance. Each shall be given its inheritance according to those who were numbered of them. 55But the land shall be divided by lot; they shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers

This passage appears at the end of the second census taken in the book of Bamidbar. What was the reason for the census prior to entering the land?

Based on the instructions, what are the concerns that the tribes might have when it comes to land allocation?

The lots are assumed to be directed by God. Why is there a need for Godly intervention? What is the human part in the allocations?

 

Commentary: Ramban Bamidbar 26:55-56

But the land shall be divided by lot amongst the tribes of Israel, and according to the names of the tribes of their fathers who constituted twelve tribes according to the lot shall the inheritance of the tribe be divided between the larger and the smaller – meaning that they should also cast lots amongst the [individual] families, so that the portion should be in the place which the lot chooses for them, but we are to allot more to the larger [families], and give less to the smaller families.

According to Ramban, how far is God involved in the land division?

Commentary: R. Isaac Abarbanel Joshua 14

The division of the land, two things should be noted in it: the first is the region in which the portion and inheritance will be given, and the second is the amount of land, the width, and the length, that will be given to each of them in that region. And so the first issue, the region in which the inheritance of each tribe will be allotted, that God saw fit to clarify by lots, so that there will not be arguments among the tribes, for some places are choicer than others and also so that there will be no resentment when one tribe receives land that has mostly already been conquered (by Joshua), and another will receive land that has mostly not yet been conquered

How does Abarbanel explain the need for the Godly (lot) intervention in the land division?

Why did Abarbanel place this explanation in the book of Joshua rather than in Bamidbar?

 


 

Building Walls

Bex Stern Rosenblatt

 

The three weeks have begun. We sit in narrow places; the walls of Jerusalem have been breached. We are leading up to Tisha B Av, the remembrance of the destruction of the First and Second Temples. We descend towards our lowest point, the point at which we use Jeremiah s words in Lamentations to call out to God who seems to have punished us and abandoned us. Our descent now is marked by Jeremiah s words. For the next two weeks, our haftarot are drawn from the Book of Jeremiah.

The destruction of Jerusalem was once unthinkable. It was the beating heart of our people, the place where God had chosen to dwell. We could imagine the deaths of individuals. We see death all the time in the Tanakh, sometimes peacefully and sometimes not. But we were not able to imagine the death of our nation, the death of our city, or the death of our God.

Jeremiah s calling as a prophet is to force us to reckon with the inconceivable. The death of our city was coming. Our nation was about to lose its territorial integrity and be exiled. But our God wants us to know that this does not mean the death of God, but rather it is coming from God.

Of course, we do not like hearing these messages. No one likes hearing bad news, especially bad news that forces us to rethink our entire conception of the world. Our response to Jeremiah is denial. We respond with violence in our certainty that he is the problem, not just the messenger. But it is we who will be destroyed, not Jeremiah.

Our haftarah portion describes Jeremiah like a city. As Robert Alter translates:

As for Me, look, I have made you today a fortress town and an iron pillar and walls of bronze against all the land, against the kings of Judah and its nobles, against its priests and the people of the land. And they shall battle against you but shall not prevail over you, for I am with you, said the LORD, to save you.

There is a horrible irony here. In just a few days we will read in Lamentations,

The LORD has planned to wipe out the wall of Daughter Zion. He has extended a measuring line, he has not returned his hand from swallowing up. And he has caused rampart and wall to mourn, together they have withered.

The walls of Jerusalem, home of Israel, once thought inviolable, will be destroyed. Jeremiah, a despised prophet, will be made strong against Israel. It was never the walls that protected. It was God who was with us. When we build walls around our minds, refusing to take in new evidence, as the people did against Jeremiah, it is only a matter of time until those walls collapse and there is nothing left to protect us.