Chasidut sur Les Nombres 14:35
אֲנִ֣י יְהוָה֮ דִּבַּרְתִּי֒ אִם־לֹ֣א ׀ זֹ֣את אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֗ה לְכָל־הָעֵדָ֤ה הָֽרָעָה֙ הַזֹּ֔את הַנּוֹעָדִ֖ים עָלָ֑י בַּמִּדְבָּ֥ר הַזֶּ֛ה יִתַּ֖מּוּ וְשָׁ֥ם יָמֻֽתוּ׃
Moi, l’Éternel, je le déclare: oui, c’est ainsi que j’en userai avec toute cette communauté perverse, ameutée contre moi. C’est dans ce désert qu’elle prendra fin, c’est là qu’elle doit mourir."
Kedushat Levi
Another aspect of the opening line of our portion: Rashi, commenting on the word לך explains it as short for לדעתך, “in accordance with your opinion,” as opposed to “in accordance with MY opinion.” G’d, while not opposing the mission, did not specifically approve it. This is hard to understand in light of the fact that the Torah describes the dispatch of the spies as having occurred על פי ה', “at the command of Hashem.” (13,3)
In the Talmud Shabbat 87, the point is made that there were three instances in which Moses added to G’d’s instructions without first obtaining G’d’s consent but that subsequently G’d thanked Moses for having added these items arbitrarily. One is that he divorced his wife, another that he smashed the first set of the Tablets, the third one quoted there being the third preparatory day before the revelation at Mount Sinai. [If Moses’ addition was approved by G’d, why is it not listed as another addition made by Moses and subsequently approved, which would account for the words: על פי ה' in verse 3? Ed.]
On folio 57 in Pessachim the Talmud relates a conversation between the king [Agrippas II ? Ed.] and his queen when the king and queen disagreed as to which animal provides tastier meat, the king preferring a young kid, whereas the queen preferred lamb. In order to settle their disagreement they agreed to abide by the opinion of the High Priest. The High Priest, in a quandary and forced to use diplomacy, waved his hand, and said that if a kid were better, surely it would be required as the animal to be used for the daily communal sacrifices. The king, angry at the High Priest for having waved his hand, a sign of disrespect for the king, ordered his right hand to be cut off. [The Talmud continues with this story. Ed.] Our author questions the relevance of this story in the Talmud to the fate of this High Priest, which is described in further detail there in the Talmud.
Our author also has a problem with the Talmud’s blanket statement that the generation of the adult Israelites that wandered through the desert after leaving Egypt have no share in the world to come. (Sanhedrin 110) [There too this statement is challenged and has to be qualified. Ed.] The statement appears firmly founded on Numbers 14,35 זאת אעשה לכל העדה הרעה הזאת הנועדים עלי, במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימותו, “Thus I will do to all that wicked community that banded together against Me; in this very desert they will expire, and there they will die “
We shall explain all this so that it will become clear. There are times in the year when the Creator awakens in man feelings that stir his desire to worship Him with a full heart. Such times have been described in the Torah as מועדים לשמחה חגים וזמנים לששון, “festivals for rejoicing and assemblies and festivals for rallying the seasons, etc.” (from the amidah prayer on every holiday.) On those predetermined days G’d and His angels are in a joyous frame of mind, and the joy that has communicated itself to His angels results in a spillover of joyful inspiration for His people who observe the rituals prescribed for these days. Having experienced this psychological lift, the Jew on these holydays finds it far easier to devote his attention both in prayer and in gratitude to his Creator.
Moses’ intention when telling the people to prepare themselves for the revelation at Mount Sinai for an extra day was that they should use their own spiritual resources to generate the right frame of mind to get the maximum spiritual benefit from G’d’s manifesting Himself on Mount Sinai. Every Jew experiences some degree of heavenly assist, as we have a tradition that a heavenly voice calls to man every day asking him to return to G’d through penitence. (Chagigah 15). If a person has accumulated sufficient merits he hears this heavenly voice. When a person has attained the level when he hears this voice but ignores it, he forfeits his claim to life in the hereafter. The Jewish people, collectively, were on an extremely high spiritual level while in the desert, seeing that they hosted the Tabernacle, G’d’s residence on earth, but they did not respond to this heavenly assist to become penitents.
In the Talmud Shabbat 87, the point is made that there were three instances in which Moses added to G’d’s instructions without first obtaining G’d’s consent but that subsequently G’d thanked Moses for having added these items arbitrarily. One is that he divorced his wife, another that he smashed the first set of the Tablets, the third one quoted there being the third preparatory day before the revelation at Mount Sinai. [If Moses’ addition was approved by G’d, why is it not listed as another addition made by Moses and subsequently approved, which would account for the words: על פי ה' in verse 3? Ed.]
On folio 57 in Pessachim the Talmud relates a conversation between the king [Agrippas II ? Ed.] and his queen when the king and queen disagreed as to which animal provides tastier meat, the king preferring a young kid, whereas the queen preferred lamb. In order to settle their disagreement they agreed to abide by the opinion of the High Priest. The High Priest, in a quandary and forced to use diplomacy, waved his hand, and said that if a kid were better, surely it would be required as the animal to be used for the daily communal sacrifices. The king, angry at the High Priest for having waved his hand, a sign of disrespect for the king, ordered his right hand to be cut off. [The Talmud continues with this story. Ed.] Our author questions the relevance of this story in the Talmud to the fate of this High Priest, which is described in further detail there in the Talmud.
Our author also has a problem with the Talmud’s blanket statement that the generation of the adult Israelites that wandered through the desert after leaving Egypt have no share in the world to come. (Sanhedrin 110) [There too this statement is challenged and has to be qualified. Ed.] The statement appears firmly founded on Numbers 14,35 זאת אעשה לכל העדה הרעה הזאת הנועדים עלי, במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימותו, “Thus I will do to all that wicked community that banded together against Me; in this very desert they will expire, and there they will die “
We shall explain all this so that it will become clear. There are times in the year when the Creator awakens in man feelings that stir his desire to worship Him with a full heart. Such times have been described in the Torah as מועדים לשמחה חגים וזמנים לששון, “festivals for rejoicing and assemblies and festivals for rallying the seasons, etc.” (from the amidah prayer on every holiday.) On those predetermined days G’d and His angels are in a joyous frame of mind, and the joy that has communicated itself to His angels results in a spillover of joyful inspiration for His people who observe the rituals prescribed for these days. Having experienced this psychological lift, the Jew on these holydays finds it far easier to devote his attention both in prayer and in gratitude to his Creator.
Moses’ intention when telling the people to prepare themselves for the revelation at Mount Sinai for an extra day was that they should use their own spiritual resources to generate the right frame of mind to get the maximum spiritual benefit from G’d’s manifesting Himself on Mount Sinai. Every Jew experiences some degree of heavenly assist, as we have a tradition that a heavenly voice calls to man every day asking him to return to G’d through penitence. (Chagigah 15). If a person has accumulated sufficient merits he hears this heavenly voice. When a person has attained the level when he hears this voice but ignores it, he forfeits his claim to life in the hereafter. The Jewish people, collectively, were on an extremely high spiritual level while in the desert, seeing that they hosted the Tabernacle, G’d’s residence on earth, but they did not respond to this heavenly assist to become penitents.
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Kedushat Levi
When the Talmud in Sanhedrin 110 begins by stating that the people of the generation who had left Egypt have no share in the hereafter, the word אין, normally translated as “not”, means that these people considered themselves as totally insignificant, devoid of ego; since this was so, the very fact that they had acquired this level of humility qualified them for an afterlife. The word מדבר used there in the Talmud, usually translated as “desert,” is not used by the sages there in that sense, but is derived from medaber,” they were only speaking,” i.e. their worship of G’d expressed itself through their mouths, prayer, praise and thanksgiving, and the word יתמו in the quotation from Numbers 14,35 does not refer to their “expiring,” but is derived from תמים, “perfection,” the Torah testifying that these people had, as a result of their grievous sin rejecting the land of Israel as their future domicile, realized that they had sinned and had accepted their fate without protest.
They had tried to perfect their personalities by refining their speech so that no improper words should cross their lips. When the Torah adds in Numbers 14,35 שם ימותו, normally translated as “there they will die,” [which would be a repetition of what the Torah had already said, Ed.], the meaning is that they had achieved while on earth what the average person achieves only by reason of his soul leaving its body behind on earth. Moses had hoped that the men he had chosen to explore the goodness of the land of Canaan would approach their task in a spirit that would place them beyond material considerations that are commonplace on earth. G’d was aware of Moses’ lofty aspirations, but did not feel that He should deprive Moses of the opportunity to realize his high hopes for his people. When the Torah writes that the mission proceeded על פי ה', this does not literally mean “at the command of G’d,” but rather: “in the spirit of G’d.” It would be quite wrong for us to give G’d part of the blame for the failure of these men to live up to the trust Moses had placed in them.
The author proceeds to remind us that the sages have said that wherever the Torah associates the death of a person with the word שם, as in Numbers 14,35, this is an allusion that the person or persons concerned died by means of a heavenly kiss, i.e. a kiss from G’d. Rashi spells this out in connection with the death of Miriam, reported in Numbers 20,1, שםwhere the Torah, having already told us of the location where this took place, adds the word שם twice.
[Rashi adds that the reason the Torah did not make this clear beyond doubt by writing: על פי ה', “by the mouth of G’d,” as we find when Moses died in Deuteronomy, 34,5, is seeing that G’d is masculine, it would have given some blasphemer an opportunity to read a sexual nuance into that.” Ed.]
At any rate, we are entitled to understand the words ושם ימותו in Numbers 14,35 as promising each one of the Israelites who had left Egypt as adults but did not get to the Holy Land that they would be given a Divine “kiss” when their souls would leave their bodies.
Whereas it is true that Moses had not had clear proof that these men had already enjoyed a “heavenly” assist, as does every Jew on the festivals we have discussed, he felt that they were of the caliber that could generate this by their own efforts seeing that the mission for which they had been selected was of such significance.
They had tried to perfect their personalities by refining their speech so that no improper words should cross their lips. When the Torah adds in Numbers 14,35 שם ימותו, normally translated as “there they will die,” [which would be a repetition of what the Torah had already said, Ed.], the meaning is that they had achieved while on earth what the average person achieves only by reason of his soul leaving its body behind on earth. Moses had hoped that the men he had chosen to explore the goodness of the land of Canaan would approach their task in a spirit that would place them beyond material considerations that are commonplace on earth. G’d was aware of Moses’ lofty aspirations, but did not feel that He should deprive Moses of the opportunity to realize his high hopes for his people. When the Torah writes that the mission proceeded על פי ה', this does not literally mean “at the command of G’d,” but rather: “in the spirit of G’d.” It would be quite wrong for us to give G’d part of the blame for the failure of these men to live up to the trust Moses had placed in them.
The author proceeds to remind us that the sages have said that wherever the Torah associates the death of a person with the word שם, as in Numbers 14,35, this is an allusion that the person or persons concerned died by means of a heavenly kiss, i.e. a kiss from G’d. Rashi spells this out in connection with the death of Miriam, reported in Numbers 20,1, שםwhere the Torah, having already told us of the location where this took place, adds the word שם twice.
[Rashi adds that the reason the Torah did not make this clear beyond doubt by writing: על פי ה', “by the mouth of G’d,” as we find when Moses died in Deuteronomy, 34,5, is seeing that G’d is masculine, it would have given some blasphemer an opportunity to read a sexual nuance into that.” Ed.]
At any rate, we are entitled to understand the words ושם ימותו in Numbers 14,35 as promising each one of the Israelites who had left Egypt as adults but did not get to the Holy Land that they would be given a Divine “kiss” when their souls would leave their bodies.
Whereas it is true that Moses had not had clear proof that these men had already enjoyed a “heavenly” assist, as does every Jew on the festivals we have discussed, he felt that they were of the caliber that could generate this by their own efforts seeing that the mission for which they had been selected was of such significance.
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