민수기 10:1의 인용 해설

ותצא אש, “Fire came forth;” the Torah first reports the fact that fire originated in heaven, before going into details, i.e. that this fire was triggered by actions taken by the two sons of Aaron mentioned here. The fire mentioned here is the fire mentioned in verse 24 of the previous chapter. The “details” commence with verse 1 in our chapter, i.e. “the two sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu each took his own censer and placed man made fire and incense on them, fire that G-d had forbidden to be put on these censers.” It was the custom of that heavenly fire to travel first to the Holy of Holies and from there to the golden altar in the Sanctuary and there to consume the incense offered. In this instance, the heavenly fire discovered Nadav and Avihu in front of the Golden Altar in the Sanctuary offering the incense with their own fire. Therefore the heavenly fire consumed them before continuing to the copper altar in front of the Sanctuary and consumed to the copper altar in front of the Sanctuary and consumed there the Elevation offering.

Nonetheless we must try and understand how the Zohar could impute such base motives to either Moses or even the daughters of Tzelofchod. Why would girls who have been described as righteous by the Talmud assume that Moses had hatred in his heart against them or their late father? Perhaps all the Zohar had in mind was to describe normal human reactions. The Zohar itself writes that we learn from the example of the daughters of Tzelofchod that if one is afraid of the outcome of litigation one should ensure the presence of other people while one's case is being heard. Our sages in Baba Batra 119 already said that these girls were both extremely intelligent and pious. This means that they were quite certain that Moses would not rule unfairly because of any negative feelings he might harbour against them or their late father. It is possible that they were afraid that Moses would rule that just as the people who had complained in Parshat Beha-a-lotcha, as well as the spies who had forfeited their inheritance in the land because they had raised their voices against Moses and against G'd, Moses would rule similarly against them on account of the sin of their late father. To forestall this they assembled all these people so that they could side with the claim of their late father in order that Moses should not decide against them. It is also possible that these girls were astute enough to do what they did in order to cause Moses to disqualify himself from judging the case seeing there was a suspicion that he was prejudiced in the matter. According to the Zohar this was the reason why Moses left the matter to G'd. He could have given a ruling immediately had he wanted to. Personally, I believe that Moses was fully aware that these girls were entitled to a share in the land, but he wanted to teach the other leaders the lesson that if a judge is suspected by an interested party of being prejudiced against a claimant he must disqualify himself in the matter. Alternatively, Moses felt that the attitude of the girls was not much better than those of the מתלוננים in Numbers 10,1 so that he preferred to let G'd give the ruling Himself.

This appears to be why our Sages stated in tractate Shabbos 116a that the [parasha beginning with the verse] “And it came to pass when the ark set forward,”²³Num. 10:35-36. This small parasha has special markings placed before and after it. The current custom is for these markings to be an inverted Hebrew letter nun. ranks as a Book unto itself.²⁴Rebbe states in tractate Shabbos that the reason the subject parasha is surrounded by these special markings is because this parasha ranks as a significant book unto itself. This teaches us that the beginning of [Israel’s] transformation began with when “The people were looking to complain, and it was evil in the ears of God, etc.” (Ibid. 11:1).²⁵The verse immediately following the parasha states: “The people were looking to complain, and it was evil in the ears of God. God heard and His anger flared, and a fire from God burned among them, consuming the extremes of the camp.” “It was evil in the ears of God” denotes that since the Divine Presence dwelled in their midst, their complaining is described as if they were speaking in His ‘ears,’ and were thus punished immediately for their transgression. Due to their living in a glorious manner [transcending nature], they would be punished immediately upon sinning; as the shadow of God’s providence “walked to their right.”²⁶See footnote 10. This manner [of living] was difficult for them to bear, and it led them to send spies [to search out the Land], as will be explained in [the Torah reading of] Shelach Lecha.²⁷See Num. 13:1-33, where the request for sending scouts is preceded by “Send out for yourself men who will scout the Land of Canaan,” which, as explained by Rashi, means they were sending the scouts based on their own decision. The Netziv explains that this expressed their rejection of living with the Divine Presence in a manner transcending nature. For if they were to overcome their enemies in a miraculous manner there would be no need for any report from the scouts pertaining to how to conquer the land; i.e., “if they were strong or weak” or if they reside in “camps or in fortresses” etc. This led to a continuing chain of events, until this transformation (operating in accordance with nature) was manifest. Thus this small parasha (i.e. Num. 10:35-36) separating Israel’s two manners of affairs, attests to how each section of this Book²⁸The three sections are Num. 1:1–10:34, Chapter 10:35-36 and Chapters 11-36. is considered a separate book unto itself. Just as this manner of the affairs of the lives (transcending nature) is a book unto itself, so is the manner of the affairs of the lives (in accordance with nature) considered as a book unto itself. Sefer, (Book) denotes the telling (sippur) of a theme of great importance, as I wrote on the parasha of Bereishis pertaining to the verse, “This sefer.”²⁹See Gen. 5:1, which states, “This is the book of the generations of man; on the day that God created man, in the likeness of God He created him.” Pertaining to this verse, Ben Azzai, in Toras Kohanim chapter 4:12 stated, “This is a great rule in the Torah.” The Netziv explains the Torah is relating how in a single day man can fall from great spiritual heights similar to Adam who, after being formed directly by God in the Garden of Eden – in that very same day – suffered a great demise and was expelled.