Musar к Бамидбар 10:36

If one understands the deeper meaning of this commandment, one also gains an insight into the mysteries of Creation. We find a statement by Rabbi Eliezer in Yevamot 63 that anyone who neglects to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful is considered as having the sin of spilling innocent blood on his hands, the reason being that the Torah says in Genesis 9,6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed." Since the Torah goes on to say : "Be fertile, increase, etc.," it is clear that failure to do so is considered a mortal sin. Rabbi Yaakov says: "Failure to try and have issue is a way of diminishing G–d's image in this world, since the Torah (still in verse 6 of this chapter) adds: 'For in His image did G–d make man.' Immediately afterwards follows the commandment to be fruitful." The Rabbis taught in Yevamot 64 that Numbers 10,36 ובנחה יאמר: שובה ה' רבבות אלפי ישראל, "When the ark came to rest, Moses would say 'return O Lord, You who are Israel's myriads of thousands,'" teaches that G–d's Presence is not found when Israel numbers fewer than 22000 souls." If Israel would number 21999 at any time and one of those Israelites failed to perform the מצוה of פרו ורבו, that person would be responsible for preventing the whole people from enjoying the Presence of the שכינה in their midst. We have now had three separate statements on the seriousness of failing to comply with the commandment to be fruitful. A) Failure to try and reproduce is equivalent to committing bloodshed; B) Failure to try and produce issue diminishes G–d's image in the world; C) Failure to fulfil this injunction prevents Israel from enjoying the Divine Presence in its midst. Prior to the statement quoted in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, the same Rabbi Eliezer is on record saying that a person who fails to marry is not an אדם, seeing that the Torah says of man (אדם) that "G–d created him male and female. He called their name Adam." (Genesis 5,2). You should appreciate that the statement of Rabbi Eliezer is to be understood as a general rule, whereas the subsequent statements are פרטים details, i.e. applications of the כלל. We must first understand Rabbi Eliezer.

The reason that men of military age who are engaged in building a house for themselves, or in the planting of a vineyard which has not yet borne fruit, or who have betrothed a bride without as yet having consummated the marriage are free to return to their homes to complete these endeavours is explained by the Rekanati. We are quoting verbatim: "Know that the three categories of people listed by the Torah in 20,5-8 are people who are especially prone to meet with disaster. The attribute of Justice is more likely to seek them out than others. We have proof for this from what happened during the episode of the golden calf. If you will examine the various occasions when the Torah reports the Jewish people as sinning while they were in the desert, you will find that it was almost invariably after they had experienced a spiritual "high." The first set of tablets were smashed because of the golden calf. Our sages explain that the עין הרע the evil eye, had focused on these tablets. After the Israelites had travelled only three days' journey from Mount Sinai, the very next verse (Numbers 10,36) ויהי העם כמתאוננים, רע באזני השם "The people were complaining before the Lord; they spoke evil within the hearing of G–d." All this in spite of the Torah having told us that the Presence of G–d rested over their encampment. The sin of the spies occurred at a time when the people were ready to conquer ארץ ישראל, i.e. they were at a spiritual "high." The sin of בעל פעור occurred immediately after G–d had made Bileam bless the people instead of cursing them as he had been hired to do (Cf. Numbers chapters 24 and 25). After all, Michah 6,5 reminds the Jewish people to remember the advice given to Bileam by Balak how to curse the Jewish people and how Bileam had responded to him. In that admonition of the prophet the Jewish people are addressed by G–d as "My people," i.e. they were on a morally high level at that time. This is the meaning of the statement of our sages in Shabbat 130 that ליכא כתובה דלא רמו בה תיגרא, "There is no marriage contract which does not give rise to some dispute." Thus far the Rekanati.

This imprint of G–d is the mystical factor that causes the Presence of the שכינה in Israel since the spirituality of the Torah is represented by the souls of Israel. These souls enable G–d to fulfil His promise ושכנתי בתוכם, "I shall dwell among them" (Exodus 25,8). The Torah refers to messianic times and the revelation of G–d's Presence at that time. Concerning that era we have the prophecy of Isaiah 25,9: "On that day it (the people of Israel) will say: "This is our G–d; we trusted in Him, and He delivered us; this is the Lord in whom we trusted." This whole development depends on the progressive evolution of many souls to higher levels. The Ari zal has explained the verse הקטן יהיה לאלף, והצעיר לגוי גדול, נאום ה' בעתה אחישנו "the smallest shall become one thousand; the least, a mighty nation; I the Lord will speed it in due time" (Isaiah 60,22). The obvious difficulty here is that either the redemption comes at a time appointed by G–d, i.e. בעתה, or there is no timetable for redemption, and G–d is free to bring redemption at any time. Different commentators deal with this problem in different ways. The Arizal sees in the verse an allusion to a statement in the Talmud that אין בן דוד בא עד שיכלו כל הנשמות שבגוף, the Messiah will not come until all the souls of the body have been "exhausted" (Yevamot 62). The meaning is that nowadays, while we are in exile, the existing souls of Israel are mostly revolving around themselves and not progressing to higher dimensions. Once these souls have all exhausted their stay on earth, and "new" souls arrive, redemption will occur, and with it the revelation of the original light that G–d withdrew from this earth after the seven days of Creation. G–d called this "the smallest will become one thousand." It is a process of increasing the Jewish birth-rate so that the "store" of souls that has not yet been placed in bodies will be exhausted sooner. In this way the date for the redemption can be advanced dramatically. There is then no contradiction between the words בעתה, and אחישנה. As a result the Presence of the שכינה is directly related to fulfillment of the commandment to procreate. Even though we have quoted proof from a verse in Numbers 10,36 that the Presence of G–d is possible when there are 22,000 souls present (compare page 2 of this chapter), this was only meant to illustrate that G–ds Presence does manifest itself on earth. The extent to which this is possible when all the souls that have been assigned to bodies have fulfilled their task is beyond our experience, and cannot be compared with what occurred in the desert.