Комментарий о цитате к Бамидбар 19:14

Solomon contrasts the opposite natures of the righteous and the wicked. He reveals to us that the wicked are proud and arrogant by nature, whereas the righteous is modest and self-effacing. He does so in order to encourage us to practice the positive virtues of the righteous and to avoid practicing the negative virtues of the wicked. The word לענות used by Solomon when describing the righteous is the same word applied by Moses to Pharaoh in Exodus 10,3 when he asked Pharaoh how long he would still refuse to humble himself, לענות, before the Lord? Moses challenged Pharaoh saying that since he had not yet humbled himself before the Lord his answer to the requests made of him by G’d through Moses would reflect his arrogance. Man’s speech is a mirror of how or what he thinks. The חכמי המוסר (Chovot HaLevavot section HaBechinah chapter 5) describe language as the writing quill of the heart. Seeing the righteous person has a clean conscience the words he speaks truly reflect what he thinks and what is in his heart. The reverse is true of the wicked person. It is not enough that he has arrogant thoughts in his heart, but he has enough effrontery to verbalize his arrogance, showing one and all that he is a foolish person.
It is a well known fact that self-effacement is one of the finest positive virtues as our sages have taught us (Chulin 89) the universe endures only due the people who perceive themselves as if they were of no consequence; this is what is meant by Deut. 33,27: ומתחת זרועות עולם, “and he who perceives of himself as beneath (everybody else) is what results in the world being planted successfully.” Examples of how the righteous down- graded their own selves are found in Genesis 18,27 when Avraham described himself as עפר ואפר, “dust and ashes.” Moses and Aaron when challenged by the people in Exodus 16,8 exclaimed ונחנו מה “who are we?” They meant that since they themselves derived all their spiritual input only from G’d why would the people complain against them! We find that in Psalms 22,7 David describes himself as “a worm, not a man.” Furthermore, we have a tradition that the presence of G’d manifests itself only to the humble, the self-effacing (compare Mechilta on Exodus 12, item 9). This is also what is meant in Isaiah 57,15: “I dwell on high, in holiness; yet with the contrite and the lowly in spirit - reviving the spirits of the lowly.” Similarly, Torah knowledge becomes the permanent property only of the lowly in spirit (compare Derech Eretz Zuta 8). Our sages in Taanit 7 ask: “why is the Torah compared to water so that the prophet Isaiah 55,1 when inviting people to learn Torah, called out: “come all you who are thirsty for water and get water!” Just as waters leave the elevated place they originate in and flow downwards, so the Torah cannot be at home for long in someone whose heart feels proud and superior to others. In the Aggadah of Eiruvin 55 we also have a statement that the words of Moses in Deut. 30,12 that the Torah is not found in heaven refers to arrogant people and that Torah does no make its home in the brain of such people. People who raise their own importance as if it reached heaven, are not liable to retain their Torah knowledge. True Torah knowledge is attained by those who “kill” themselves (i.e. kill their ego) in order to attain it. The Torah speaks of אדם כי ימות באוהל “when someone dies in the tent” (of Torah), compare Numbers 19,14. Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 19,7) have formulated the principle that עיקר שכינה בתחתונים, that the principal manifestation of G’d’s attribute of כבוד is found among the terrestrial beings, as we know from Genesis 3,8 “they heard the voice of G’d walking by Himself in the garden following the prevailing wind of the day.” David alluded to the mystical element in all this in Psalms 104,17 when he said: “the stork has her home in the junipers.” [The word חסידה here translated as “stork,” was also the name of a daughter of Avraham who excelled in deeds of loving kindness for mankind which is why her name became known as חסידה, (as opposed to חסיד, masculine). Compare Zohar Pinchas 217. Rabbi Chavell. Ed.] Seeing that Adam sinned, the Shechinah began its gradual retreat from the terrestrial universe, a retreat which was reversed only with the advent of Avraham and which was reversed totally with the inauguration of the Tabernacle. The Torah was revealed on Sinai, a low mountain instead of on a high mountain such as Mount Hermon. This was intended to further make the point that what appears to dwarf all else physically is not necessarily what Torah and its message is all about. In Psalms 68,17 David refers to the hostility of the mountains of Bashan toward the mountain on which the Torah was given, Mount Sinai. Those mountains thought that they had a far better claim to serve as G’d’s residence on earth. [I have translated the author’s words according to the text in my and other editions, although, personally, I feel that the jealousy of the mountains in Bashan described in the verse quoted was directed against Mount Zion, the site of the Temple, much lower than the mountains of Bashan. After all, the psalm speaks about לשבתו “serving as His residence.” Mount Sinai never served as the site of G’d’s residence on earth. Ed.]

בעמיו: Während alle Volksstämme verpflichtet sind, sich mit der Leiche zu beschäftigen, hat der Aharonsstamm allein fern zu stehen und darf kein מת und nichts von allen טומאות הפורשות מן המת berühren und ebensowenig unter einer Überdachung mit dem באהל המת ,מת (siehe Bamidbar 19, 14) verharren. Implizite ist damit jedoch das Verbot nur auf בעמיו beschränkt, ist nur dann gegeben, wenn die Leiche sich בעמיו unter Volksgenossen befindet. Ein מת מצוה aber, eine verlassene Leiche, die der כהן an einem Orte findet, von wo aus er keinen anderen herbeirufen kann, darf von dem כהן nicht verlassen, sondern muss von ihm bestattet werden (ת׳׳כ und Nasir 43b), איזהו מת מצוה כל שאין לו קוברין קורא ואחרים עונין אותו אין זה מת מצוה. Berachot 19b wird gelehrt, daß selbst wo kumulierte מצות dem Bestatten eines מת מצוה gegenüber ständen, z. B. es wäre einer כהן גדול und zugleich נזיר und im Begriff שחיטת פסחו und מילת בנו zu vollziehen, er dennoch alles dies außer acht lassen und den vor ihm liegenden Toten bestatten müsste. Diese Hochstellung der einer unbekannten Leiche zu erfüllenden letzten Liebespflicht gehört zu den tief charakteristischen Zügen der jüdischen Lebenslehre. Sie zeigt, wie das höchste Ziel dieser Lehre ist, den Menschen zum Menschen zu erziehen.

זאת חקת התורה, in verse 14 the Torah already explains the purpose of the red heifer, i.e. which statute of the Torah is being introduced here.