BS”
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TOWERING TREE:
PARSHAT SHELACH
Shira Smiles shiur
2019/5779
Adapted by Channie
Koplowitz Stein
Bnei
Yisroel were approaching the land Hashem had promised them. In anticipation of
entering the land, Moshe sends spies to reconnoiter the land. Moshe gives the
spies specific instructions on what to look for, from the strength of its
inhabitants to the fertility of the land itself, concluding with, “Hayesh
boh eitz im ayin/Is there a tree within it or not,” before instructing them
to bring back some of the fruit. Then the Torah adds that this was the season
when the grapes ripened.
These
instructions begin quite clearly, but the final question appears puzzling. If
the spies are to bring back fruit, certainly there must be trees in the land.
Oddly, are the spies to look for a single tree, as a straightforward reading of
the text suggests, or is this a collective noun? Finally, what does all
this have to do with the ripening of the grapes?
On
the simplest interpretations, we can say, as Rav Hirsch z” does, that Moshe was
instructing them to see if there were forests, seen as a collective for
building and manufacturing, as well as individual trees. Or perhaps as Ohr
HaChaim Hakadosh suggests, see if every species of tree is in the land, as this
is a land with everything in it. Or perhaps, as the Alshich suggests in Torat
Moshe, perhaps the Canaanites were so fearful of the upcoming invasion from
this nation that had left Mitzrayim so miraculously that they cut down all
their trees lest the enemy benefit from the fruit. If that were the case, Bnei
Yisroel need not fear, for they would easily conquer the land.
But
the Ozhorov Rebbe z”l takes a completely different perspective on our question.
He posits that since this is the final question the spies are to look into, the
question must be a spiritual question rather than a physical question. Basing
this idea on Rashi, the Ozhorov Rebbe z”l suggests that the “tree” here
referred to must be a righteous man whose merit will protect the land. After
all, the Torah does compare Man to a tree of the field.
This
was indeed Moshe’s concern. If there were to be one such righteous person in
the land, such a towering tree, writes Rabbi Ezrachi in Birkat Mordechai,
then no strategy nor merit of our forefathers, nor current leadership, nor the
Torah itself would be enough to grant us victory over the inhabitants of the
land even if the rest of the people themselves were not deserving of salvation.
What
kind of person would this one man need to be, asks Hegyon Levov z”l?
After all, Avraham Avinu stopped praying for the salvation of Sodom if there were
fewer than ten righteous men there, and Noah could not save his generation from
the destruction of the flood. But there is a difference between someone who may
be righteous as ruled not guilty of transgression versus a righteous person
whose stature is such that his aura protects those around him. While the not
guilty man may avoid punishment, his righteousness is not enough to protect
others. [Somewhat similar is a judgment of “not guilty” versus truly innocent.
CKS]
Nevertheless,
a truly righteous man may exist even among the gentiles, for Iyov/Job
was such a man. Rabbi Schwab z”l cites the Gemarrah Yerushalmi in saying that
Iyov lived in the days of Moshe. Iyov lived in the land of Utz, alluded to in
the phrase, “Is there an eitz/tree,” just as we often refer to a rebbe
by his city, like the Bostoner Rebbe, or the Lubavitcher Rebbe. According to
this interpretation, if Iyov, the Utz man, is still alive, his merit may
protect the inhabitants from harm just as a tree offers protective shade to
those in its vicinity.
Using
verses from Tehillim, Rabbi Scheinerman explains the tree metaphor. In 92:13,
the verse says, “Tzadik katamar yifrach/a righteous man will grow like a
date tree,” and in 1:3, the one who has not sinned is blessed to be “k’eitz
shasul al palgei mayim/as a tree deeply rooted alongside brooks of water.”
Rabbi Scheinerman tells us that if the talmid chacham is worthy, and
especially if others “eat and enjoy” his Torah, not only will he be protected
and protect others, but Hashem will care for him and “water” him so that he can
continue to grow and offer his influential fruit and protective shade to
others.
According
to the Satmar Rebbe, Moshe was instructing the spies to look not only if there
was a tzadik in the land, but also if there were pockets of righteous people in
the land, symbolic fruit of the sage tree who were influenced by that righteous
person. One can determine the true nature of a man not by how he presents
himself personally to the world, but on the character of the students he
produces. After all, people learn more by what they see you do than by what you
say.
We
feel vulnerable when a righteous person dies, for we sense that his
righteousness offered us protection, writes Rabbi Lopian z”l. With every one of
his actions, a tzadik thinks about others and how he can benefit them. He prays
for us and cares for our welfare. The more the tzadik cares for others, the
more Hashem will take care of him.
How
does the tzadik come to have the power to nullify decrees? Rabbi Elimelech of
Lizensik explains that a tzadik’s mouth is always involved in speaking words of
Torah. He has mastery not only of the written Torah but also of the Torah
sheBa’al Peh/oral Torah. As such, he has become the ba’al/master of
his peh/mouth, and the oral supplications of his mouth can turn the
words of the evil decree back to their heavenly source and avert them down on
earth.
The
Shvilei Pinchas takes this idea one step further. Since the decree comes
down from heaven as letters forming words, the tzadik who is “master of the
mouth/language” can rearrange the letters to form a blessing, or at least an
innocuous decree. For example, tzarah/misfortune can be an anagram for ratzah/desire.
Even more, Hashem has granted the tzadikim the power to change the decree of
death to a decree for riches by inserting the letter ayin and creating maot
from mavot. [It works in the Hebrew letters.] This gift Hashem gave to
the tzakidim for their constant involvement in uncovering more of the ayin/seventy
aspects of Torah study and understanding. As it says in Proverbs, speaking of
the wisdom of Torah, “Length of days is at its right [he avoided death/mavot],
at its left, wealth and honor [maot]. This ability may be retained in
the souls of the tzadikim even after their death, giving rise to the custom of
praying at the graves of tzadikim.
While
we have used the term tzadik in this discussion, Rashi actually uses the term Ish
kasher/an upright person, writes Rabbi Gamliel Rabinovitz in Tiv Hatorah.
This is a crucial difference, for anyone at any time may be an ish kasher,
and we have no way of knowing who it is from people around us. In fact, Rav Biederman
citing the Sanzer Rebbe notes that when we refer to the 36 hidden tzadikim (the
lamed vovniks) in whose merit the world continues to exist, these are
not permanent tzadikim, but alternating, upright men among all the people who
have overcome their yetzer horo. Therefore, each of us has within
himself the characteristic of a king who is responsible for others as well as
for himself. Rabbi Brazile writes, citing Rabbi Nachman of Breslov z”l, that
each of us is a mini world ruling over all the limbs and organs of our bodies.
When we allow Hashem to rule over us, He rules over our entire personal world
and the world of those around us. In fact, when a boy becomes a bar mitzvah,
his responsibility extends beyond himself to how his actions affect others. When
a Jew serves God with all his strength, he creates paths for others to follow.
Alternately, when a Jew misses the mark, there may be dire consequences.
To
stress this point Rabbi Brazile relates an episode that had tremendous
historical repercussions. A gentleman once came to the Chofetz Chaim z”l to ask
for his blessing. The Chofetz Chaim z”l uncharacteristically started yelling
for someone to remove him. The Chofetz Chaim z”l never wanted to see him again,
for he had killed thousands of Jews. When the gentleman asked what the Chofetz
Chaim z”l meant, the Chofetz Chaim z”l asked him if he was ever a Rebbe in a
particular cheder. When the gentleman acknowledged that he had been in that
position, the Chofetz Chaim z”l reminded him of a young boy in the school. This
was a brilliant boy who was not learning. Instead of using his influence to
improve the boy, this man had expelled the boy from the school. This boy was
Leon Trotsky, one of the main fathers of Russian socialism/communism.
New
we can explore our next question. Why does the Torah inform us that this was
the season of the ripening of the grapes? Oznayim Latorah tells us that
this phrase refers to a season for partying. Iyov’s children would go out
partying every night, and each day, Iyov would then offer a sacrifice to Hashem
and pray for atonement if his children had sinned the night before. He was the
“tree” that protected his children. Each of us also has the ability to be a
tree and pray for others. Was Iyov alive whose merit could protect others? Or,
from a slightly different perspective, writes the Ohel Moshe citing the Zohar,
was there someone who while living in the physical world could elevate it? If
the spies themselves would have been worthy, writes the Chidushei HaRi”M,
these grapes could have been elevated to inaugurate the bringing of bikurim/first
fruits offering.
Beginning
with the concept of these two realms, we can expand our understanding to
include the idea of an outer, visible, physical world that interacts with its
surroundings versus an inner, invisible world that is more effective and
concerned with the inner life, and doesn’t need the physical world to connect
to Hashem. This is the duality the Tallelei Chaim explores. By seeing
what the spies brought back and what their report would be, Moshe would be able
to determine if Bnei Yisroel were ready to live in the natural world after
living in the spiritual bubble of the desert where all their needs were being
filled miraculously.
To
further explore this dichotomy, the Tallelei Chaim refers to the first
description of our Matriarchs, Rachel and Leah. The verse tells us that,
“Leah’s eyes were soft, while Rachel was beautiful of form and beautiful of
appearance.” Why does the Torah focus only on Leah’s eyes while seeming to give
a fuller description of Rachel? The Tallelei Chaim then explains that
these descriptions were meant to give us an insight into the persona of each of
these women. Leah, whose eyes are windows to the soul, represented the person
who found her mission within herself, in perfecting the inner world, while
Rachel found her mission in interacting with the outside world and perfecting
it.
Moshe
and the desert generation, living as they did in a spiritual bubble,
represented the world of Leah, while Rachel’s descendents were those who
grappled and interacted with the outside world. Yosef, who went down to Egypt
and became prime minister over that alien nation was Rachel’s son. Joshua, who
would lead Bnei Yisroel into the Land and conquer it was a descendent of Rachel
from the Tribe of Ephraim. These descendants of Rachel would dominate other
nations, while Judah, son of Leah, was destined to rule over a relatively small
state, Israel. Further, the spiritual aspects of the nation were mostly in the
domain of Leah’s descendants, the Levites and the teachers of Issachar.
When
Moshe asked the spies if there was a tree there, Moshe wanted to know if they
would find the eitz hachaim/Tree of Life in the land. Would they be able
to find God in the concealment of the physical world when their experience had
always been to find God in the miraculous world. Even the terminology of this
question echos a similar, earlier question. Here Moshe asks, “Hayesh boh
eitz im ayin/Is there a tree within it or not.” After Bnei Yisroel had left
Egypt, after miraculously receiving the manna and water from the rock, they
asked, “Hayesh Hashem bekirbeinu im ayin/Is Hashem within us or not.”
The two questions are really one: Can we relate to Hashem only when He reveals
Himself to us, or can we relate to Him even when He is concealed in the natural
world. That first question brought the attack from Amalek; the wrong answer her
led to forty years of wandering in the desert.
All
the spies could see was grapes on poles, the physical aspect. Only Yehoshua and
Calev could see the Eitz Hachaim/the Tree of Life beyond the Eitz
Hadaas/Tree of [physical, material] knowledge. But Calev, descended from
Leah did not have the skills to lead the nation. That role was left for
Yehoshua.
Hashem
wants us to find His concealed presence in the physical world. He has implanted
spirituality into the physical. The Torah in Genesis writes, “These are the
products of the heaven and the earth behiborom/as He created
them...” In the Hebrew text, the letter heh is written smaller than the
rest of the text. Our Sages derive great significance in this detail, deducing
that Hashem created the world with the symbolism of the letter heh.
[Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is constructed from other letters, imbuing
each with symbolic meaning. For example, the very first letter, aleph,
is written with two yuds, one right side up and one upside down. These
are connected with a diagonal vov. When adding the numerical valuation
of these three components, we get 26, the numerical equivalent of the four
lettered name of Hashem. CKS] Rabbi Feldman in The Juggler and the King
explains the significance of this interpretation of the verse. The heh
is constructed with a daled and a yud inserted at the bottom. The
daled is formed by two perpendicular lines, forming an axis representing
the physical world. The yud is basically just a point, representing the
point of spirituality entering each aspect of the physical world. This indeed
was the purpose if creation. Hashem wants us to put the yud into the daled.
But
it is easy to fall out of this construct, for the opening at the bottom of the heh
is quite large. Once one has fallen out of the spiritual aspect, it is much
more difficult to climb back up into the small opening at the upper part of the
heh. The spies, and subsequently Bnei Yisroel, were afraid that if they
ventured out of their spiritual bubble, they would fall away from their
connection to Hashem and would find it very difficult to climb back up to the
spiritual window.
It
is sometimes difficult to recognize Hashem’s presence in the world around us,
but if we persist, Hashem will help us find and connect with Him. Each of us
has the ability to be a tree, strong in our own right and capable of
influencing others.