BS”D
GRATUITOUS
GREATNESS: PARSHAT SHELACH
Shira Smiles shiur
2020/5780
Adapted by Channie
Koplowitz Stein
Bnei Yisroel had left Egypt and were now
ready to enter the Promised Land. The people approached Moshe and asked to send
spies to reconnoiter the land before their entry. Moshe then asked Hashem for
permission to do so, and Hashem acquiesced to the peoples’ request. However,
things did not turn out as Moshe had hoped and expected, and the spies returned
with a negative report about the land and its inhabitants, instilling such fear
into the nation that they want to abort their journey and return to Egypt.
In response to the cries of the people who
had demonstrated a lack of faith in the God Who redeemed them, Hashem tells
Moshe He will destroy the nation and found a new nation from Moshe. Here again,
Moshe pleads with Hashem on behalf of his people. Moshe argues that the nations
of the world will rationalize that although Hashem took Bnei Yisroel out of
Egypt with tremendous miracles, He does not have the power to bring them into
the Promised Land. [Perhaps He has no power over the other gods.] Moshe
continues: “And now, may the strength of my Lord be magnified as You have
spoken, saying, [reciting the Thirteen attributes of Hakodosh Boruch Hu]
‘Hashem, Slow to Anger, Abundant in Kindness, Forgiver of iniquity and willful
sin… forgive now the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your
Kindness...” Hashem answer, “I have forgiven because of your words.”
But then Hashem immediately continues,
“But as I live – and the Glory of Hashem fills the entire world [that this
generation will not] see the Land that I swore to give to their forefathers.”
This dialogue raises several questions.
First, what was Moshe referring to when he repeated back to Hashem what we
refer to as Hashem’s thirteen attributes? When was it that You, Hashem, have
spoken them? Then an additional question arises. If Hashem has indeed forgiven,
how does he then decree to punish this generation, that they will not enter the
Land?
Where Had Moshe heard this mantra? The
medrash relates Moshe’s first encounter atop Har Sinai. Moshe sees Hashem
writing these thirteen attributes. When Hashem reaches the words, “Slow to
anger,” Moshe says, as he assumes, “For the righteous,” to which Hashem
replies, “Even for the wicked.” Hashem answers, “Even for the wicked.” When
Moshe objects, Hashem tells him that there will come a time when Moshe himself
will ask for this attribute even for the wicked. That time had now come, and
Moshe acknowledges the truth Hashem had revealed to him on Sinai.
We begin our discussion of the second
question with Rabbi Minzberg in Ben Melech. He explains that indeed
Moshe wanted not only to save Bnei Yisroel from death, but to also lead them
into Eretz Yisroel. However, Moshe also understood that if Hashem was this
angry, he could ask only for one concession at a time, so he asked Hashem to
spare the lives of the people. He had hoped, after that concession, to ask
Hashem to let them enter the land. But Hashem preempted that request by
swearing immediately after granting life that he would not permit them to enter
the Land.
One must understand that although a
transgression may be forgiven, there remain consequences and ripple effects from
that action. So too with the sin of the spies. Our Sages tell us that because
Bnei Yisroel cried on that night, that night of Tisha b’Av/the Ninth of
Av, would remain a night for crying throughout the generations. And indeed this
has been so. However, Rabbi Asher Weiss puts a different spin on these events.
Initially, writes Rabbi Weiss, Hashem had hoped to make His Name great by
bringing Bnei Yisroel into the Land and miraculously vanquishing all the foes
within the Land. When that plan failed, Hashem resorted to glorifying His Name
among the nations by exiling His people among the nations. What greater miracle
is there than the survival of the Jewish Nation throughout the millenia,
despite being dispersed among all the nations, despite suffering untold
hardships, discrimination, and threats of annihilation. That Am Yisroel chai/The
Nation of Israel lives is the greatest testament to Hashem’s glory.
We must also understand that there are
multiple levels of forgiveness with many layers, writes Rabbi Gamliel
Rabinowitz in Tiv Hatorah. Damage has been done, and the consequences
are part of the cleansing process. Our souls also need to be repaired. While
repair can be accomplished through major suffering, repair can also be achieved
through multiple, mini frustrations and challenges. One can exact expiation
through hurling a large stone at the culprit, or one can hopefully achieve a
similar result by smashing that stone into pebbles and tossing the pebbles at
the culprit in intervals. Hashem sprinkles small frustrations and challenges
throughout our lives to minimize the punishment for our sins, writes Rabbi
Rabinowitz. We want Hashem to exercise His gevurah/strength, to control
and rein in His anger, and Manifest His greatness by His power of control, of
allowing His compassion to dominate His sense of strict justice, adds the Sifsei
Chaim.
In the medrash we cited, Moshe feared that
if Hashem were slow to anger, the evildoers would lose all sense of culpability
and responsibility for their actions. But Hashem reassures him of the power of
forbearance and restraint. With forbearance, those who sinned have the time to
realize that they can do teshuvah. This creates even greater glory for Hashem
than immediate punishment, and unites Hashem attributes of compassion and mercy
with His attribute of justice, so that we recognize both as aspects of the One
God, as we testify each day with the recitation of Shema.
Rebbetzin Smiles read a powerful story
from Rabbi Spero’s new book The Spark of a Story. She read of a victim
of the Holocaust,Pinchas Naftali, who, at the moment he was being summarily
executed shouted out, “Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad.” For
this affront, the Nazi decided to beat him into a slow death instead of
shooting him. Although Naftali Pinchas survived, his mind never recovered. From
that day until the day of his death, the only words that passed his lips were
the words of Shema, shouted out twice daily for seventy years.
Hashem created the world with an abundance
of kindness, but it is up to us to bring that kindness down. This was Moshe’s
request. And just as there are multiple levels of forgiveness, there are also
levels of kindness, writes the Oshorover Rebbe in Be’er Moshe. Hashem
can forgive regular sins with kindness, but greater sins require godel
chasodecha/[His] greater kindness; Hashem treats us with mercy and
compassion, but He revives the dead mechaye meitim berachamim rabim/with
tremendous mercy. The Oshover Rebbe points out that reviving the dead applies
not only to physical death, but also to emotional and psychological death. When
Hashem raises someone from a deep state of depression, He is reviving that
man’s spirit. Hashem revives our spirits, cleanses our souls with His
tremendous compassion. We ask Hashem to access that greater kindness and
compassion even when we sin.
Hashem is the Master of these thirteen
attributes, but each of us can access these middot/attributes within
ourselves. When we access a particular attribute within ourselves in our
relationship with others, writes Rabbi Haskel Levenstein, Hashem treats us with
that same characteristic. If we are to ask Hashem for greater kindness, we have
to treat others with greater kindness as well. We need to act, not just recite,
these attributes.
This concept explains why Moshe did not
ask Hashem to remember our forefathers in this instance. With their crying,
Bnei Yisroel demeaned the value of Eretz Yisroel. In contrast, Avraham,
Yitzchak and Yaakov loved the Land Hashem promised them and valued it greatly.
Calling on the merit of our ancestors was a contradiction to the sin of the
nation and therefore Moshe could not use it on their behalf.
Therefore, suggests Rabbi Biederman,
when one finds himself in need of salvation, one should put himself forth
completely to help another human being, as Hashem Himself would, and arouse
Hashem’s greater compassion. Further, adds Rabbi Leibel Eiger, when we sense
Hashem stretching His hand out in judgment against us, we ask Him to bring us
back with goodness rather than through suffering. Kindness can also bring us to
teshuvah.
There is a tremendous difference
between gevurah/might and koach/power, notes Rabbi S. R. Hirsch.
Might shows strength in punishing, destructive ways. It is the way other
nations relate to their gods. But Hashem has the strength reflected in koach/
the power of restraint, of redirection toward creation.
We carry within ourselves in some degree
every one of Hashem’s attributes, writes Rabbi Wolbe. A person can be angry and
indignant at someone who wronged him, but he can also be compassionate and
merciful, and subdue his anger. There are always circumstances in someone
else’s life that we are unaware of, that mitigate his actions, or even prove
that his act was totally inadvertent, not meant to hurt us at all. If we can
treat the other with kindness, Hashem will in turn treat us with kindness.
Dovid Hamelech understood very well that
He had control over nothing except over himself. At some point in his life, he
lost his entire empire, ruling only over the staff in his hand. With this
staff, he stood tall and maintained his dignity in spite of his circumstances,
writes Rabbi Kofman in Mishchat Shemen. When a person can maintain his
self control, overcome his ego to focus on others, can see their needs with
compassion, he makes Hashem’s presence more manifest in the world and awakens
the strong kindness and compassion of Hakodosh Boruch Hu.
In the last blessings Moshe gives the
Tribes of Israel, Moshe says of Hashem, “He rides [upon] across the heavens to
help you.” Rabbi Brazile interprets this to mean that when we do His will on
earth, we increase His power in this world. When a Jew tries to emulate Hashem
and refuses to listen to the yetzer horo, he is enabling Hashem to ride
across the heavens to help us. When we allow our compassion to overcome our
strict judgment or righteous indignation, we are shining a mirror back to
Hakodosh Boruch Hu so that He will reflect it back to us. Especially in exile,
we can exhibit even greater Godliness by emulating and taking advantage of
Hashem’s patience and forbearance. By exercising restraint, we model Hashem’s
restraint and increase the sanctity of the world. When we maintain our values
in spite of challenges, when we rule over ourselves, we encourage Hashem to
treat us likewise, with kindness instead of with harsh judgment.