BS"D
INTROSPECTION
IMPERATIVE: PARSHAT CHUKAS
Shira Smiles shiur 2022/5782
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
The
forty years of Bnei Yisroel wandering in the desert are coming to an end, and
Bnei Yisroel are preparing for entry into the Promised Land. While there will
be conquests, Hashem has instructed Bnei Yisroel not to conquer the lands
belonging to Amon and Moav, for they were our "cousins." Even for
most of the other nations, Bnei Yisroel were first to send out peace emissaries
in hopes of avoiding war. Among the kings Bnei Yisroel sent emissaries to was
Sichon, king of the Emori. But Sichon, instead of accepting the peace
initiative Israel sent him, gathered his forces and went out to battle against
Bnei Yisroel. With Hashem's help, Bnei Yisroel defeated Sichon, captured its
capital Cheshbon, and settled in the territories.
The
the Torah seems to digress to give us some local history. This entire area,
from Cheshbon to Arnon, was once part of the Moabite Kingdom. Sichon had
attempted to unsuccessfully wage war against Moab, finally succeeding and
capturing these lands when he engaged the prophet Bilaam to curse the Moabites.
The Torah here makes it quite clear that now these were Emorite lands, not
Moabite lands, and Bnei Yisroel was free to conquer and annex it.
However,
the text in the Torah is confusing. It states, "The moshlim/poets
would say, 'Bou Chshbon/Come Cheshbon-- let it be built as a city
of Sichon. For a fire has come forth from Cheshbon... ' " While the
simplest translation would be to add "come to
Cheshbon," the fact that the word/letter is missing here gives rise to the
homiletic interpretation in the Baba Basra Gemara. Let us begin with the
word moshlim. In our above translation, we wrote that these are the
poets like Bilaam who give meshalim/analogies. But an even simpler
translation would be that the moshlim are those who rule, in this case
over their desires. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman is here telling those who rule
over their desires to make a cheshbono shel olam/accounting of the
world, of the loss from a sin against the gain of a mitzvah. This accounting
will keep you on the right path. You will be built up in this world and you
will be well established in the world to come.
However,
as Rabbi Nevenzahl notes, there must be some linguistic connection between this
homiletic interpretation and the battle being discussed. Further, what is meant
by an accounting of the world, what world?
The
Netivot Shalom explains that there is indeed a battle between ourselves
and the yetzer horo. The battle can take two forms. If someone is
already in the battle zone itself, the intellectual arguments of cheshbon
will not prevail. The passion and desire from the yetzer horo are
already an integral part of him. Greater force than external, intellectual
argument will be necessary to subdue the yetzer horo here. However, when
the yetzer horo is "crouching at the door" waiting for the
opportunity to enter your world, that is a time to make an accounting, to check
how far you are to your target and what equipment you have to help you reach
the goal of bringing Hashem into our personal world. By defeating Sichon and
Og, we are eliminating the final blockages that keep us from this goal.
The
blockages and challenges of our times are very great writes B'Yam Derech.
We have so many "kosher" ways to indulge in our desires, whether it
is kosher certified foods or technology that skirts the edges of propriety. Do
we stop to ask ourselves not if it is permissible, but if it is also healthy
and conducive to our spiritual well being.
In
Yirah Vodaat, Rabbi Segal of Manchester encourages us to ask ourselves
what is our essence. Are we basically a physical body, or are we a spiritual
soul encased in a body? That pure neshamah within me is trying to make the
connection to its Source. When we daven, are we involved in dialogue with our
Creator, or are we distracted by the visions and thoughts of the physical world
around us?
In
Netivei Shalom, Rabbi Schechter relates an experience of Rav Schwadron
to help understand this constant battle. Standing outside the wax museum, he
observed two guards in uniform who were constantly being asked questions. Only
after the guards did not answer for several minutes would the tourists realize
that these guards were not real and were also made of wax. The yetzer horo
uses similar tactics. The person is like a small city, and its inhabitants are
all the different part of the body. A king, trying to invade the city, uses
many soldiers. But a wise man, the yetzer tov, realizes that these were
just wax, toy soldiers designed to scare the city into surrendering. The wise
man informs the body/city, and the city remains strong and resolute. But the
invading king doesn't give up easily. Each day, he uses a different tactic,
soldiers dressed differently, but each day we must seek the advice of the
"wise man" and realize that the enemy is no more than wax ready to
melt at the approach of our fire.
The
yetzer horo is crouching at the door waiting patiently for permission to
enter. It is easy to slide from checking the email for five minutes to surfing
the web for an hour, or from checking the refrigerator for a small snack to
finishing a pint of ice cream. Don't open the door to the
"permissible," or put checks into place before beginning, like a
timer near the computer, or individual packets of snacks. Hopefully, you will
listen to their wise counsel. Even better, take the battle away from the
"city." Don't let the enemy enter your territory. Make a preemptive
strike instead, which is what we learn from Sichon who went out to battel in
the desert notes Bobover Rebbe.
Another
tactic, suggests Rabbi Shraga Grosbard, is to make a cheshbono shel olam/a
calculation of how the world around you will view your actions. What will the people
say?
We
must also recognize our personal greatness. After all, each of us is a
son/daughter of the King, and we must act according to our station. Both in
physical behavior and in spiritual behavior, we must always refrain from
anything beneath that dignity, writes Rabbi Yoffe.
It
is always helpful to take a long view instead of the short view when evaluating
events and actions, writes Rabbi Nevenzahl. After his victorious battle with
Moav, Sichon was on a high. Little did he realize that he was merely a pawn in
Hashem's long-range plan to deliver this land, originally belonging to Moav, to
Bnei Yisroel. He would be only the medium of transmission.
When
we are tempted to act, we must also take a cheshbon shel olam/a long,
worldview position, continues Rabbi Nevenzahl. How will a temporary
inconvenience in my schedule to do a chesed affect the long range, eternal
portrait of my life? The Otzrot Hatorah cites the Chofetz Chaim and says
that we spend so much time acquiring and doing, but we should also ask
ourselves what really makes us happy long term. To get a small sense of
eternity, suggests the Steipler Gaon, imagine the entire world filled with
sand, and once every million years a grain of sand is removed. How long would
it take to empty the world of the sand? Be honest with yourself if you want to
live a meaningful life. Are you living in the complacency of Moav who believed
that since everything was going well now, they would continue this way, and Bnei
Yisroel would never get this land out of their possession? The yetzer horo
tries to keep us in this state of complacency, in a mindset that only reflects
the here and now rather than the future.
Rabbi
Nevenzahl presents an idea that Rabbi Hillel, in Ascending the Path,
then further develops for modern times. Using the verse from Isaiah 27:13:
"...And those who are lost in the land of Assyria and those cast away in
the land of Egypt...," they explain that the yetzer horo uses two
different tactics. Sometimes he keeps us so busy with work that we cannot think
of any higher values. This was the method Pharaoh used in Egypt. We must
complete our quota of straw and bricks. Today our minds are so preoccupied with
relatively meaningless problems and issues, even when they are not negative,
that we leave no room or energy to think of our higher purpose. If we have
amassed enough "straw and bricks," we don't realize how meaningless
this is in the great scheme of our lives. We are lost in our acquisitions, and
we want more. Even positive pursuits like Torah study can be done in such a
compulsive way, perhaps to complete a certain regimen, that the student does
not contemplate his spiritual growth, or that he might need to make changes
even in his study habits or study partners to continue to grow rather than to
remain stagnant. This compulsion to keep moving without contemplation is also
the work of the yetzer horo, so that we do not examine our own middot/character,
or the effect of our words or actions on others.
Every
person has twenty-four hours in a day. Great people recognize that every action
and every thought at each moment is weighed and accounted for, writes Rabbi
Scheinerman in Ohel Moshe. One who lives in this mindset is doing a
constant accounting, living in cheshbon. When Chazal saw the Cheshbon
in our parshah as the name of this major city, they thought of the translation
and meaning of the word itself, calculation or accounting. This literal
translation triggered the interpretation of the passage in the homiletic style
we have been discussing.
In
Chochmat Hamatzpun, Rav Yechezkel Levenstein is recorded as explaining cheshbono
shel olam to be the accounting each of us will be called upon to do at hise
yom hadin/ day of judgment at the end of his time in the olam/world.
Our excuses will be of no avail at that time. But even as we live in this
world, writes Rabbi Yoffe, we must account for our actions not just as they
impact us personally, but as they impact the olam/world as a whole, for
no action remains in a vacuum, but has a ripple effect in the balance of
the world.
How
do you self-check? How much love do you have for the mitzvoth? Do you remember
to recite a brachah regularly? Even more, do you go out of your way to recite
the brachah so someone can respond Amen? Do you search for opportunities to do
chesed? Hashem runs the world, He coordinates all the events, but Hashem still
wants us to be involved, to do our personal accounting. The world we can impact
is limited, but Hashem can coordinate our limited world with the eternal world.
While Hashem does His accounting, we are nevertheless tasked with doing our
own, personal accounting. Only with our own accounting can we hope to emerge
victorious in our own battles against the yetzer horo.