With The Commentary of the RABAM
Matos = Tribes. Psukim (verses) 30:2 through 32:42. This is the ninth and penultimate parsha in Sefer BaMidbar, after one more of which (drumroll pom pom pom) comes Sefer Dvarim!
In this week's Parsha, Matois, Klal Yisroel strives to emulate the benevolent, merciful, forgiving nature of the Reboinoisheloilum by slaughtering all the nations of Midian.
But before slaughtering Midian, there is a speech by Moishe to the heads of the banners – but not one of his usual vague rants. Instead, “lemor ha davar asher tsiva Adonai” (this is EXACTLY what HaShem commands!).
The Sfas Emes (Lips of Truth) cites Rashi (Rabbi Shloime Yitzhaki) who quotes the Sifri (a commentary from the era of the Tannaim), who explains that in this case the command was precise (tsiva), rather than an approximate. Which means you better listen good, or bad things will happen. As indeed they do.
All the nations of Midian = The Midianites were allied with the Moabites in the attempt to destroy the Bnei Yisroel. In response thereto, an army of 12,000 men went forth, led by Pinchass ha kohein with the ‘klei ha koidesh, va chatsrotsos ha terua, ba yado’ (with “holy pots, and trumpets of warning, in his hands!”). They defeated the Midianites in battle and slew all the males, including their five kings (nations), Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba - the vassals of Sihon, the king of the Amorites. Hence the plural, which further applies also, in this context, to Moab.
Bilaam Ben Be’or also snuffed it, by the way. Just so you know.
Like last week, we are faced with a question regarding Klal Yisroel's relationship with Midian: How is it that the nation of Yisro, the man who helped develop Am Yisroel's legal system, so soon became a mortal enemy to be pillaged and plundered, killed to the last man, with all its wealth taken away? According to the Mei Menuchois, the Toirah here is coming to teach an important lesson to lawyers: they are to pledge allegiance to the legal system, but are then encouraged to exploit it, abuse it and devour it like locusts, so long as they are not disbarred.
The nation of Yisro = But Yisro was a nomad. If Avi-vrumel was a wandering Aramean, can we not describe Yisro as a wandering Midianite? And was it not the agency of the divine that put Yisro in a place where his dishy daughters could catch Moishe’s eyes?
Helped develop Am Yisroel’s legal system = As is described in Sefer Shmos, Parshas Yisro, third aliyah, where Yisro instructs Moishe on appointing able judges and administrators. In mittn drinnen, two aliyos later everybody takes a bath. The Torah only mentions that which is remarkable.
All its wealth taken away = The Bnei Yisroel torched the settlements of Midian, and their fortified places, and carried off the women, children, cattle, zache, and treasure.
Killed to the last man = However the Midianites reappear in the time of Gideon, some hundreds of years later – So, unless Pinchass was a rank incompetent, Midian, though used as an ethnic denominator, is better understood as a geographic term. Like Moab, but unlike Edom and Mitzrayim. How else account for the reappearance?
Nevertheless, I prefer to think of Pinchass as putz.
Mei Menuchos = An easily comprehended book by Rabbi Nachman Kahane, notable of Young Isroel of Yerushalayim’s old city, and an authority on Temple ceremony. It is an explanation of commentaries, a phrase by phrase mefarsh on tosafos.
The name Mei Menuchois means tranquil waters, as in Psalm 23 “Binot deshe yarbitseini al mei menuchot yenehalani” (….He makes me rest in green meadows, and leads me beside the tranquil waters, oh yeah).
Legal system = Manifestly not Halacha. What is this other “legal system” of which you speak?
However, the Sifsey Chachomim focuses on an even more fundamental question on the Parsha: Why, after Klal Yisroel killed all the adult males of Midian, did Moishe Rabbeinu insist that they kill all the adult females as well?
Sifsey Chachomim = Also Siftei Chachamim (the lips of the wise), by Rav Shabsai (Shabtai) Bass (1641 – 1718), a scholar from Prague (Praha, Bohemen) who started a publishing house in 1689, in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poyland). His writing is precise, concise, and to the point. Not surprisingly, local churchmen appreciated neither his writing nor his publishing, and he was clapped in the clink several times for alleged anti-Christian scribbling - I fail to see why, though. Methinks their scholarship was less incisive than doctrinaire. As, so often, it still is.
The Sifsei Chachamim is a supercommentary on Rashi, frequently printed in commentated chumashim (pentateuchei). Rav Shabsai also wrote the Sifsei Yeshorim (the Lips of the Just), the first bibliography of Hebrew books; the name is consciously echoed in the title of a book by the Ramchal – Mesillas Yeshorim (the Paths of the Just), which teaches how one may, by application and self-rectification, make oneself holy in attention to the divine.
Note that a number of machonim and vaadim use the term sifsei chachamim to suggest an image and an aspiration which they embrace.
Machonim = Institutions or scholarly programs; sing. ‘machon’.
Vaadim = Councils, unions, organizations, groups; sing. ‘va’ad’.
Ramchal = Rabbi Moishe Chayim Luzzato (1707 – 1746). Author of the bestseller of his time (among literate people, that is). A native of Padua who moved to Amsterdam (Mokum Alef), which at that time was known as the Yerushalayim of the north, whose air makes men wise. He wrote Mesillas Yesharim in his early thirties. It was still being received with critical acclaim generations later, among both misnagdim and chassidim – both the Gaon of Vilna and the Maggid of Mezeritch praised the work.
Rav Moishe moved to Eretz Yisroel at age thirty-six, and died of a plague at age thirty-nine.
The lips of the just are circumcised (controlled, sanctified), as are their hearts.
According to the Baal Haturim, Moishe's motivation was that he was a misogynist. Indeed, a Gemarra in Nedarim attributes to Moishe the Halacha that women can never enter the inner areas of the Bais Hamikdash, not because they were banned from bringing sacrifices, but because of the strict MEN ONLY rules in the Temple's health club.
Baal HaTurim = The Master Of The Rows; appellation of Rabbi Yakov Ben Asher (1270 – 1340), author of the Arba Turim (????? ????? - from whence the name was nicked), a monumental compendium of Halacha divided into four parts: Orach Chayim (Path of Life; worship and ritual), Yoreh Deah (Teach Knowledge; prohibitions and impurities), Even Ha Ezer (Rock of the Helper; marriage and family, including dissolution of same), and lastly Chosen Mishpat (Breastplate of Judgement; administration and civil laws).
The book’s title, ‘four rows’, is in reference to the lines of precious stones on the breastplate of the kohein gedol, as described in Sefer Shmos, Parshas Teitzaveh, where Aharoin receives a turban, shirt, pants, gartel, eifod (apron), chosen (breastplate), and a tzitz (turban badge). Plus a nice robe with bells on the hem, so that he can’t sneak up on the Aimishteh – from which we learn, mashma, that a man should cough discretely or otherwise announce his presence, even when entering his own home.
Rabbi Yakov usually follows the opinions of his father Rabbi Asher ben Yehiel (the Rosh), but often refers to the Sefer Halachot of the RIF, as well as the ideas of the Tzarfati (French) and Ashkenazi (German) gedolim (scholarly greats).
The Arba Turim was of great influence on subsequent Halachic writing, effectively setting standards that later generations of scholars strove to emulate. Rabbi Yoisef Karo (also known as the Mechaber – compiler or author) based his own work Beis Yoisef on the Arba Turim.
Rabbi Yakov Ben Asher also wrote a Torah commentary, which, in addition to pshat, also veers off into Gematriot. The Gematria are good…, if you’re into that sort of thing.
(Oh and an andere zach, chosen mishpat wird bakviusdik oysgeshprochen as if it were a brand of single malt whisky lemoishl – Kh’kh’kho-senn mish-pott! Azoy dos richtikke nusach, hapsolut nisht vi “choose sin, Miss Pat”. Kh’Kh’Kh!!!
Unlike the ‘ch’ in cholent, which is pronounced Tsholnt. Chosen is from Ivrit, cholent from mediaeval French. The next time I hear one of you chamerim say ‘HHew-lent’, you could get the kli all over your kopf.)
Gemara = Addition, used both singularly and as a plural. A collection of discussions, shakla ve taryah (back and forth argumentation), and illustrative narratives. Addenda to the Mishna.
Nedarim = Vows. The third mesechet (tractate) of the seder (order) of Nashim (women) in the Bavli (Babylonian Talmud). Most sections of Meseches Nedarim have absolutely nothing to do with women, so why is it included in Seder Nashim? Because the final two parts of the tractate discuss the power of a husband to annul or let stand the vows of his wife, and of the father to do likewise to the oaths of a daughter.
As it says in this weeks parsha, in psook 30:4 “Eisha ki tidor neder la Adonai ve asra isar be beit aviha, b’inureiha” (Thus, when a woman swears (tidor) a vow (neder) by the Aibishter, and binds herself with a bond (asra, isar), in her father's house, in her youth); Psook 30:5 “ve shama aviha et nidra ve esara asher asra al nafsha ve hecherish la aviha ve kamu kol nedareiha ve chol isar asher asra al nafsha yakum” (and her father hears her vow, or the bond with which she has bound her soul, and her father restrains himself, then all her vows and every bond with which she has bound her soul shall stand).
Meile, yada yada yada, in psook 30:6 her father can disallow her vows and bonds on the day that he hears them, as can her husband in psook 30:9, whereas if her father or husband don’t object on that day, we are told in psook 30:5 for the father and psook 30:8 for the husband, tough, they are stuck with them, and so is she.
A widowed or divorced woman, however, is a free agent. It says in Psook 30:10 “ve neder almana u gerusha kol asher asra al nafsha, yakum aleiha” (and the vow of a widow or of a divorcee, all with which she has bound her soul, stands against her). Shoyn. Here it ends you think.
But no, it goes on for another half dozen Psookim, saying everything again, just in case you didn’t get it the first time. Vows, bonds, houses, and hearing, l’chol shebang.
As the joke about blondes says, “that’s okay, I’ll just repeat it”.
Bais HaMikdash = The Temple.
Men only rules = Hence in our time the absence of women from kolel – you knew there was a reason you went.
But the RAN disagrees, referring in his commentary to the Baal Haturim as "Shvantz for Brains." The RAN holds that Moishe Rabbeinu actually loved women, perhaps a little too much. He cites a medrish that says that the reason it took Moishe so long to return to Klal Yisroel from Sinai was that he went three blocks out of his way, where no one he knew would see him, to buy "marital aids." Indeed, the RAN holds that Moishe had the adult women of Midian killed because they "lacked passion", and he didn't dare risk making the Israelite wives any more frigid than they already were, chass v'sholom.
RAN = Rav Nissim Ben Reuven, born in Spain in the late 13th or early 14th century. His Talmudic commentary can be considered a supercommentary on the Rif's Sefer Halachot. He also wrote Drashos HaRan, a series of shiurim on the basics of Judaism. Niftar circa 1380.
RIF = Rabbi Yitzhak Al Fassi (Isaac of Fez), a North African scholar born in 1013, died in 1103. He studied in the Yeshiva in Kairuwan, but fled to Fez when Islamic fanaticism made life dangerous in Algiers. In Fez he wrote the Sefer Halachot (an original compendium of laws in a clear concise form, easily referenced, without the extraneous material which clutters many sefers) which made him famous, but while there he also tangled with one of the powerful members of the Jewish community, necessitating his abscoot across the straits to Cordoba (in 1089). After living in Cordoba for about a year he moved to Lucena, where he remained as rosheshiva until he died.
The RAN and the Rif are the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers of Talmudic studies.
Medrish = Derivational or expository narrative, with a point.
Marital aids = This must refer to buckets or cleaning supplies or something. A man is supposed to be helpful to his aishes chayill, within reason.
But according to the MAHARAL, Moishe ordered the killing of the Midianite women for as grand a reason as to help Klal Yisroel finally reach the Promised Land.
Maharal = Rabbi Yudah Ben Betzalel Loew of Prague (1525 – 1609) – Moreinu Ha Rav Loew (our teacher rabbi Loew). A golemmacher of note, and a good man to have on one’s side – far be it from me to disagree with him. Also, as is attested in several genealogical records, a descendant of Dovid Ha Melech.
Klal Yisroel was originally supposed to enter Eretz Yisroel in a matter of weeks after receiving the Toirah on Sinai. However, every time the Jews had a spare moment to make some progress toward reaching The Land, their wives always came up with new chores for them to do. "Moishe, fold the laundry, the Aimishteh can wait." "Aron, go next door to borrow the lawn mower. I don't care if we are moving our tent tomorrow. TODAY the place looks a mess." "Kulayv, watch the children for the next three hours while I get my nails done." "Yehoishua, you can't meet Moisheh to discuss conquest strategy this afternoon; we have a guy coming in to give us an estimate on redoing the kitchen."
Matter of weeks = Consider the distance; the Israeli army went the other way in a matter of hours. While the Egyptian high-command was still boasting to the Jordanians that their air-force was be-emmes pummeling Israel, the IDF was crossing the canal - how quickly kvell turns to kvetch! But camels and asses move so much slower than tanks.
Of course, it took the IDF a generation to get back to Israel. Maybe there’s something about the traffic. They should build an autobahn.
Receiving Toirah on Sinai = Which is linked with cheesecake and blintzim. Overeating is not recommended when slogging through the wastelands of Sinai. You should eat better, precious.
Kulayv = The biggest tuches lecher in all of Klal Yisroel at that time. Who died and left him in charge?!?!
Yehoshua = Who later led an assault on Jericho that coincided with an earthquake, although the Chachmei SanFrancisco aver that it was a fire, not a quake.
Since Moishe didn't want the males of Am Yisroel to become any more whipped than they already were, he had all the Midianite women put to death.
Males of Yisroel whipped? Eini yodea ma hu, v’eini yodea ma milamdenu! (Ich veiss nit voss es iz, oych nit voss es for a musser hott!). Kler, nu?
I am reminded of a famous story told of the ARI ZAHL. He was once addressing his students in Tzfas, expounding on new, insightful interpretations of the Zohar, and using his deep understanding of the interrelationships of ten Sefirot to bring about the coming of the Moshiach and end Israel's state of exile.
Arizal = The holy Ari (Alef Reish Yod = Eloki Rabbi Yitzhak, the divine Rabbi Isaac), kabbalist of Safed (Tzfat, Tzfas). Rabi Yitzhak (??? ????) Ben Shlomo Luria (1534 – 1572).
Zohar = The Splendour; a kabbalistic masterpiece written by Moishe Shemtov DeLeon in Spain…. I mean, by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, ten centuries earlier, in a miserable cave in the Holy Land.
Ten Sefirot = The ten creative manifestations, being those aspects of the divine which are knowable in the realm of existence which resulted from the shattering of the limitless light which cannot be seen at the beginning of time. From the emanations of the sefirot comes the world of perceptual reality. Really, you just cannot understand kabalah without tons of adjectives.
Moshiach = The Anointed one; the one who is geshmiert (no kidding! The word derives from a root meaning grease).
Exile = Golus. Anywhere outside of New York. Imagine a world with no bialys, boygels, laxn, brisket, or mechutenim! Or yeshiva tuition, so it is cheaper.
Suddenly, the back door of the Bais Medrish opened, and his eight year old son Pesachya stuck his head in. "Tahti, come home quickly, Mommy needs you right away!" Fearing some horrible disaster, the ARI ended his treatise mid-sentence and ran home. His wife anxiously greeted him at the door. "I need you to do car pool. Shayndl next door is sick, and I have an appointment with the Shaytelmacher." The ARI held his temper and faithfully picked up his daughter Fruma from day camp.
This Yiddish! Sephardim don’t have term for sheitelmacher?
Sheitel = A wig. Ober farvoos trogt a froy a sheitel? It is worn out of modesty by married women, for whom it is considered proper not to show their hair to any save their husband. But a groise bonus is that two layers of hair (their own, and the wig that covers it) very well preserve the body’s heat in colder climes – over sixty percent of heat-loss is up through the head.
So, quite suitable for Litven or Gallitsiyeh in winter.
That night the Reboinoisheloilum came to him in a dream. "ARI, you were about to crack the code and bring about Israel's redemption. Why did you choose your wife over the Moshiach?"
"Aimishteh," the ARI answered, "if the Moshiach doesn't come now, he'll come soon. Maybe in ten years, maybe in one hundred, maybe in one thousand. And then we will sit at Your throne and joyfully worship You. But if I piss off my wife, she'll make me miserable for all eternity." The Aimishteh praised the ARI's wisdom and rewarded him by bringing a plague that ended the ARI's life.
A plague that ended the Ari’s life = He died young, just like the Ramchal. Ha Eretz was a miserable malarial place at that time, with more mosquitoes than people most of the year. And hot. Not healthy. You really should rent a bungalow during summer, upstate. If only a few weeks, und far di mishpoche.
Here is the problem with his wife, the poor dear. She was a hothead - a wig in that climate makes no sense, as it prevents proper cooling of the body, und wekt eppes geshvitz unter sheitel.
Chazal say that during the hot weather a man should give his good woman a buzz-cut. So much better than a sticky sweaty hairpack. Zesty, nu?
In our day we too are confronted by a similar choice: Lifelong dedication to the Reboinoisheloilum, or splitting loyalty between Him and a wife. Many spiritual groups have different approaches to managing this challenge. The Moslems marry many women in order to counter the aggregation of power by a single wife. The Episcopalians and the Reform allow their wives to become clergy and manage the family's relationship with the Aimishteh, thereby freeing up time for the husbands to play golf. And the Catholics don't marry, but take matters into their own hands, or into the hands of their alter boys, if you know what I mean.
Altar boys = Possibly kruvim le mizba – a Roman term.
Into the hands of their altar boys = This refers to one of the sacramental rituals, which I hear are more or less the Roimishe substitutes for the mitzvois. Ober ich soll weisen voss, be tsiva? It is not proper for us to study the practices of the ‘those people’, save to refute them.
I do not know from altar boys, and neither should you.
But a true Ben Torah accepts his fate, secure in the fact that while his wife wastes her time on such insignificant tasks as supporting the family, paying the rent, filling out school registration forms, planning carpool, packing school lunches, cooking, cleaning, and worrying about birth control, he is off doing the Aimishteh's work by learning in Kolel and contemplating his reward in the World to Come.
Kolel = The modern-day equivalent of the Temple, where men may go to continue their studies after Yeshiva, for a few years at least, but ideally until retirement age, and especially if they can get a deferment from the armed forces. It is a saintly thing.
I believe the goyishe equivalent (if they can ever be said to have an equivalent to anything so kedoosh) is called a karaoke lounge – chavuras discuss there, and verses are recited. Someday I will investigate, following which I shall issue a psak l’issur forbidding any further visits by frumme yidden, having determined that heathenish nastiness is practiced there. Such apikorsim, minim, kofrim, mumarim, ve goyim.
Damn hippies!
