Weekly Parsha: Devorim
The Path To Emuna
Moshe told the people, terrified by the spies’ report “You have seen how Hashem carried you the long way we have traveled in this desert just like a man carrying his small son. Regarding this you lack faith in Hashem, Who went before you on the road to find you a proper camp-ground, and Who lit up your way at night with fire showing you the way to go, and who leads you with a cloud by day”
Why was Moshe mentioning all these points?
The sovereign path to Emunah is to look back on all the trouble we have been in and how Hashem has carried us through. Think of the times when you had difficulties and were saved. Of when things seemed desperate yet worked out in the end. Of when you worried about the future. When we think of that, we say “Hashem has kept me all these years, He has fed me, and He has clothed me and He sheltered me. I alone could not have done it. I fear no future; the One Who has led me thus far will continue to lead me further”.
The Big Bed
“His [-Og] bed is yet still today in Rabah of Amon, nine amos by four, in the amah of a man” The Torah is telling of Og’s great size, whom the Jews nevertheless defeated.
Rashi comments that “in the Amah of MAN” refers to the Amah of OG. Otherwise, were it normal man-amos, he would then not be so tall. In fact, Moshe was even taller – ten Amos!
The Ibn Ezra comments that a normal person’s Amah-to-height ratio is about 1:3.8, so a height of nine should mean that Og’s forearm was only one third that of a normal persons. That would turn Og into a monster, he says! How can that be true?
We discussed the square cube law of Newton, particularly in relation to giants. The part that pertains here is that a person with a torso 1x1x3 is 3 cubic feet of person. Were he to be tripled, to be 3x3x9, his size would suddenly shoot to 81 square feet, a full 27 times as much. His legs would need to be 27 times as thick, otherwise they would simply snap! So a giant CANNOT be of normal proportions. He simply cannot be a normal person multiplied.
So Og was indeed flattened with tiny feet and arms, think an alligator or dinosaur shape. Not only is the pasuk giving his dimensions, it is describing what a monstrosity he was!
(Far from being an inaccuracy, as the Ibn Ezra suggests, I see here positive proof of the Torah’s veracity; which sane person imagines a giant as anything other than a large-sized normal human being!? Why would Moshe make this up??)
Setting Judges
How exactly were judges were set up in the Jewish camp? We know there were “ministers of ten”, “ministers of fifty”, “ministers of hundreds” and “ministers of thousands”. Were the Jews divided by name into groups, each ten receiving a judge, and they were to direct their questions to only him? Was it only if he didn’t know that they went up a level to the leader of fifty, and so on? What happened when a new Jew was born; did he join a new company, or did he take the place of someone that died?Was this allocation and rearrangement done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis?
Rashi in Sanhedrin explains the position of Rabbi Nechemiah that a town had to number at least two hundred and thirty inhabitants before being eligible for a Sanhedrin, for that number “is comparable to the leaders of ten [of Moshe]”.
Rashi elaborates that two hundred and thirty make twenty three groups of ten, so each Beis Din member can correspond to a leader of ten, for we never find any position of authority when the number is less than ten. Was every member of Beis Din then assigned ten specific charges? Certainly not. So perhaps the makeup of Moshe’s judgmental system wasn’t that specific judges were assigned to specific people, but that there was a general assignment of judges to the number equal to one tenth the population.
Ok, but how did it work day to day?
Dealing With The Public
Moshe expressed his difficulties with the Jews, calling them (as per Rashi) Difficult People (Rashi’s example; when two people came before a judge and one saw that he was losing the case, he would lie and delay, saying that he had more proofs and witnesses, in order to stretch out the case and make things difficult),
Insolent (-they would attack Moshe personally in the lowest manner,) and kvetchers, always complaining to Moshe and to each other. Moshe exclaimed that he felt that he couldn’t handle them alone.
However in the very pasuk before this one, Moshe blessed them “May Hashem multiply you a thousand times!” How do we reconcile that with Moshe’s deep disappointment with the Jews?
We suggested that Moshe was not disappointed at all. He was a realist. He knew what his people were, and he was ready to deal with them, were he only able to.
The lesson here is that whenever dealing with the public, accept from the outset that they will be tiresome and difficult, insolent and ungrateful. They will talk badly about you. That’s the way things are.
Don’t sweat it.
Flaunting Wealth
Moshe told the Jews: When traveling through Edom, we ought to pay our way, “for forty years Hashem has been with you and you have lacked nothing!”
What is the connection? Rashi explains that if one has money, it is ungrateful to hide or deny it.
Really? Ought we flaunt our wealth? Doesn’t flaunting wealth cause others to be jealous, and lead to egotism?
One suggestion was that this was specific to that generation. They had followed Hashem out into the desert. Everyone was sure that they were a ragged, desperate and homeless bunch. They had a special mitzvah to show how successful they were, despite all odds.
Another suggestion is that showing off our money usually breeds jealousy and vanity. Indeed, that is not humble recognition of Hashem’s gifts. However in the desert all were equally rich. No one was jealous or proud. There, acknowledgment of Hashem’s blessing is proper.
The lesson is that in private one needs to be cognizant of the blessings he receives, and mention it to his own family. And when appropriate, such as when doing a mitzvah, one ought to be generous with his money.
Wishful Thinking
The Jews cried that they would never succeed in getting Eretz Yisroel – it was only Hashem’s HATRED FOR THEM that led him to take them out into the Midbar on a wild goose chase, to die by Emori sword.
Hashem was furious about this rank ingratitude, and had Moshe tell them that they would die right there.
The Jews changed their minds immediately. Each man girded his sword and said; “Come, let us attack the Emori”. Moshe pleaded with them to stop, telling them that Hashem was not with them, but they took no heed of his warning.
They advanced courageously up the mountain, only to be routed by the people living there.
What had happened?! Five minutes ago they lay back moaning that it was impossible to march against the Emori and then suddenly they all arose and raced into battle – yet in the face of a warning that they would not be helped?!
Man believes what he wishes to. Belief is not objective. Not at all. When the Jews wanted to, they truly believed they could not fight the Emori, but then when they saw where that was heading, they decided to believe the exact opposite – that they could fight this on their own. We believe what we set our minds to.
Big rule.
©2013
kollel parshah | Tiferet Ramot 83-21, Jerusalem, Israel, 97290
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