This week's Torah portion, Devarim, and the Haftarah that we read after the Torah reading, have many things in common.
Devarim speaks of Moshe rebuking the Jewish people and the Haftarah about the prophet Yeshaya doing so. The purpose of the harsh words is to get the people to repent, which automatically leads to an improvement of their situation.
In the Haftarah, this is openly indicated with the famous verse: "If your sins prove to be like crimson, they will become white as snow; if they prove to be as red as crimson dye, they shall become as wool." And we end off with the words: "Tzion shall be redeemed through justice and her returnees through righteousness."
Devarim also finishes on a positive note: "Do not fear them [the enemies], for it is Hashem, your G-d, Who is fighting for you."
The words of rebuke that Moshe spoke can be divided into two categories. There are sins he addresses by name and there are sins that he only hints at. The second category we find right in the first verse of the parsha: "These are the words which Moshe spoke to all Israel on that side of the Jordan in the desert, in the plain opposite the Red Sea, between Paran and Tofel and Lavan."
Rabbi Yochanan said: "We have reviewed the entire Torah, but we have found no place named Tofel or Lavan! However, the explanation is that he rebuked them because of the foolish things they had said ["tofel" implies foolishness] about the Manna, which was white ["lavan" means white], saying, 'We are disgusted with this rotten bread.'"
In other words, Moshe doesn't mention their bad behavior in connection with the Manna by name; but the Torah refers to it by saying tofel and lavan.
Likewise, in the Haftarah there is also mention of two types of sin. Sins that are "like crimson" (that become "white" as a result of the rebuke), and sins that are "red like crimson dye" (that eventually become like "wool").
At the end of Devarim, Moshe speaks about the time when the Jewish people will live in their own country. There, too, there are two different categories. There is the land west of the Jordan, which was already promised to the patriarchs; and there is the land east of the Jordan that two-and-a-half tribes were getting if they fulfilled certain conditions (as discussed at length last week).
The end of the Haftarah also divides the redemption into two: 1) Tzion shall be redeemed through justice; and 2) her penitents through righteousness.
Let's first try to understand the different types of sin and their rectification as they appear in the parsha.
In the parsha, Moshe's concealed rebuke refers to the sin of complaining about the Manna by using the word "white". The people he openly rebukes are the two-and-a-half tribes who didn't want to enter the Promised Land. As reason why they didn't want to live on the west bank of the Jordan, they used the fact that they had a lot of cattle, which would thrive better on the juicier fields of the east bank.
Why did they have more cattle than the other tribes?
The Torah tells us that forefather Yaakov owned a lot of cattle. This was later inherited by his children. Since by Jewish law the firstborn receives a double portion of the inheritance, Reuven (one of the tribes that wanted to stay behind) ended up having twice the amount of sheep.
But why did Gad, the second tribe that wanted to stay behind, have so much cattle?
Our rabbis explain that this was as a result of their fondness for the Manna. Although the Manna provided everyone with enough nutrition, calories, vitamins, etc., there were still many people who preferred eating old-fashioned food. All the tribes, except for the tribe of Gad, used to slaughter their animals to eat meat. The people of Gad only ate from the Manna, which resulted in them having much more livestock. However, even though their request to stay behind was indirectly connected with the Manna, there is no mention - or even hint - of it in Moshe's open rebuke to the tribe of Gad.
The Torah tells us in two places about the complaints regarding the Manna. The first time is in Beha'alotecha. After saying how they remember the food they used to eat in the olden days, the people say: "But now, our bodies are dried out, for there is nothing at all; we have nothing but Manna to look at."
The next verse is Hashem's response: "Now the Manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was like the appearance of crystal." Rashi explains: "It is as if Hashem is telling the world, 'Look what my children complain about! The Manna is excellent in so many ways!'"
The second time we read about the complaints is in Chukat: "We are disgusted with this rotten bread!" Rashi explains: "Since the Manna was absorbed into their limbs [and not excreted from their bowels], they called it rotten. They said, 'This Manna will eventually swell up in our stomachs.' Is there any mortal who ingests, but does not excrete?" Moshe refers to this incident by mentioning that the Manna was white, as if to say that since it was white, there was no reason to complain.
In both cases the answer does not seem to address the problem.
When they complained that they had nothing but the Manna, Hashem first answered "Well, at least it looks nice!" Only a few verses later, the Torah mentions that it contained any taste one wished to taste in it. Why was the color mentioned before the taste? Isn't the main aspect of food the way it tastes?
Similarly, we have to understand how Moshe tries to take away the fear that the Manna would blow up in their stomach by saying that it was white. Since when does it make a difference if poison is green or white? If it is dangerous, then the color is not an issue!
Everything in this world has its limitations. It is therefore not possible to find anything that has two different tastes at the same time, let alone all tastes. The reason why the Manna was able to contain many different tastes is because it was 'heavenly bread'.
Although every physical being has a source in the spiritual realm, this source does not take away from the physicality of the item, the way it exists in the physical realm. The Manna was different in that even when it came down in a physical shape, it remained spiritual. That is why it was white.
The difference between white and all other colors is that it is not a mixture of more than one color. Red, for example, can come in many different shades. From close to black, to light pink. There are no shades of white, though. It is impossible to make something whiter by adding a different color to it. The only way to make something - let's say wool - more white is by bleaching it. That will take out the dirt and other colors still mixed into it. In other words, white is removed from all color.
Similarly, the Manna was also removed from all tastes and shapes. Therefore, one was able to add any 'color' and taste to it.
Now we understand why, when the people complained that they had nothing but the Manna, Hashem answered them first with a description of its looks. He was saying that because it is 'white', because it is not confined to the boundaries of physical limitations, you will be able to taste all tastes in it, even when it comes down as a physical food.
Similarly, we understand how Moshe tried to rectify the sin of saying that the Manna could be a health hazard by mentioning its color. If it would have been a regular physical food that remained in the body, there would be reason to worry it would eventually blow up in the stomach; but since it was a spiritual food - it was 'white' - there was no reason for this concern.
Although the excuse was that they were afraid of the harm the Manna was able to cause, the real issue they had was that it was 'rotten bread'. 'White' spiritual bread that stays inside the body. Their asking for physical bread is the sin Moshe was referring to.
We explained last week why Moshe compares the tribes who wanted to stay behind to the spies who had forty years earlier made the same mistake. Just like those spies, they also preferred staying in the desert with a spiritual life, to life in the Jewish land where they would have to engage in physical labor.
When we said that the people of Gad wanted to stay behind, we did that with a positive twist. It was their fondness of the Manna that had caused them to have so many sheep, which became their reason for not wanting to cross the Jordan. How could such a positive trait lead to a situation in which they have to be compared to the spies?
The Talmud tells us that the Manna had such a strong effect on the body that even the regular food they ate became spiritual to the extent that it would stay in the body just like the Manna. This shows that the purpose of the Manna wasn't just to feed people with spiritual food, but to transform their physical bodies into more spiritual beings. The people of Gad, in their quest for spirituality, were defeating this purpose by refusing to eat regular food.
Just like the spies, they wanted to be too spiritual.
Now we can explain why Moshe admonished the people about the Manna in a disguised manner, but about not wanting to enter Israel, openly.
The Torah is (sometimes) likened to bread. "Bread from the ground" refers to the revealed parts of the Torah that discusses mundane, day-to-day life activities that can be grasped easily by any simple person. "Heavenly bread", on the other hand, refers to the esoteric wisdom of the Kabbalah, etc. that speaks about spiritual worlds. Topics we can read about, but not totally grasp, for they are far beyond us.
To understand regular 'bread' - Torah - we need a healthy mind. To be able to understand the deeper secrets of the Torah, we need a healthy soul.
Not wanting Manna, the heavenly bread - that is, deeper insights of the Torah - is a soul problem. A problem with the hidden faculties of the person. Therefore, Moshe rebuked them in a hidden way to create a desire in their hidden faculties to be more connected to spirituality.
Not wanting to engage in physical acts, in order to transform them into spiritual acts, is a problem that deals with the body, the revealed part of the person. That is why Moshe rebuked them about that openly, in order to create a desire to deal with the (revealed) physical world, too.
Until now, we have explained how the two forms of rebuke in the parsha are connected with the two types of inheriting the land. Those who are too spiritual need to be pushed into the materialistic world, and those ready to jump into the physical world need a reminder to think about spirituality, too.
Now let's look at the Haftarah.
"Tzion shall be redeemed through justice." Tzion (also) refers to the soul. Justice refers to the Torah. In order to solve a soul problem, one needs to study Torah. The spiritual light contained in the Torah fixes spiritual soul problems. This pure spirituality is referred to as being snow white.
"And her returnees through righteousness." The reason why it is so important for a Jew to deal with physical matters is because they contain hidden sparks of holiness that need to be 'redeemed'. Righteousness - charity - is a general word referring to all the mitzvot. By performing a mitzvah with a physical object (first and foremost the mitzvah of giving charity), the hidden holiness 'returns' to its source.
Since this spiritual power is contained within a physical object, it is referred to as (white) wool. Although wool is also naturally white, it still needs to be bleached to bring out its whiteness before it is ready for use. The spark is there; it just needs to be extracted.
May we soon merit the ultimate combination of body and soul with the resurrection of the dead, when all flesh will see G-dliness with the coming of Moshiach, now!
[In everlasting memory of haRav Levi ben Yosef Aharon.]
Devarim speaks of Moshe rebuking the Jewish people and the Haftarah about the prophet Yeshaya doing so. The purpose of the harsh words is to get the people to repent, which automatically leads to an improvement of their situation.
In the Haftarah, this is openly indicated with the famous verse: "If your sins prove to be like crimson, they will become white as snow; if they prove to be as red as crimson dye, they shall become as wool." And we end off with the words: "Tzion shall be redeemed through justice and her returnees through righteousness."
Devarim also finishes on a positive note: "Do not fear them [the enemies], for it is Hashem, your G-d, Who is fighting for you."
The words of rebuke that Moshe spoke can be divided into two categories. There are sins he addresses by name and there are sins that he only hints at. The second category we find right in the first verse of the parsha: "These are the words which Moshe spoke to all Israel on that side of the Jordan in the desert, in the plain opposite the Red Sea, between Paran and Tofel and Lavan."
Rabbi Yochanan said: "We have reviewed the entire Torah, but we have found no place named Tofel or Lavan! However, the explanation is that he rebuked them because of the foolish things they had said ["tofel" implies foolishness] about the Manna, which was white ["lavan" means white], saying, 'We are disgusted with this rotten bread.'"
In other words, Moshe doesn't mention their bad behavior in connection with the Manna by name; but the Torah refers to it by saying tofel and lavan.
Likewise, in the Haftarah there is also mention of two types of sin. Sins that are "like crimson" (that become "white" as a result of the rebuke), and sins that are "red like crimson dye" (that eventually become like "wool").
At the end of Devarim, Moshe speaks about the time when the Jewish people will live in their own country. There, too, there are two different categories. There is the land west of the Jordan, which was already promised to the patriarchs; and there is the land east of the Jordan that two-and-a-half tribes were getting if they fulfilled certain conditions (as discussed at length last week).
The end of the Haftarah also divides the redemption into two: 1) Tzion shall be redeemed through justice; and 2) her penitents through righteousness.
Let's first try to understand the different types of sin and their rectification as they appear in the parsha.
In the parsha, Moshe's concealed rebuke refers to the sin of complaining about the Manna by using the word "white". The people he openly rebukes are the two-and-a-half tribes who didn't want to enter the Promised Land. As reason why they didn't want to live on the west bank of the Jordan, they used the fact that they had a lot of cattle, which would thrive better on the juicier fields of the east bank.
Why did they have more cattle than the other tribes?
The Torah tells us that forefather Yaakov owned a lot of cattle. This was later inherited by his children. Since by Jewish law the firstborn receives a double portion of the inheritance, Reuven (one of the tribes that wanted to stay behind) ended up having twice the amount of sheep.
But why did Gad, the second tribe that wanted to stay behind, have so much cattle?
Our rabbis explain that this was as a result of their fondness for the Manna. Although the Manna provided everyone with enough nutrition, calories, vitamins, etc., there were still many people who preferred eating old-fashioned food. All the tribes, except for the tribe of Gad, used to slaughter their animals to eat meat. The people of Gad only ate from the Manna, which resulted in them having much more livestock. However, even though their request to stay behind was indirectly connected with the Manna, there is no mention - or even hint - of it in Moshe's open rebuke to the tribe of Gad.
The Torah tells us in two places about the complaints regarding the Manna. The first time is in Beha'alotecha. After saying how they remember the food they used to eat in the olden days, the people say: "But now, our bodies are dried out, for there is nothing at all; we have nothing but Manna to look at."
The next verse is Hashem's response: "Now the Manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was like the appearance of crystal." Rashi explains: "It is as if Hashem is telling the world, 'Look what my children complain about! The Manna is excellent in so many ways!'"
The second time we read about the complaints is in Chukat: "We are disgusted with this rotten bread!" Rashi explains: "Since the Manna was absorbed into their limbs [and not excreted from their bowels], they called it rotten. They said, 'This Manna will eventually swell up in our stomachs.' Is there any mortal who ingests, but does not excrete?" Moshe refers to this incident by mentioning that the Manna was white, as if to say that since it was white, there was no reason to complain.
In both cases the answer does not seem to address the problem.
When they complained that they had nothing but the Manna, Hashem first answered "Well, at least it looks nice!" Only a few verses later, the Torah mentions that it contained any taste one wished to taste in it. Why was the color mentioned before the taste? Isn't the main aspect of food the way it tastes?
Similarly, we have to understand how Moshe tries to take away the fear that the Manna would blow up in their stomach by saying that it was white. Since when does it make a difference if poison is green or white? If it is dangerous, then the color is not an issue!
Everything in this world has its limitations. It is therefore not possible to find anything that has two different tastes at the same time, let alone all tastes. The reason why the Manna was able to contain many different tastes is because it was 'heavenly bread'.
Although every physical being has a source in the spiritual realm, this source does not take away from the physicality of the item, the way it exists in the physical realm. The Manna was different in that even when it came down in a physical shape, it remained spiritual. That is why it was white.
The difference between white and all other colors is that it is not a mixture of more than one color. Red, for example, can come in many different shades. From close to black, to light pink. There are no shades of white, though. It is impossible to make something whiter by adding a different color to it. The only way to make something - let's say wool - more white is by bleaching it. That will take out the dirt and other colors still mixed into it. In other words, white is removed from all color.
Similarly, the Manna was also removed from all tastes and shapes. Therefore, one was able to add any 'color' and taste to it.
Now we understand why, when the people complained that they had nothing but the Manna, Hashem answered them first with a description of its looks. He was saying that because it is 'white', because it is not confined to the boundaries of physical limitations, you will be able to taste all tastes in it, even when it comes down as a physical food.
Similarly, we understand how Moshe tried to rectify the sin of saying that the Manna could be a health hazard by mentioning its color. If it would have been a regular physical food that remained in the body, there would be reason to worry it would eventually blow up in the stomach; but since it was a spiritual food - it was 'white' - there was no reason for this concern.
Although the excuse was that they were afraid of the harm the Manna was able to cause, the real issue they had was that it was 'rotten bread'. 'White' spiritual bread that stays inside the body. Their asking for physical bread is the sin Moshe was referring to.
We explained last week why Moshe compares the tribes who wanted to stay behind to the spies who had forty years earlier made the same mistake. Just like those spies, they also preferred staying in the desert with a spiritual life, to life in the Jewish land where they would have to engage in physical labor.
When we said that the people of Gad wanted to stay behind, we did that with a positive twist. It was their fondness of the Manna that had caused them to have so many sheep, which became their reason for not wanting to cross the Jordan. How could such a positive trait lead to a situation in which they have to be compared to the spies?
The Talmud tells us that the Manna had such a strong effect on the body that even the regular food they ate became spiritual to the extent that it would stay in the body just like the Manna. This shows that the purpose of the Manna wasn't just to feed people with spiritual food, but to transform their physical bodies into more spiritual beings. The people of Gad, in their quest for spirituality, were defeating this purpose by refusing to eat regular food.
Just like the spies, they wanted to be too spiritual.
Now we can explain why Moshe admonished the people about the Manna in a disguised manner, but about not wanting to enter Israel, openly.
The Torah is (sometimes) likened to bread. "Bread from the ground" refers to the revealed parts of the Torah that discusses mundane, day-to-day life activities that can be grasped easily by any simple person. "Heavenly bread", on the other hand, refers to the esoteric wisdom of the Kabbalah, etc. that speaks about spiritual worlds. Topics we can read about, but not totally grasp, for they are far beyond us.
To understand regular 'bread' - Torah - we need a healthy mind. To be able to understand the deeper secrets of the Torah, we need a healthy soul.
Not wanting Manna, the heavenly bread - that is, deeper insights of the Torah - is a soul problem. A problem with the hidden faculties of the person. Therefore, Moshe rebuked them in a hidden way to create a desire in their hidden faculties to be more connected to spirituality.
Not wanting to engage in physical acts, in order to transform them into spiritual acts, is a problem that deals with the body, the revealed part of the person. That is why Moshe rebuked them about that openly, in order to create a desire to deal with the (revealed) physical world, too.
Until now, we have explained how the two forms of rebuke in the parsha are connected with the two types of inheriting the land. Those who are too spiritual need to be pushed into the materialistic world, and those ready to jump into the physical world need a reminder to think about spirituality, too.
Now let's look at the Haftarah.
"Tzion shall be redeemed through justice." Tzion (also) refers to the soul. Justice refers to the Torah. In order to solve a soul problem, one needs to study Torah. The spiritual light contained in the Torah fixes spiritual soul problems. This pure spirituality is referred to as being snow white.
"And her returnees through righteousness." The reason why it is so important for a Jew to deal with physical matters is because they contain hidden sparks of holiness that need to be 'redeemed'. Righteousness - charity - is a general word referring to all the mitzvot. By performing a mitzvah with a physical object (first and foremost the mitzvah of giving charity), the hidden holiness 'returns' to its source.
Since this spiritual power is contained within a physical object, it is referred to as (white) wool. Although wool is also naturally white, it still needs to be bleached to bring out its whiteness before it is ready for use. The spark is there; it just needs to be extracted.
May we soon merit the ultimate combination of body and soul with the resurrection of the dead, when all flesh will see G-dliness with the coming of Moshiach, now!
[In everlasting memory of haRav Levi ben Yosef Aharon.]