Parshiot Matos Masei
By: Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum
Rabbi Emeritus, Young Israel Lawrence Cedarhurst
Immediately following the debacle of Baal Peor (where Jews clung to idols and idolatrous worship) and following the immoral behavior of thousands of Jewish men who were drawn in lust to Moabite women, the Almighty told Moshe to inflict pain upon the Midianites and to make war with them. It was they who successfully conspired to corrupt the Jewish people.
War was waged against Midian weeks or months later.
Why didn’t Moshe immediately wage war against Midian? Why did he wait for a later date, as we read of the war taking place, finally, in Parshas Matos?
It is because there was, very pointedly, a first order of business. Without an enemy there is no war. The first and most important goal was to raise the Jewish nation’s enmity toward Midian.
We did not sufficiently regard Midian as our enemy. Rashi explains that “Tzaror”, in the ever-present grammatical form (as in “Shamor” and “Zachor”, with regard to observing the Shabbos) does not mean a one-time procedure to do Midian harm. Rather, “Tzaror” means: “You are to regard them as your enemy”. This had to come first. We could not successfully battle an enemy that was not regarded as one. We needed to think long and hard about what happened to us; about what the Midianite intrigue had done to corrupt and misguide us; how cunning and nefarious they were and how much damage and ruin they had caused.
What, precisely, was the damage wrought? Where was all the ruin?
In Parshas Shoftim we read that when we Jews go to war we are not to abandon our sense of goodness and appreciation for fruit-trees and their produce. When we besiege our enemy we don’t scorch their earth. Our enemy’s fruit trees are to be preserved. “Lo Sashchis Ess Eitzah…V’oso Lo Sichrose…” Yet, our Rabbis say, in the case of the war against Midian, the redundancy of “Tzaror” and “V’hikissem” intends to convey that when we do battle against Midian we will destroy their fruit trees.
Why not spare Midian’s fruit-bearing trees?
The Ohr Hachaim opines that this is because we had to recognize that the damage done by Midian was corruption of our sense of sensual taste. The ruin was in what we started to desire and lust. Midian had infected us with a taste for forbidden fruit. Now we had to learn and deeply understand that what was alluring and seemingly desirable, as offered to us by Midian, is in reality poison. To destroy their fruit trees encourages us to remember that what we had tasted of Midian was very unhealthful.
The Noam Elimelech notes that the Torah goes on to say “Ki Tzorerim Heim Lachem B’nichleihem…” “Tzorerim”, in the present tense. Although the acts of immorality were over and past, the effect and the allure of the sin were very much alive – in the present. “Nichleihem” means the thoughts and machinations at the root of the corruption of the type promoted by Midian. Once we were exposed to it, the Jewish people had to do battle with it within ourselves; in our hearts and in our conscience.
That recognition of the enemy had to come first. The war with Midian could ensue only once we fully appreciate what a dangerous, insidious enemy they were.
Today’s challenge to us as faithful Jews is no different. Do we know and recognize who our enemies are? Do we understand that they – our enemies – want to recreate and upend America, and to such a degree that they will vilify anyone who continues to embrace values that we Jews hold dear?
From being pro-life to defending the traditional definition of marriage, Orthodox Jewry is distinctly among those in the minority. That is challenging enough, but we are also increasingly demonized for embracing these values.
The madness we have witnessed in the past few weeks included desecration of churches and of synagogues, because it is the intention of the progressive movement to ultimately silence the voices of traditionally conservative Americans. We are seeing the leading edge of an insistence that Americans eschew and renounce the values of the Bible, the ethics of Torah.
And we are with no one to defend us. A recent Supreme Court decision ruled that if a State provides funding for private schools, it may not withhold such funding from schools that are associated with or run by religious institutions. It is a positive and very important ruling for tens of thousands of Jewish Day School and Yeshiva students throughout the country. There are many liberal institutions decrying the decision.
Sadly, they have been joined by the Anti-defamation League, who went so far as to say that the decision undermines religious freedom protection “and opens the door for taxpayer money to fund schools that discriminate on the basis of religion and against the LGBTQ community”. A Jewish Day School that promotes the values of a traditional, observant Jewish life is now opposed by the ADL, the very organization founded to protect the rights of the Jews of America.
We are the faithful few. And we are alone – like Pinchas was. And, like Pinchas, we have to act in protection of our beliefs and values, to promote them forthrightly within our community and especially among our young.
We must begin to recognize that we will be made very uncomfortable by the demands of those who see our beliefs as insulting to theirs. And there is no room, in their view, for disagreement – only for apology. Whites are being asked to apologize for “white privilege”. There are blacks who are being forced to apologize for not being black enough. What will they ask of us, of traditional Jews, in the years to come? When U.S. support for Israel will be a thing of the past – and we will nevertheless, hopefully, be even more ardently devoted to the Jewish future in Eretz Yisrael than ever – what will they ask of us? To apologize for Israel?
As in the case of Midian we must first recognize how much damaging effect the progressive mentality has already had on our children. We must recognize that appreciation and embrace of the traditional family, as one example, and of the just cause of the State of Israel, as another example, are being questioned by our young men and women. Thousands of observant young men and women are being adversely influenced in their universities, in classrooms and clubs. It is injurious to the health of our community’s future. We have to be pro-actively vigilant and protective of our values.
It is entirely insufficient to teach our young students Chumash, Talmud and Dinim. They need to know how and why it is so correct and imperative to proceed from textual knowledge to the life that the Torah espouses, to envision and appreciate the kind of society the Torah would have us construct, and why.
And we have to teach them about what is disagreeable and why. With sensitivity and no disrespect, and certainly with no hostility toward those who espouse views that are contrary to the Torah, we have to inculcate our teens with the values of the Torah, with the practical messages and life-lessons found within its words.
As in the case of Midian, let’s recognize the dangers of the alluring forbidden fruit being proffered to us and to our young men and women. Knowing our enemy is the first crucial step toward their defeat.