Shelah - The Heschel School

Middle School
Parashat haShavua Handout
by Rabbi Dov Lerea, Dean of Judaic Studies
Shabbat Parashat Shelakh lekha
24 Iyyar 5770/June 5, 2010
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Torah Reading: B’midbar 13:1-15:41
Haftarah: Joshua 2:1-24
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Candle lighting: 8:05 pm Havdalah Saturday night: 9:13 pm
“The Family that Studies Torah Together, Grows Together”
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table, or dinner table for your edification and pleasure
לז וַיֹּאמֶ‏ ר יְ‏ הוֹ‏ ‏ָה אֶ‏ ל־מֹשֶׁ‏ ה לֵּאמֹר דַּ‏ בֵּ‏ ר אֶ‏ ל־בְּ‏ נֵי יִ‏ שְ‏ ‏ֹרָ‏ אֵ‏ ל וְ‏ אָמַ‏ רְ‏ תָּ‏ אֲ‏ לֵהֶ‏ ם וְ‏ עָ‏ שֹוּ לָהֶ‏ ם
צִ‏ יצִ‏ ת עַ‏ ל־כַּנְפֵ‏ י בִ‏ גְ‏ דֵ‏ יהֶ‏ ם לְ‏ דֹרֹתָ‏ ם וְ‏ נָתְ‏ נוּ עַ‏ ל־צִ‏ יצִ‏ ת הַ‏ כָּנָף פְּ‏ תִ‏ יל תְּ‏ כֵלֶת:‏ לט וְ‏ הָ‏ יָה לָכֶם
לְ‏ צִ‏ יצִ‏ ת וּרְ‏ אִ‏ יתֶ‏ ם אֹתוֹ‏ וּזְ‏ כַרְ‏ תֶּ‏ ם אֶ‏ ת־כָּל־מִ‏ צְ‏ וֹת יְ‏ הֹוָה וַעֲשִ‏ ‏ֹיתֶ‏ ם אֹתָ‏ ם וְ‏ א תָ‏ תוּרוּ אַחֲ‏ רֵ‏ י
לְ‏ בַ‏ בְ‏ כֶם וְ‏ אַחֲ‏ רֵ‏ י עֵ‏ ינֵיכֶם אֲ‏ שֶׁ‏ ר־אַ‏ תֶּ‏ ם זֹנִים אַחֲ‏ רֵ‏ יהֶ‏ ם:‏ מ לְ‏ מַ‏ עַ‏ ן תִּ‏ זְ‏ כְּ‏ רוּ וַעֲשִ‏ ‏ֹיתֶ‏ ם
אֶ‏ ת־כָּל־מִ‏ צְ‏ וֹתָ‏ י וִ‏ הְ‏ יִ‏ יתֶ‏ ם קְ‏ דֹשִׁ‏ ים לֵאהֵ‏ יכֶם:‏ מא אֲ‏ נִי יְ‏ הוֹ‏ ‏ָה אֱ‏ הֵ‏ יכֶם אֲ‏ ‏ֶשׁר הוֹצֵ‏ אתִ‏ י
אֶ‏ תְ‏ כֶם מֵ‏ אֶ‏ רֶ‏ ץ מִ‏ צְ‏ רַ‏ יִ‏ ם לִ‏ הְ‏ יוֹת לָכֶם לֵאהִ‏ ים אֲ‏ נִי יְ‏ הוֹ‏ ‏ָה אֱ‏ הֵ‏ יכֶם
:
: לח
English translation: God said to Moses: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them:
‘Let them fashion fringes on the corners of their garments in every generation, and let
them place a blue thread amongst the fringes of those corners. Then, they will have a
tzitzit fringe, and they will see it, and then recall all of God’s mitzvoth and they will act
on them. They will not act impulsively after their heart and eyes, as you are inclined to
do. In this way, you will be constantly aware of and act on My mitzvoth and become holy
[in the eyes of] you God. I am the Lord your God who took you from the Land of Egypt in
order to become your God; I am the Lord your God.’
Introductory remarks The parasha can be divided into the following sections:
Part One: The Scouting expedition 13:1-14:10
Part Two: God’s response and Moses’ response to God 14:11-25
Part Three: The consequences for the first generation 14:26-45
Part Four: Interlude:
a. Free-will offerings for vows 15:1-16
b. Challah offerings for bread 15:17-21
c. Offering for communal error 15:22-26
d. Offering for individual error 15:27-31
e. The Wood-gatherer 15:32-36
Part Five: The mitzvah of wearing tzitzit 15:37-41
The first three parts and the last (“fifth”) part form a literary unit, orgasnized around the
same key words. The motif-words of the scouting expedition are “scouting”/taturu/tarim,
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“seeing” or “looking,”/ro’im, and, “impulsivity,” (even “adulterous” behavior, or
“lascivious” behavior, in its strongest connotation)/ zonim/zanu. This constellation of
words repeats throughout chapters 13-14. The scouts enter to look and see the qualities of
the land, its inhabitants, its produce, its terrain. The military context of scouting the land
prior to an incursion is immediately recognized as metaphorical as well as practical.
There is nothing unusual about sending scouts to determine the best advantage for an
attack in a military campaign. This expedition, however, results in a passionate split over
the viability of the entire operation, with theological implications. The majority of the
scouts not only fail to find military egress; they demand the people return to the
oppression of Egypt where they can rely on a security of their daily routines. Only two
scouts object strenuously. God experiences this report a blasphemous rejection of the
relationship God has tried to establish with Israel, and threatened to destroy them all and
begin building a relationship with a different group of people, preserving Moses as their
leader. Moses has to help God see a larger picture, which he does by invoking what the
rabbis called the 13 attributes of God’s character. These attributes emphasize God’s
patient, non-judgmental character. (God needs reminding.)
These attributes were invoked once before, when God threatened to destroy the
nation in the wake of their having created and celebrated before the golden calf. This fact
itself suggests that God sees these two actions: the worship of the calf, and the rejection
of the opportunity to enter and settle the land of Israel, as parallel! In other words, failure
to settle the land of Israel is as much of a rejection of the opportunity to actualize God’s
vision for our people as turning our backs explicitly on God by becoming pagans. I think
this is because only by settling the land of Israel can the Jewish people build a society
with complete autonomy and power and responsibility for every decision we would
make. Only in the land can the Jewish people potentially build a society which would
reflect God’s hope and vision for humanity. God has set God’s hopes on us to accomplish
this task. If this is the covenantal purpose of the Jewish people, then the land of Israel
becomes the central tool for the execution of this purpose. Paganism has no integrated,
covenantal vision for the world; paganism projects a self-serving, fragmented world
view. Living in covenant is supposed to project an integrated holistic world-view which
sanctifies life in its many diverse dimensions.
Moses succeeds. Instead of destroying the nation, God decrees that the generation
will lose a year for every day of the scouting expedition: 40 days will turn into 40 years,
resulting in the conquest of the land falling to the second generation while the elders
perish in the midbar. This decision, of course, sets the stage for the people to struggle
with their own character as an incipient nation. It is in the wilderness that our ancestors
learn their own character. It is in the wilderness that they wrestle with the nature of
leadership, experience transitions, encounter the challenges of Midianite cultural
seductions and negotiations with other nations. The experience of leaving Egypt and
living in the midbar transforms a group of slaves into a nation, with an administrative
structure and sense of sacred purpose. It is in the wilderness, in galut, in exile, that the
people receive the Torah, construct the mishkan, and learn to tolerate the challenges to
faith, vision, and loyalty.
The final section of this parasha, the teaching of wearing tzitzit on four-cornered
garments, is organized around the same core vocabulary as the scouting expedition:
zonim/acting impulsively by following values which would seduce one away from the
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esponsibilities and demands of covenant; tzitz/ra’u/”seeing” (the word tzitzit means both,
“fringe” as well as, “look, see;”), and taturu/meaning both, “scouting” and “turning off of
the path.” This tight literary construction inclines the reader to interpret the scouting
expedition, as I have suggested, as a powerful metaphor. This scouting expedition is
simultaneously an exploration of inner as well as outer landscapes. God is interested in
both settling the land and settling our neshamot, our inner perspective and minds. God is
interested in a balance and symmetry between our behavior and our purpose, between our
vision for ourselves and the world, and how we actualize that vision. Exploring the land
is simultaneously a searching for beginnings as well as a leap of faith to build something
which does not yet exist. Wearing tzitziot (an “easy” and powerfully symbolic mitzvah) is
really an act of mindfulness. Anyone wearing them should be saying to themselves
throughout the say, “Who am I? What is my purpose? What is my vision? How can I
understand what God expects from me as a member of the Jewish people? Why was I put
on the planet? What is my job? How do I live in the ancient covenant of my people?” (Of
course, you can think other things also; just that these are among one’s daily tzitziot
thoughts. By the way—there is an interesting debate about how to wear the tzitziot.
Because of the Torah’s thematic emphasis on seeing and awareness, some people claim
that they should always be viewable, and therefore they wear them “out.” Others claim
that they need to be seen by the wearer only when putting them on, and therefore, when
worn underneath one’s shirt, one recites the blessing and then tucks them in.”)
The most difficult part of this parasha is what I have labeled as the “interlude.”
Why bridge the scouting expedition with the section on tzitzit with offerings for vows and
purification offerings in the wake of unconscious transgressions? Perhaps we gain a hint
in the repetition of the phrase, When you enter the land (15:2; 15:18). God is beginning
the process of life in the wilderness with an awareness that this entire time period will be
dedicated to a preparedness for entering and living in the land of Israel: vows are a
vehicle for renewing covenant; eating bread from the land connects God, nation, and
place; and purification offerings for the group as well as for the individual serve to vivify
awareness of purpose and a sense of personal investment and responsibility for our
actions. Finally, the perplexing incident of the wood-gatherer on Shabbat indicates that
Shabbat is a matter of national covenant. There is no analogue in America. The public
violation of Shabbat is like someone taking the original constitution of the United States
and burning in on the lawn of the White House—maybe. Not even. It was, at that time
and in that context of our parasha, an action which more than any other, denied the interconnectedness
between the creation of the world, God’s hope for humanity, and the role
of the Jewish people in that vision.
Questions for thought and discussion based on the parasha:
1. Note what happens in 14:39-45. The people, upon hearing God’s verdict that they
remain in the wilderness and allow their children to be the ones to enter the land,
refuse to accept that decision and actually begin their own campaign. They die as
a result. What do you think about that?
a. Shouldn’t God have rewarded them for trying—after all, don’t we say,
“Better late than never?”
b. Some people say that we still should not try to build a Jewish government
and society in the land of Israel. We see some of those people, who feel so
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לח)(‏
strongly about this, standing on the sidelines during the Israel day parade.
The belief is that the Jewish people must wait for a clear sing from God
that the time to enter the land has arrived. What do you say tom that?
2. God seems to lose God’s temper deeply. Some people think this indicates that
God cares about our people deeply—but living with such anger is very difficult.
Should God have become so upset?
3. The Torah says that the scouts reported that they saw themselves as grasshoppers
in their own eyes once they saw the might of the people in the land of Israel.
a. What does that mean to you?
b. Why a grasshopper?
c. Can you relate to a feeling about yourself in which you feel weaker and
less able to do things that really, if you thought about it, you could
accomplish?
d. What causes a person to feel so small and weak?
e. What caused our ancestors to feel this way—after all, they escaped from
Egypt successfully, and traveled all that way?
f. Is it possible that God had not allowed them to take care of themselves
enough, so they felt dependent and child-like?
from the commentary by Rashi:
ועשו להם ציצית על שם וראיתם אותו כמו מציץ מן החרכים ‏(שיר
השירים ב,‏ ט.):‏
And fashion tzitzit. It is called tzitzit because of the word, “metzitz,” which means, “to
see,” as in the verse in the Song of Songs, ‘I looked out from in-between the rocks for my
beloved….’
וזכרתם את כל מצות ה'.‏ שמנין גימטריא של ציצית
חוטין וחמשה קשרים הרי תרי"ג:‏
שש מאות,‏ ושמונה
So you will remember all of My mitzvoth. [How will the tzitzit help someone remember
mitzvoth?] The numerology of the word, tzitzith equals 600. Then, there are 8 threads on
each corner, that equals 608, and then each corner has five knots, which equals 613,[ the
total number of mitzvoth in the Torah.]
ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם.‏ כמו ‏ִמתור הארץ.‏ הלב והעינים הם מרגלים לגוף,‏
מסרסרים לו את העבירות,‏ העין רואה,‏ והלב חומד,‏ והגוף עושה את
העבירות:‏
So you will not act impulsively [and be disloyal to God.] This word, taturu, is related to
the word for scouting, tur/tour the land. [Here is why.]The heart and the eyes (which
represent the mind in the Bible) are like scouts for the body. They (the eyes and the heart)
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ing the body to all sorts of sinful behaviors. The eye notices, the heart desires, and then
the body follows and behaves accordingly.
Questions for thought and discussion based on the comments of Rashi:
1. Rashi talks about eyes, heart and body. Let’s relate that to thought, feeling and
action.
a. What is the connection between desiring to do something and doing it?
b. What holds us back from doing certain things we might want to do?
c. Is it easier to do something we think we should do, even if we do not want
to, or to do something we should not do, even though we know we should
not?
2. Let’s challenge the Torah in a big way: Rashi is telling us that the Torah has a
system for reminding us about mitzvoth. Fine. What if I do not feel like doing a
mitzvah? Rashi seems to be saying that, according to the Torah, through the
mitzvah of tzitzit, it is better to do a mitzvah even though I do not feel like it this
minute, than not to do it at all. Let’s say we are not talking about negative
mitzvoth, like murder and theft. Let’s say we are only talking about positive
mitzvoth, like tzedakah and Shabbat and prayer. What do you think: what is more
important, kavannah or action? Rashi is claiming that the mitzvah of tzitzit shows
us that behavior is the bottom line.
a. Why would behavior be the bottom line?
b. Which statemnent makes better sense to you: A person is what they think,
or, A person is what they do!
3. Rashi uses Gematria to interpret the symbolism and the message of the word
tzitzit.
a. Can you figure out how he spells tzitzit in Hebrew to get the equivalence
of 600?
b. Look at a tallit. Can you find the five knots and the 8 threads?
c. There are two common responses to Gematria. Where do you weigh-in:
i. It is a cool code for hidden messages in the Torah
ii. It is random
4. Rashi interprets the word tzitz by comparing it to a word with the same root, from
a different context (a verse in the Song of Songs).
a. Can you defend this method of clarifying the meaning of a word in the
bible?
b. Can you raise an objection to this method?
c. Please do both of these!
Mitzvoth in the Parashah. According to the Sefer haHinuch,* there are two positive
mitzvoth and one negative mitzvah in parashat shelakh lekha. The two positive
commandments are (i) separating a quantity of dough, called, hallah, when baking bread
in the land of Israel. Interestingly, this is a mitzvah which depends upon most of the
jewish people living in the land of Israel, and which is required only in the land of Israel.
However, the rabbis imposed an additional requirement that even outside of the land of
Israel, throughout the Diaspora, Jews should separate “hallah” from the dough and recite
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a blessing, before baking the bread, as a way to ensure that we not lose awareness of the
potential for national life in the land of Israel as a people. Of course, this applies to all
bread, not just to the bread wew happened to call, “Challah.” I suspect we call bread,
“Challah,” since it is the nicest, freshest bread we associatie with Shabbat and holidays.
(ii) attaching tzitzit to a four-cornered garment. The negative commandment is (i) not to
act only according to the desires of your heart and mind. This is a most interesting
mitzvah. Obviously, it applies every second of our lives; it suggests that the Torah
requires and provides boundaries and limitations to our actions, and that we are to live
within those boundaries, lest we act without boundaries and self-control. Of course,
boundaries are the only vehicle we have to create a safe society and a supportive world.
☺
* Sefer ha-Chinuch ספר החינוך)‏ Hebrew: "Book of Education") is a work which systematically discusses the 613 commandments of
the Torah. It was published anonymously in 13th Century Spain. The work enumerates the commandments (Hebrew: Mitzvot ; sing.
mitzvah) according to their appearance in the Weekly Torah portion. Some scholars ascribe the authorship of Sefer ha-Chinuch to
Rabbi Aharon HaLevi of Barcelona (1235-c. 1290), a Talmudic scholar and halakhist but others disagree, as the views of the Chinuch
contradict opinions held by HaLevi in other works. This has led to the conclusion that the true author to Sefer HaChinuch was a
different Reb Aharon Halevi, a student of the Rashba, rather than his colleague.
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