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Wisdom for Living
Rabbi Noah Weinberg on the Parashah
6 min read
"God spoke to Moshe, saying, 'Take vengeance for the Children of Israel against the Midianites; afterward you will be gathered unto your people.' Moshe spoke to the people saying, 'Arm men from among yourselves for the legion that they may be against Midian to inflict the vengeance of God against Midian.'" (Bamidbar 31:1-3)
After 24,000 Jews died in the plague that resulted from the Midianites' ensnaring the Jewish people in the sins of immorality and idolatry, it was time for retribution. God refers to it as “nikmas Bnei Yisrael”, vengeance for the Jewish people. Yet Moshe changes the language and summons the people to take “nikmas Hashem”, revenge for the Almighty against Midian.
Rashi, noting the discrepancy, explains that if someone attacks the Jewish people it is as if he is attacking the Almighty Himself. The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 22:2) elaborates:
Moshe said, "Master of the universe, if we were just like any other nation they would not hate us and they would not come after us. It is only on account of the Torah and mitzvot that You gave us that they come to destroy us. Therefore, the vengeance is for You." Accordingly, Moshe instructed the Jewish people "to inflict the vengeance of Hashem against Midian."
Moshe is saying that if we were Amish or Shiites, no one would care what we do, and they would not harm or kill us. The only reason they seek to destroy us is because Hashem gave us the Torah and mitzvot. The nations of the world hate and attack the Jewish people because deep down, they wish to attack the Creator of the universe, who gave His Torah and mitzvot to the Jewish people. In doing so, He attached Himself to them: Yisrael v'Oraysa v'Kudesha Brich Hu, chad hu – the Jewish people, the Torah, and the Holy One, Blessed is He, are one (Zohar, Parashas Acharei Mos 73a).
Torah is the expression of God’s will. When you learn Torah you are connecting to Hashem, and when you perform mitzvot, you are drawing closer to God, because you are becoming like Him. Torah and God are inextricably linked.
The Jewish people are the manifestation of God’s will in this world. We have a bris, a covenant, with the Almighty that began with Avraham Avinu and transformed the Jews into God's chosen people. We are the nation responsible to reveal His reality to the world, to be a light unto the nations and teach the world how to live with God. That covenant bonds us to God, making us one.
Why do they hate the Jews? Theories abound to explain antisemitism. But the Talmud (Shabbos 89b) gives the true explanation: The moment God gave the Torah at Mount Sinai, the hatred of the non-Jews toward the Jewish people was ignited. At Sinai (which is related to sinah, hatred) the Jewish people became the bearers of God’s absolute standard of morality for all of humanity. Consequently, if someone wants to liberate himself from the all-encompassing moral demands and obligations delineated by the Torah, they attack the messenger – the Jews – who represent this Divine standard of morality in this world. The physical target may be the Jews, but the real enemy is God.
Our archenemy, Adolf Hitler, may his name be obliterated, openly acknowledged the uniqueness of the Jews as a people. We were his mortal enemy because we represented Hashem’s morality as embodied in the Torah. Hitler viewed National Socialism as a new world order, a way to create mankind anew.
Hitler said, “They refer to me as an uneducated barbarian. Yes, we are barbarians. We want to be barbarians; it is an honored title to us. We shall rejuvenate the world. This world is near its end.” (Hermann Rauschning, Hitler Speaks p. 87)
He recognized that the Jewish people – who introduced to the world the concepts of monotheism, love your neighbor, help the poor and the infirm – were his primary obstacle in achieving his world vision. Hitler declared: “The struggle for world domination will be fought entirely between us ― between Germans and Jews. All else is facade and illusion. Behind England stands Israel, and behind France, and behind the United States. Even when we have driven the Jew out of Germany, he remains our world enemy.” (Ibid, p. 242)
He told his people: “Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing man from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge, from the dirty and degrading self-mortifications of a false vision known as conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence which only a very few can bear.” (Ibid, p. 222)
And Hitler understood full well the source of this conscience and morality. He said: “The Ten Commandments have lost their validity. Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish, like circumcision.” (Ibid, p. 220)
Who was Hitler’s real enemy? Was it the Jewish people who placed shackles on humanity? No, it was the Almighty Himself. God obligates us to care for each other, not to murder, not to be immoral. The moral conscience that we have "inflicted" on humanity is from God. Hitler was obsessed with eradicating the Jews because he hated the God that we, as His people, represented in this world.
It is not only non-Jews who can harbor antisemitic sentiments; Jews can, too, and for same underlying reason: They resent the Almighty. This is not the only reason for internecine hatred, but it is definitely a common one.
Rabbi Michel Twerski relates that he was once on a plane, dressed in his Chassidic cloak and round black hat, as usual. A Jewish woman sitting near him turned to him and said, "You are an embarrassment to the Jewish people, a disgrace. It is people like you who think they are still living in the Middle Ages that cause all of the anger and anti-Semitism toward us."
Rabbi Twerski was astounded to be attacked this way, and by a Jewish woman no less, but he did not miss a beat. In his customary calm demeanor, he said to her, "Pardon me, ma'am, but I'm Amish."
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry!" she said. "I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. Of course I respect people who respect their heritage. Please forgive me!"
If he is Amish, then his traditional garb and customs are perfectly okay. But if he is a Jew respecting his tradition and observing the commandments, that is unacceptable, because people intuitively understand that he represents the Master of the universe, Who has given us the Torah and mitzvot. This non-observant woman viewed the Torah's commandments as a burden, a threat to her sense of freedom; Rabbi Twerski’s presence therefore made her defensive and antagonistic.
The opposite is also true. Someone who appreciates the Jewish people and the Torah they represent is someone who loves God. And someone who loves God and His Torah will go out of the way to love his fellow Jew. Indeed, the Jewish people, the Torah, and God are one.
