BeHa'aloscha 5631 Second Ma'amar

If a person wants to grow in his service to God, should he deliberately place himself into a situation in which he will be tested?  According to the Sfas Emes the answer to this question is in this week’s parsha. 

After the nation left Mount Sinai they complained that there was no meat to eat.  Rashi asks that in fact they did have plenty of meat.[1]  The pesukim relate that they left Egypt with cattle and sheep and they entered Israel with cattle and sheep.  Why did they complain?  Rashi answers that they were looking for an excuse.  The Sfas Emes asks that since they had meat this wasn’t even a lame excuse.  It was no excuse at all.  What, then, is the meaning of their complaint?

We find a clue at the beginning of the pasuk in which they complain.  The pasuk says, “... הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה .../… they caused themselves to crave …” (Bamidbar 11:4)  We can infer that at first they had no desire yet they caused themselves to desire.  How is it that they had no desire initially?  Furthermore, since they had no desire, why did they deliberately bring it on?  The Sfas Emes explains that they were on a very high spiritual level.  They were on a level above nature, a level on which they were free from their evil inclination.  Remember, they had spent the previous year, following the receiving of the Torah, in a highly spiritual environment.  They were at the foot of Mount Sinai basking in God’s presence which was manifest in the Mishkan.  All their physical needs were provided for allowing them to focus completely on the spiritual.

They were above physical desire yet they caused themselves to crave meat.  Why?  The Sfas Emes explains that they wanted to reach an even higher spiritual level.  They wanted to merit giving God even more satisfaction by eating something as physical as meat in holiness.  Leading a very holy life while totally detached from the physical world is certainly a high level.  But leading a holy life within the physical world is certainly an even higher level.  

We find this concept in a Midrash on the pasuk, “... ולעבדו ... בְּכָל נַפְשְׁכֶם/… and to serve Him … with all your soul.” (Devarim 11:13)  The Midrash explains that the way to serve God “with all your soul” is by directing all the attributes and forces within the soul, including physical desires, towards serving God.  When the nation complained, “נַפְשֵׁנוּ יְבֵשָׁה/our soul is dry,” (Bamidbar 11:6) they were complaining that because they were living is such a highly spiritual environment, they did not have the opportunity to worship God with all the attributes of their souls.  Their souls were dry, so to speak.  They “rectified” the situation by causing themselves to crave meat.

God, though, did not agree with their approach.  A person should be more concerned with violating the will of God by deliberately placing himself into a risky situation even if by so doing he might reach a higher spiritual level.  In fact, the Sfas Emes explains that one who does this is demonstrating an element of selfishness.  Those who are truly concerned only about doing God’s will, will be content with a simpler approach and rely on God to provide tests.

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[1] Rashi on Bamidbar 11:4

BeHa'aloscha 5636 First Ma'amar

"דבר אל אהרן ואמרת אליו בהעלותך את הנרות את מול פני המנורה יאירו שבעת הנרות: ויעש כן אהרן .../Speak to Aharon and say to him, 'When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the Menorah.  Aharon did so …" (Bamdibar 8:2,3)

·         How do the lamps cast their light toward the face of the Menorah?  If the Menorah is the central stem and the wicks of the protruding arms are placed so that they are facing the center of the Menorah in order to "cast their light towards the Menorah", then only six lamps are casting their light towards the center.  The seventh lamp is in the center.

·         Chazal[1] teach us that the Torah makes a point of telling us that Aharon did as instructed in order to praise him?  What sort of praise is this?  Would we have assumed otherwise?

In order to explain this pasuk the Midrash[2] relates an allegory of a king who asks his friend to prepare for him a meal.  The friend prepares the meal and lodging for the king using his own plain vessels.  When the king comes in all his majesty, the friend is embarrassed and hides his vessels.  The king, realizing his friend's plight, tells his entourage to hide his own kingly accoutrements and insists on being served with his friends simple vessels.

From the Midrash it is clear that ideally, the king's friend should not have been embarrassed and should not have put away what he had prepared.  Because of the friend's actions the king felt forced to play down his majesty to accommodate his friend.  Why should the king diminish his own honor because his friend is uncomfortable?

The Midrash is teaching us that God conceal Himself because if he were revealed, we would be embarrassed by the puniness of our efforts to do His will, to please Him.  However, the righteous understand that we cannot compete with God and that God wants our efforts however puny.  God reveals Himself to the righteous because He knows that this will not have a negative effect on their service to Him.

When Aharon lit the Menorah in the Mishkan, its seven lamps cast light upon the parallel spiritual Menorah which was revealed to Aharon in all its glory.  Aharon experienced a Godly revelation but in his righteousness was not deterred by the inadequacy of his own deed.  This truly is worthy of praise.  In fact, Chazal[3] explain the pasuk, "והתהלכתי בתוככם .../I will walk among you …" (VaYikra 26:12) as referring to the righteous walking with God in Gan Eden and not trembling.  The do not tremble not because the do not fear God.  Rather, they do not tremble because they understand that there is no need to be embarrassed and distance oneself from God.

In this way the righteous will be similar to the angels as we find, "... ונתתי לך מהלכים בין העומדים האלה/… then I will grant that you make strides among the angels who stand here." (Zecharia 3:7)  The angels are able to stand and serve God even though their service relating to God, from God's infinite perspective, is just as inadequate as ours and even though they have a much deeper understanding of God's greatness than we do.  May we merit it!

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[1] Sifri Beha'aloscha 9

[2] Bamidbar R. 15:8

[3] Sifra Bechukosai 1:3

BeHa'aloscha 5633 Second Ma'amar

The ultimate service of God is for all of our desires to be totally aligned with God’s desires.  The sole motive for every one of our actions should be to fulfill God’s will.  However, God created us with very strong personal desires.  It is extremely difficult to negate our desires.  [In fact, it may not even be the correct approach.  When Chazal tried to negate the inclination for intimate relations, hens stopped laying eggs.  The world is not able to function without base desires.  M.D.T.]  How then, can we reconcile our desires with being dedicated to serving God?

Addressing this issue, Chazal give us the following advice, “... עֲשֵׂה רְצוֹנוֹ כִּרְצוֹנְךָ .../… Do His will like you [do] your own will …” (Avos 2:4)  The Tanna is teaching us that our will and personal desires have a purpose in helping us to serve God properly.  From our strong cravings we learn how to crave to achieve God’s will as well.  In this sense, our personal desires are a good thing.  God created us with personal desires so that we may experience desire and infer from them and the experience how to relate to God’s desires as well.

By learning from our own desires how to serve God better, how to yearn to accomplish His will, our desires are elevated to the level of serving God as well.

The Sfas Emes teaches us that to the extent that we crave to do Mitzvos and good deeds, our desire is infused with God’s holiness that affords us a certain protection that prevents us from swerving away from accomplishing God’s will even though we have our own.  In fact, our own desires become subordinate to God’s.  The main thing, is the craving, the hankering to achieve God’s will.  When we are led to this craving for closeness to God by our experience with our own base desires, all of them become part of our service to God.

This may explain a pasuk in this week’s parsha, “... הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה .../… they craved strongly …” (Bamidbar 11:4)  Why does the Torah tell us that they had a strong desire instead of simply relating the transgression?  What is this coming to teach us? 

The Sfas Ems explains that the nation was on a very high spiritual level, far removed from the base desires with which we are familiar today.  They had just spent a full year basking in the spiritual starting with the revelation on Mount Sinai and then experiencing the Divine Presence  in the Mishkan, the miracles of the manna and the clouds of glory.  Their high level meant that they did not experience base craving with which we are familiar.  This had a deleterious effect on their ability to experience any kind of craving.  So, they forced themselves to crave meat. 

For that generation, this was the wrong approach.  God considered it a sin.  However, we do crave physical things.  It is part of our makeup.  By cultivating a strong belief that God created us this way in order to better serve Him, we create a harmony within us.  All our desires, even though they seem to pull us away from God, are actually vehicles for coming close to Him.  Thinking of them in this way and using them to strengthen our desire to accomplish God’s will creates a harmony of purpose within us.  May we merit it!

Practical Application

Many of us have big issues with our base desires.  How can we lead holy lives and serve God properly?  The important thing to always remember is that God Himself created us with these desires.  They play an important role, not least of which is the very issue the Sfas Emes discusses in the ma’amar. Thinking of ourselves as somehow to blame for our base desires is actually a form of k’fira because it is saying that they originate with us instead of coming from God.  And since they come from God, He gave them to us for our benefit, to help us come close to Him.  This very realization is already a complete mindset change for most of us.

BeHa'aloscha 5631 Third Ma'amar

Note: Because the second day of Shavuos fell on Shabbos this year, for the next month there will be a one week discrepancy between the Torah reading in Israel and that outside of Israel. We will be following the Torah readings in Israel.

This week we read the second chapter of Pirkei Avos in which we find, “... עֲשֵׂה רְצוֹנוֹ כִּרְצוֹנְךָ .../… Do His will like you [do] your own will …” (Avos 2:4) Simply understood, the Tanna is teaching us to fulfill God’s will with the same desire that we fulfill our own will. When I act to fulfill the mitzvos, I should do them with great desire, the same way I act to fulfill my own desires.

Obviously, one should fulfill God’s will with at least the same desire as he fulfills his own. There does not seem to be much novelty in this. However, we can understand the Tanna to be teaching us something else a bit less intuitive. The Tanna may not be referring to fulfilling mitzvos at all. Rather, he may be referring only to a person’s actions to fulfill his own desires. He then is advising us to identify so strongly with God’s will that the underlying intent of every one of our actions, even the most mundane, is to fulfill God’s will. The last half of the sentence quoted above is, “... כְּדֵי שֶׁיֵעָשֶׂה רְצוֹנְךָ כִּרְצוֹנוֹ .../… so that your will becomes like His will …” meaning, so that your only desire in all your activities is to fulfill God’s will. The saying is then translated as, “Make His desires your own, so that your desires become His.”

In the same vein it is possible to explain the next sentence in the Mishna, “בַּטֵל רְצוֹנְךָ מִפְּנֵי רְצוֹנוֹ .../Subordinate your will in favor of His will …” Conventionally, this means that if there is a conflict between our desire and God’s, we are to follow God’s. If I am tempted to transgress a prohibition, the Tanna is telling me to follow what God wants instead.

However, the Sfas Emes understands this as referring to our intent for any given activity. The Tanna is asking that we intend to fulfill God’s will in all our actions instead of our own. A classic example is eating. Many eat for the pleasure of it. The Tanna, according to the Sfas Emes, is teaching us that we should eat rather because it is what God wants of us. Another classic example is performing mitzvos for the reward or for some other ulterior motive. The Tanna advises us to perform the mitzvos instead only to fulfill God’s will. Although it is true that we should be happy that we merit fulfilling God’s will,[1] and this happiness could be construed as an ulterior motive. Still, our primary intent should be only to fulfill God’s will.This line of thinking helps us to understand how it is possible to fulfill God’s will. As finite beings this appears to be an overwhelming task. The Tanna though, is teaching us that what is required of us is primarily the intent. To the extent that we align our desires with God’s, that we want to fulfill His will, it is considered as though we have. For this reason, Chazal[2] teach us that if a person wants to accomplish some good thing and is prevented from doing so for reasons that are beyond his control, he is considered to have accomplished it anyway.

This is also the meaning of a Chazal in the beginning of this week’s parsha on the pasuk, “וַיַּעַשׂ כֵּן אַהֲרֹן ... כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה' אֶת־מֹשֶׁה/And Aharon did so … as God commanded Moshe.” (Bemidbar 8:3) This pasuk comes after the command that Aharon light the menorah. What is the purpose of telling us that he did as commanded? Would we have thought otherwise? Rashi[3] cites Chazal’s answer that the Torah is telling us that Aharon did exactly as commanded. He did not change the command in any way. This answer seems to beg the question. Again, would we have assumed that Aharon would have changed something in the command?

However according to what we’ve said, we can understand this. It is not possible for us as finite beings to completely fulfill the will of the infinite God. However, it is possible for us to want to fulfill His will. The Torah is teaching us that since Aharon’s only desire was to fulfill God’s will as commanded to Moshe, the Torah considers him to have done so.

The Sfas Emes teaches us to cultivate a strong desire to fulfill God’s will through all our actions. May we merit it!

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[1] Shabbos 30b, Yad Lulav 8:15

[2] Tosefta Pe’ah 1:4

[3] Ad loc