VOLUME 106 NUMBER 9
Tamuz 25, 5783
July 14, 2023
PARSHAS MATTOS-MASEI
Candlelighting Time 8:09 PM
Moshe commanded Pinchas to wage battle against Midian to revenge Hashem’s honor. The Midianite women caused many of the men to sin and therefore avenging their act of criminality was uppermost in the mind of Moshe. Pinchas who initially acted against them when he killed Zimri who had taken the Midianite princess, was tasked with this sacred mission. The undertaking was successful, yet when they returned Moshe was angered. They had brought the Midianite women as captives and they had not killed them as Moshe had commanded. Pinchas responded that indeed they had carried out the orders of Moshe in its entirety. Was Moshe not clear when he charged Pinchas with this assignment? Did Pinchas misunderstand what Moshe had told him?
Ohr HaChama has a very interesting insight to explain this seeming lack of communication between Moshe and Pinchas. He questions why Moshe was angry at the heads of the battalions. Rashi remarks because the wrongdoings of the soldiers are pinned upon the leaders. However, this itself is difficult to understand because if they were indeed commanded to kill all the Midianites and they only eliminated the men, then that mistake was truly an error of the leaders themselves, not the men under their command. They should have accompanied their soldiers to the battlefront and observed that the entire nation was destroyed.
However, the answer is that the nature of their mission was not clearly identified. They were told to wage war against the nation of Midian. They executed that job well and all the men of that nation were indeed liquidated. However, the soldiers took the women and children as slaves for themselves which was certainly to be expected. There is the possibility to perceive that once the women and children are no longer functioning in their own right but rather as subjects of another nation, then they lose their description as Midianites. This was definitely the rational that was on the minds of the soldiers and their officers actually concurred with their decision. Their mindset may have been that although the women of Midian had caused the downfall of many of the men of our nation seducing them to serve idols, once they were subjugated and under our total domination and control, the risk of any further problems had been terminated. The officers saw no reason to protest what the soldiers had done.
Moshe viewed this situation totally differently. Pinchas was not sent simply to remove the threat that Midian might still have presented to our people. Rather Pinchas was commanded to avenge the honor of Hashem. The only possible way to retaliate would be the entire removal of that nation from the face of the earth. Their heinous act of introducing idol worship through seduction warranted an extreme and vigorous response in order to restore the honor of Hashem and reinstitute our total homage and service to Hashem. This episode provides us with an important message as to our dealings with those who intend to harm our spiritual health. We can never compromise and we must with the utmost effort realize that those seek to damage us must be dealt with appropriately.
A BYTE FOR SHABBOS
Just as when we kasher a vessel to use we must initially remove the rust before the process, so too, we must initially eliminate any former problem, in other words first we must regret our previous mistakes and then we can begin to repent. CHOFETZ CHAIM
GOOD SHABBOS
