God instructed Moses “avenge the Children
of Israel from the Midianites...”
[Numbers 31:2]
In the following verse, when Moses
relayed God’s instructions to the People, he did not relay God’s words exactly.
Rather, Moses told the People to “execute the Lord’s vengeance on
Midian.”
Rashi notes “since they (the
Midianites) stood against Israel, it is considered as if they stood against the
Holy One blessed be He.” In essence, attacking the People of Israel is
equivalent to attacking the God of Israel.
My father commented that Moses’ change
of wording is intended (among other points) to stress that the Israelites are
to be motivated not by the personal affront and harm done to them, but rather
by the Midianites’ affront to God.
Further, the two verses convey the
ideal of the relationship between God and Israel. God’s concern, as it were, is
to avenge the wrong done to His people, while the People are moved to act to
avenge God’s honor.
The following two verses, describing
the enlistment of the 12,000 soldiers (1000 from each tribe) to fight the
Midianites, each begins and ends with the letter aleph. Ba’al
haTurim comments: this shows that they were united with a single heart
towards their Father in Heaven and they devoted themselves to the sanctification
of God’s name and the salvation of Israel. My father explained that it is this
unity and this dedication which not only brought the victory, but allow all the
fighters to return safely, as the verse says, “and no man is missing unto us.”
[Numbers 31:49]
May we be wise enough to achieve unity
and dedication to the sanctification of God’s name and the salvation of Israel
and thereby merit victory and the safe return of all our men.
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