The Key to Redemption

For thus says God: “You were sold for nothing (ḥinam) and you will be redeemed without money.”                                                                  Isaiah 52:3

            Ibn Ezra explains the verse in its simple meaning: God said “Just as I ‘sold’ (exiled) you without money so too I shall redeem you without money.” Thus, our verse is part of God’s comfort to His nation.

            Rashi comments “’You will be redeemed without money’ – only through repentance,” thus the verse teaches that Israel’s redemption is dependent upon its repentance.

            Ḥida (Rabbi Ḥayyim Yosef David Azulai [1724 – 1806]) in his work Ḥomat Anach [Parashat Ki Tavo] elucidates the verse in a manner which supports and specifies Rashi’s comment.

“You were sold for nothing (ḥinam)“ – refers to the sin of sin’at ḥinam (baseless hatred), which was the source of the destruction of the Second Temple, as our Sages [Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b] taught.  “And you will be redeemed without money” – even if you fulfill many mitzvot (our Sages [vaYikra Rabba 22:2] understood the verse “He who loves money…” [Ecclesiastes 5:9] as a reference to he who loves mitzvot), it will not help to bring the redemption, as long as you fail to rectify the sin of baseless hatred which was the cause of your exile. You cannot be redeemed through fulfillment of mitzvot as long as there remains baseless hatred among you. The redemption depends upon there being peace and complete unity.

           Ḥida concludes by writing: “Thus the essential point is to uproot baseless hatred from its roots, and then the redemption will come, speedily in our days.”           

The Yahrtzeit of Aharon haKohen

Aaron the kohen ascended Mount Hor at the Lord's bidding and died there, on the first day of the fifth month (Av) in the fortieth year of the children of Israel's exodus from Egypt.                Numbers 33:38

            Of the three children of Amram, the leaders of the generation of the exodus, the Torah provides us only with the exact date of the death of Aaron.

            It is noteworthy that Parashat Masei is always read within one week of the date of Aaron’s death, Rosh Ḥodesh Av. (In the previous one hundred years, the parasha has been read on Aaron’s yahrtzeit a dozen times.)

            Sefat Emet [Parashat Masei, 5659] sees the coincidence as a hint that “the merit of Aaron stands for us at this low time,” of the period of mourning the destruction of the Temples. As Moses was buried overlooking Ba’al Peor (the scene of Israel’s sin with the daughters of Moab and Midian [Numbers 25:1-9]) “in order to protect Israel at this, the lowest of places, so Aaron was destined to protect Israel during this month,” during which we minimize our joy. [Shulḥan Aruch, Oraḥ Ḥayyim 551:1]

            The Second Temple was destroyed because of unfounded hatred [Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b] and Aaron’s trait: “a lover of peace, a pursuer of peace, one who loves all creatures” [Pirkei Avot 1:12] is the diametric opposite.

            Thus, the mention of the first High Priest at this time of the year should bring us to reflect on the reason for the Temple’s destruction, and to the understanding that the rectification and the means to rebuild the Temple is through loving peace, pursuing peace and loving all creatures. In the words of the “High Priest” of the generation which preceded the establishment of the State of Israel, through “unbounded love.”

Moses, the Land and Torah Study

Please let me cross (the Jordan). Let me see the good Land across the Jordan, the good mountain and the Lebanon.                   Deuteronomy 3:25

            Netziv quotes our Sages’ homily [Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 5a]that  "Good refers only to Torah, as the verse states: 'For I gave you good teaching; forsake not My instruction (Torah),'” [Proverbs 4:2] and explains that Moses’ request of God was to merit engagement with Torah within the Land of Israel.

            In commenting on the opening verse of the parasha, Netziv explains that the timing of Moses’ request “at that time” [3:23] is connected to his having given the land on the eastern side of the River Jordan to the tribes of Gad and Reuben. In Netziv’s words:   

(Moses) saw the necessity to inculcate within Israel the power of elucidating and engaging in Torah. And Moses our master wanted this to be within the Land of Israel, which is better suited for Torah study than the eastern side of the Jordan, since “there is no Torah comparable to that of the Land of Israel.”  [Breishit Rabba 16:7] And Jerusalem is even better suited than the rest of the Land, for Torah comes forth from her (based on Isaiah 2:3, Micah 4:2), and even more so, the site of the Temple, “the mountain (where) the Lord will be seen” [Genesis 22:14] (the Temple Mount was the seat of the Sanhedrin, the supreme religious court of Israel [Deuteronomy 17:8]). Thus, Moses’ prayer “at that time” was motivated by the advantage of instilling the power of Torah elucidation within the Land.

            Therefore, Moses did not satisfy himself with the request to cross the River Jordan merely to see the Land in general, but specified that he wished to see “the good mountain” – which our Sages taught is Jerusalem [Mechilta d’Rebbi Shimon bar Yoḥai 17:14] – and “the Lebanon” – which refers to the Temple [ibid.].

            Thus, according to Netziv’s elucidation, Moses’ request was graduated, from the Land which is generally suited to Torah study, to Jerusalem, which is “even better suited for Torah,” to the apex, the Temple “which is best suited to reach the truth (of Torah) in ‘the place which God will choose.’” [Deuteronomy 12:5]

            There has been no greater Torah scholar than Moses, who was taught Torah by God Himself, and yet he yearned to enter the Land in order to advance himself in Torah study, as Netziv comments on next week’s parasha: “Certainly spiritual vitality cannot be completely achieved until reaching the Land of Israel.” If this is so with the cedars, what shall the hyssop of the wall do? [Babylonian Talmud, Moed Katan 25b]

Forty Years' Preparation for Exile

            Netziv [Deuteronomy 8:2] suggests that the purpose of Israel’s forty years of wandering in the wilderness was not only punishment for the generation which despised the Land, but  preparation for the nation’s exile from its Land, “by getting the nation used to wandering from place to place, as they did in the wilderness.”

            We may note two points concerning Israel’s journeys in the wilderness, which must influence the nation’s diaspora experience:

1) The destination of Israel’s forty-year trek was the Holy Land;

2) Throughout the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Israel journeyed with the Tabernacle at its center, symbolizing the fact that the heart of the national experience and reality is Israel’s connection to God and His Torah.

The Goodness of the Land, Jerusalem and the Temple

And you will eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless the Lord, your God, for the good Land He has given you.                                            Deuteronomy 8:10

Our Rabbis taught: “Where is reciting grace after meals intimated in the Torah? In the verse, ‘And thou will eat and be satisfied you shall bless’ - this signifies the blessing of “Who feeds;”  ‘The Lord your God’ - this signifies the benediction of zimmun (invitation to reciting the grace);  ‘For the Land’ -this signifies the blessing for the Land; ‘The good’ - this signifies “Who builds Jerusalem”; and similarly it says ‘This good mountain and Lebanon’ [Deuteronomy 3:25]  ‘He has given you’ - this signifies the blessing of “Who is good and bestows good”.”  Babylonian Talmud, Brachot 48b

            According to our Sages, the “goodness of the Land” refers to the Holy City. Similarly, the Sages elucidated Moses’ prayer to be allowed to cross the River Jordan and see “this good mountain and the Lebanon:” [Deuteronomy 3:25] “’This good mountain’ – this is Jerusalem; ‘And the Lebanon’ – this is the Temple.” [Lekaḥ Tov, Deuteronomy 6a]

            Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch comments that the “goodness of the Land” incorporates the concept of the Promised Land being “in accordance with the intended intellectual spiritual and moral development of the nation;” [Commentary on Exodus 3:8] and that the Land “corresponds to the great destiny” of the nation chosen to dwell within her. [Commentary on Deuteronomy 3:25]

            The two definitions of the “goodness of the Land,” Jerusalem and the Temple on one hand, and realizing Israel’s national destiny, on the other, are inherently intertwined.

            Israel’s national destiny is to fulfill God’s wishes within His Land, the place best suited for fulfilling His mitzvot, and within the Holy Land, the epitome of closeness to God is the Temple. In Rabbi Hirsch’s words:

Zion and Jerusalem emboss on the whole Land of Israel the stamp of the nation’s spiritual calling, which is concentrated in Mount Zion, and expressed by “The good Land.” [Commentary on our verse]

            We may add to Rabbi Hirsch’s enlightening comment the approach on Maharal of Prague, that the sanctity of the Land of Israel derives from the fact of the Holy City and the site of the Holy of Holies being located within her. [Gur Aryeh, Genesis 32:1; see also the enlightening comments in Rabbi Yehoshua David Hartman’s edition of Netzaḥ Yisrael, chapter 5, note 57.]