Derasha
Over and over, we have emphasized the duality of the book of BamIdbar. The beginning was so promising, with everyone ready to take on the world and march directly into the Land of Kanaan. Then came a series of failures. And then, finally, a chance to right the ship. But the chance to right the ship meant a new team. Not just a new coach -- Yehoshua replacing Moshe Rabenu -- but a new team.
I mentioned a few weeks back that this generation is more like us. It has not seen the miracles; it has heard about the miracles. It was not at Har Sinai; it now learns from those who were there. But I’m not just referring to a great replacement in the people. It means a different outlook, a different orientation.
The key symbol for this transition is to watch the two tribes connected to Yosef -- Ephraim and Menashe. The new orientation is embodied in the switch from Ephraim to Menashe.
One can trace this transition in the numbers themselves: Ephraim has greater numbers in the beginning census while Menashe is greater the second time (last week). When the tribes are arranged early in the Sefer, Ephraim is a leader and Menashe is subordinate. But when the spies are sent out, it is the spy identified with Menashe that is identified with Yosef.
What does this shift mean? It means that no one will be riding into Eretz Kanaan on the back of big miracles. If Ephraim had led them into the land, it would have been shock and awe. But all of the wars after the transition are conventional wars with a reliance on hidden miracles. The entrance into Eretz Kanaan will be the same.
We’re in the middle of preparing the calendar for next year. Each of the months is associated with a tribe. Menashe is the tribe of Marcheshvan, of the month without holidays. Ephraim was connected to Tishrei, which is full of holidays. It’s Menashe’s job to project those holidays into the darkness of the month afterward.
Menashe is the tribe that knows how to do this. There are two sides of Yosef -- the very capable leader and the very holy stalwart. He is the one who remains strong, resolute, unbreakable. His two sons represent each side of him but it will be Menashe who fulfills the role of the one who can survive the darkness of Egypt.
Today we heard about those who bargained their way to staying on the other side of the Jordan River. But Moshe adds a third tribe that will be split, with a portion staying with Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven on the other side of the river. That will be Menashe, who will strengthen the resolve of those on the other side of the river. What do we know about those other two tribes? We know that they asked to stay because of their cattle. And we know that they planned to build corrals for their cattle and cities for their families. That’s the order they mention -- cattle and then people. Moshe Rabenu had to correct them -- the priority is cities for their children and corrals for their cattle. So they have a priority problem.
Also, this side of the river needs three cities of refuge even it only had two-and-a-half tribes. There are three cities in Eretz Kanaan for nine-and-a-half tribes and three cities for a third as many people. The Gemora asks why this is and answers that they will be needed because there are more murderers there.
These are people that need Bnei Menashe in their midst. They don’t just need people who will learn with them, although that helps too. They need people who will incorporate their learning into lives that are engaged in work. That is what makes them examples who are resolute and unbreakable.
On the Tisha B’Av Fast on Sunday August 7, we will have three parts to the programming. We will have presenters for the Kinnot in the morning, after Shacharit. We will have a presentation from the Chofetz Chaim Foundation, as we have had for several years. And we will have a presentation via Zoom from a Holocaust Museum near Chicago. The presentation will highlight what they call “spiritual resistance” during the Shoah. With all of the emphasis on the few cases of armed resistance during the war, spiritual resistance is often overlooked.
I don’t know what the presentation will be like. I have not seen it. It was highly recommended by a colleague. But I do know that when the Warsaw ghetto was formed, they brought Jews from all over Poland to live there. In the Ghetto, amidst the deprivation and the degradation, there were Gur Chasidim who went about their business just like before the war. They dressed the same, they pursued their Mitzvot the same, they rendered Chesed the same, They would brazenly leave the Ghetto when they needed to do so. That’s spiritual resistance.
I have a friend who takes groups from Israel to Auschwitz. He told me that one of the people who speaks for his group is a retired American who was a prisoner there. He says that there was a group of young scholars in his barracks who took him under their wing. They taught him Torah, Mishnayot mostly, every day. He did not come from much of a background but they pumped him with Mishnayot every day. He asked them, “why are you spending so much time with me?” They told him, “because no one knows who will survive this. It might be us and it might be you. But whoever survives is going to have to keep things going, is going to have to teach the next generation.” And so it was, that he was the lone survivor, and he took it as an obligation to keep things going. That too is spiritual resistance.
The tribe of Menashe is the dominant tribe by the time this book ends. They will be the tribe that leads the way. Emulating them means remaining resolute, unbreakable, no matter how deep the darkness might be.
