Shabbos Parashas Mattos - 5776
Shabbos Parashas Mattos - 5776
Rabbi Hal Miller
Take vengeance for the children of Israel against the Midianites, afterward you will be
gathered in to your people. [Bamidbar 31:2]
If you were told that you were going to die after you performed your next task, would you be
in any sort of hurry to perform it? Here, G-d tells Moshe to do one last commandment, then
he would die. Moshe jumped to perform it immediately, and with joy. Or did he? We see
the same thing with Aharon next week [33:38], when he goes up the mountain to die. How
could these two men do this with such joy?
Rashi writes, "Even though Moshe Rabbeinu had been told that his death would follow this
war, he went ahead happily anyway and did not delay." Talelei Oros notes that the command
to Moshe was to go to war against Midian, but Moshe in fact passed it off to Pinchas. Does
that mean he failed to perform the commandment? Was he trying to get around the death
sentence that would follow from performing the command? Or did he have a different reason
for passing the mitzvah off to Pinchas? Chazal tell us that Moshe did have a reason to avoid
performing the mitzvah personally, and handing it off -- when he originally left Egypt as a
young man, it was Midianites, Jethro and family, who saved him. From this we learn that we
are not to negatively impact people or places that have done us good. Moshe himself
could not destroy Midian, although he could direct that others do so. All well and good,
but it does not answer our question.
Meshech Chochmah makes an interesting point. He says that the wrong done by Midian
required punishment, and that it would have been inappropriate that this wrong not be
rectified or punished before Moshe's death. It might have been construed as a victory
of Midian over Moshe otherwise, thus perhaps Moshe was happy to prove that Midian
was not superior to G-d in their actions.
We know that Moshe was always rushing to do yet one more mitzvah. Ramban tells
us that Moshe had already performed every other mitzvah he could perform on the
opposite side of the Jordan. He knew he was not going to cross the river. Therefore,
there was only one more mitzvah he could possibly achieve, the destruction of Midian.
This marked his full success in this world, achieving every possible mitzvah he had
in front of him. Moshe knew that by performing this last one, he had achieved his
actual purpose in this world. How many of us could reach that point? How many of
us would not feel happy knowing that we were that successful? If there is nothing else
to accomplish, it is time to move on.