Shabbos Parashas Chukas/Balak - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Chukas/Balak - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

So Edom refused to permit Israel to pass through his border and Israel turned

away from near him. [Bamidbar 20:21]

From the time they left Egypt, the Jewish people went wherever God told them to go,

following the column of fire or column of smoke. If God led them to the border of the

land of Edom, why did they turn away from God's direction? Was Edom able to

'refuse' what God told them to do?

Rav Soloveitchik compares it to a later similar incident. "Interestingly, when Sichon

and Og likewise refused the children of Iisrael's request to traverse their land and

chose battle instead, Israel simply conquered them. However, here the nation circled

Edom and retreated. Edom was weaker than either Sichon or Og." Could Israel have

been afraid of battle still at this point, but came to understand by the time of Sichon and

Og that God would do the fighting for them?

Midrash Rabbah [Bamidbar 19:16] seems to indicate that Edom was in fact not on God's

itinerary, rather the Jews chose it on their own. The Midrash compares it to an event in

II Chronicles [20:37] where, because the nation chose to make a deal to pass through

the land of a wicked nation, they lost a righteous man. Here, the death of Aharon is

related immediately after the incident with Edom, thus the choice of going that was was

not God's. Moshe must have known this, and was therefore willing to back away.

Rashi looks back a few verses, to 20:14. "So said your brother Israel". Moshe told Edom

that, since both nations came from Avraham, that both were responsible for fulfilling the

decree of sojourning. Since only Israel had done so to cover for both, Edom now owed it

to the Jews to let them pass through.

Ramban finds the answer in the various places where God warns the Jews not to provoke

Edom. If they insisted on going through the Edomite land, they would certainly be guilty

of provoking. If God wanted them to travel that way, He would have made clear that this

was an exception to the other decree. Moshe recognized that this was a test, with two

seemingly contradicting commands, and it was up to him to reconcile them.

Whether God led the Jews to Edom or whether they chose to go that way on their own,

the overriding commandment not to disturb Edom applied. There was no equivalent with

Sichon and Og, so they were destroyed.