The most dangerous thing about perception is that it is often mistaken for truth.
(DY: AL RBDMB ) „.TWAMH YRsW OYPLAH YRs LYXH YDWQP LE HwM FCQYW‰
“And Moshe got angry at the officers of the army, those who headed the thousands and those who headed the hundreds.” (Bamidbar 31:14)
Upon dealing the Midianites a decisive defeat, the Jewish army captured the spoils of war. They brought the booty back and presented it before Moshe and the leaders of the Jewish People. When they did so, Moshe could not believe his eyes. They had brought back the Midianite women as captives! Moshe was incensed.
These were the very women who were the cause of the Jews sinning, which led to the deaths of thousands of people. And these soldiers had the temerity and shortsightedness to bring these women back as captives?!
The question we ask today is why the Torah specifies that Moshe got angry. If the Jews needed to be rebuked, Moshe should have done it calmly. He should have explained their mistake in a soft tone. Why did he get angry?
The answer is that here, when Moshe was speaking to the leaders of the hundreds and the thousands, they should have known better. This was not a mistake they should have made. If there was something the Jews didn’t know, Moshe could have taught it to them softly. However, here, something much more insidious was afoot. For nearly forty years in the desert, the Jews dwelled in isolation from the outside world. Their perspective was formed by Hashem’s will and Moshe’s teaching.
How, then, could they make this error? It’s because of their exposure to the Midianites and the other nations they encountered. So long as they were isolated, they were able to maintain their beliefs. Once they began to mingle with these people who were not guided by Hashem, they were affected and influenced. However, they didn’t see it. To them, this way of thinking was correct, and they didn’t see a reason to kill the “innocent” women who were taken captive.
What angered Moshe is that they allowed themselves to be lulled into a false sense of appropriateness. The fact that they didn’t see for themselves, immediately, the problem, meant they had become desensitized to holiness and purity. Moshe needed to express shock to make them realize just how egregious this was. Allowing their principles to be compromised was something which should have caused each of them to protest. Had they been on the proper level, they, too, would have been outraged by such a suggestion, even if it came from a higher-ranking officer. They would have known it was wrong and spoken up. Therefore, Moshe acted as they should have, to highlight the behavior they should have known to use themselves, and to give them direction to never be fooled again.
An artist went up to the mountains to paint in solitude. He spent weeks there, perfecting his masterpiece. When he was done, he stepped back to admire his handiwork.
He began to examine it from every angle. He looked from one side, then from up on a rock. Then he placed the painting on a rock ledge and stepped back to see it in the morning sun. He took one step back, then another, admiring his masterpiece.
Suddenly, as if from nowhere, an arrow flew past his head and sliced through his canvas. Weeks of work, ruined! He snapped out of his reverie and spun around, looking for the perpetrator of the crime. A man came down from the mountains holding a bow. “How could you do that?!” shouted the artist. “You’ve ruined my greatest work!”
The man pointed and said, “Look! You were at the edge of a cliff. You were so engrossed with the colors and paint that you nearly lost your life. I tried calling to you but you didn’t hear me. I had no choice but to destroy that which distracted you, in order to save you.”
©2023 – J. Gewirtz
