Parshas Pinchas contains the transition of the leadership of Klal Yisrael from Moshe Rabbeinu to Yehoshua bin Nun. The pasuk says “Hashem said to Moshe: ‘Take to yourself Yehoshua son of Nun, a man in whom there is spirit, and lean your hand upon him.'” (Bamidbar 27:18). The Medrash remarks “Take Yehoshua, in fulfillment of that which is stated: “Notzer te’ayna yochal piryah (The protector of a fig tree will eat its fruit), and the guardian of his master will be honored.” (Mishlei 27:18).
Yehoshua was picked to lead because he put in the hours. “And the one who served him, the lad, Yehoshua bin Nun, did not depart from the tent.” (Shemos 33:11) He did not leave his master’s side. He cleaned up the Beis Medrash. He is the one who worked. He is the one who sweated and toiled. Therefore, “notzer te’ayna yochal piryah.”
The Gemara says (Bava Basra 75a) that when this transition occurred, the elders of that generation said, “Moshe’s face is like that of the sun; Yehoshua’s face is like that of the moon. Woe to the embarrassment! Woe to the shame!” The elders who remembered Moshe in his prime felt that Yehoshua paled in comparison to their former leader.
Let me ask a question: What happens nowadays when a great Rosh Yeshiva dies and another Rosh Yeshiva steps into his shoes? Did you ever hear anyone get up at the hesped of the deceased Rosh Yeshiva and say, “I remember the late Rosh Yeshiva. He knew how to learn. He was a true gadol. This thirty-year-old fellow who is now becoming the Rosh Yeshiva – what does he know? Woe to us at such shame and embarrassment!” Have you ever been to such a hesped? According to this Gemara in Bava Basra, that, in effect, is what the “elders of the generation” said about Yehoshua! Can we imagine such a public humiliation of Yehoshua bin Nun?
I saw a very interesting pshat attributed to Rav Itzele of Volozhin. Chas v’shalom! The elders were not disrespecting Yehoshua. They were saying that they remember Moshe Rabbeinu in his youth. From the moment he was born, Moshe Rabbeinu was a different type of person. At the moment of his birth, the room was filled with light. He was a miraculous child. He was not a once-in-a-generation or a once-in-a-lifetime personality. A person like Moshe Rabbeinu was unique in the history of the universe.
Each elder said as follows: I am not Moshe Rabbeinu. When I was born, the house did not fill with light. Nothing like that happened. But Yehoshua? I went to cheder with Yehoshua bin Nun. I remember him as a child. He was nothing special. He was not even the best boy in the class. He didn’t get all A’s, and he did his share of fooling around. But then something happened to Yehoshua bin Nun, and he became a different person. It was not because of his brilliance or natural born gifts, but rather it was because “notzer te’ay’nah yochal piryah.” He put in his time. He never left the side of Moshe Rabbeinu. When I was out doing who knows what, Yehoshua was there with Moshe Rabbeinu. When I was fooling around, he was cleaning up the Beis Medrash.
This Yehoshua, the fellow that I knew and the fellow that I grew up with, has now become the next leader of Bnai Yisroel. Moshe was a “sun” – no one could ever again be like Moshe Rabbeinu. But Yehoshua bin Nun is like the “face of the moon” – he is a reflection of the brilliance of Moshe, just as the moon reflects the brilliance of the sun. Anyone could have done that and become the next leader of Bnai Yisroel – had they put in the time and had they put in the effort.
“Woe to the embarrassment and woe to the shame” is not referring to Yehoshua. It is reflexive, going back on the elders themselves. How embarrassing and shameful it is for us that we spent our time fooling around rather than emulating Yehoshua and seizing the advantage of being constantly with our great leader Moshe Rabbeinu.
I am sure all of us have had experiences like this. “I went to school with this person. He became the (fill-in-the-blank) Rosh Yeshiva!” There are dozens of people like that. That is the shame and embarrassment of which they spoke. Had I only put in the time, effort, sweat, and toil that he put in, maybe I could have also become like that, but I did not do so.
