Three Human Conditions: Three Perspectives
As we stand ready to greet Moshiach and the final Redemption we sometimes second-guess ourselves and question our worthiness to be redeemed. We might think of ourselves as undeserving. We must realize that we have beautiful garments that are woven together from all of the positive thoughts, words and actions that we as a people have performed notwithstanding the hardships of Galus/exile.
The Tree, Rock, Wheat and Wine
In this week’s parsha the Jewish people are confronted with a new crisis. Miriam had passed away and now the miraculous rock that provided them with water in the desert in her merit ceased to function. So what do Jews do? They complain to Moses. Moses responds with the rhetorical flourish: “Could we draw water from this rock?” He then proceeds to strike the rock, whereupon water begins to gush from it. G-d then reprimands Moses for not speaking to the rock.
Ba’al Haturim notes that the Hebrew word hamin [“from”] can be found in two other Biblical texts. In the book of Genesis, when G-d confronts Adam for eating of the forbidden fruit, He asks him rhetorically: “Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” Here too the Torah employs the word hamin.
There is also a third text that uses the same expression. In the book of Kings (II: 6) when a devastating famine plagued Shomron, a woman called out to the king for assistance. His response to her was “From whence shall I help you; from the grain or from the wine?” Again the word hamin is used for the words “from.”
It is axiomatic that when the Torah utilizes the same expression in several places it is intended to inspire us to search for the connection among them. Even when they appear to represent disparate subjects, there must be some thread that runs through them.
What connection is there between the forbidden Tree of Knowledge, the rock that Moses struck, and the king’s sad admission that he possessed neither grain nor wine?
Upon deeper reflection we will see that they represent three incorrect perspectives concerning the human condition that originate in our own perception of ourselves. And that, ultimately, G-d dismisses these assessments and exposes us to a far more positive analysis of the human condition.
G-d’s Questions and Challenge to Adam
When G-d confronts Adam with the question as to whether he ate of the forbidden tree, the omniscient G-d was obviously not inquiring to find out if it was true or not. Furthermore, this question was a continuation of an earlier question: “who told you that you are naked?” Adam, instead of answering these questions he shifts the blame on his wife.
In truth, one could say that by asking him who told him he was naked G-d was rejecting that very notion that he was naked. Adam’s shame was precipitated not just by the awareness of his physical state of exposure but rather, as Rashi states, he felt naked in the spiritual sense.
G-d initially asked Adam, “ayekah, where are you?” According to the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the author of the Tanya and the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement), G-d’s question to him—and to each and every human being—is, “where are you in terms of where you ought to be in your spiritual life.”
If we read between the lines these are the sentiments voiced by Adam in response to G-d’s question: “I have nothing to show for myself. I am naked and am deeply embarrassed with myself. I am debased and devoid of anything positive.” Needless to say, G-d took great exception to his self-denigrating remarks:
“How can you be so self-deprecating to call yourself naked? Why are you looking solely at your negatives? You have a soul; you just have to allow it to express itself so that it is not crushed by the evil that you have just absorbed from the outside.”
Adam finally grasps that indeed man is essentially good and evil is external. Adam concludes that while the soul is pure and good, it must then be the body that is evil and negative. As a result, Adam turns to his wife and considers her to be the external force that caused his decline.
Ultimately, G-d rejects that notion as well and finally forces Adam and Eve to come to the conclusion that it is the serpent. It is an external force of evil that imposes itself on the soul (metaphorically represented by Adam) and the body (metaphorically represented by Eve). Not only is the soul pure and innocent, even the body is not inherently evil. All evil begins externally and can be super-imposed on our innocent body and holy soul. It is up to us to determine how far we allow the external evil to penetrate.
To summarize: G-d’s question as to whether Adam ate from the forbidden tree was G-d’s way of demonstrating to him that evil is not intrinsic; it is external; it comes from the forbidden fruit, not from within. It comes from the enticement of the serpent to partake of that fruit and not from within one’s soul or body.
Moses’ Perspective
Now let’s return to Moses’ incredulous remark to the Jews: “Could we draw water from this rock?”
When Moses questioned how he could extract water from a rock he was also referring to the Jews who complained about the lack of water. He was comparing them to a rock because he felt that that they had become so desensitized that they were like hardened rocks from which no water could flow. Moses thus wondered, “How can I extract water from the physical rock if the people themselves are so hardened?” Moses believed that the physical world is affected by the spiritual state of the people. If their hearts were open, the water would flow freely.
Perhaps, it was the loss of Miriam that created a void of feminine receptivity to the spiritual that prevented the miracle of a rock producing water from occurring. Once the Miriam element was missing in their lives, the people lost their ability to extract the nurturing and refreshing waters associated with Miriam from their hearts and souls. This then manifested itself in the inability to get water from the rock.
Of course, Moses did not think that they had lost their spiritual core. He also knew that evil is external. But he felt that their intrinsic good had become so suppressed by the external negativity that the only way it can be revealed is through some tough measures. Moses thus resorts to using harsh words of rebuke and, in addition, strikes the rock.
G-d disagreed even with this somber assessment of the human condition. According to Rashi, G-d “rebuked” Moses for not speaking to the rock. One does not need to be harsh to liberate one’s inner core of goodness and faith. Words spoken from the heart can accomplish the same in most cases.
The King of Shomron’s Perspective
The city of Shomron was taken over by a deadly famine. A woman turns to her king and asks for assistance to which he helplessly replies: “From whence shall I help you; from the grain or from the wine?”
In this tragic episode where people were resorting to eating their own children as recounted in the Biblical text, the king sees no redeeming quality in the people because he sees nothing positive in himself. He therefore states, “From whence shall I help you?” He felt that he was bereft of all good. The physical famine was a manifestation of utter absence of anything positive in the spiritual realm. In his mind, there was nothing that can be done to bring out the positive qualities that would be expressive of grain or wine. There is just total emptiness and despair; not even harsh measures could do anything.
At that point the prophet Elisha enters and predicts a total reversal of the famine and a period of incredible bounty.
Once again, G-d demonstrates that our assessment of our spiritual state is incorrect. Or even if we have degenerated to the abyss, we can transform that situation into a positive one.
The Three Lessons
The lesson from all of the above is that as we stand ready to greet Moshiach and the final Redemption we sometimes second-guess ourselves and question our worthiness to be redeemed. We might think of ourselves as undeserving.
There are three ways in which we may consider our spiritual state to be wanting.
The first is to see the negative and feel that we are essentially naked.
The lesson from the first occurrence of the word hamin in the context of G-d’s challenge to Adam is: we must realize that we have beautiful garments that are woven together from all of the positive thoughts, words and actions that we as a people have performed notwithstanding the hardships of Galus/exile. When a Jew claims spiritual nakedness, we must repeat G-d’s question to Adam: “Who told you that you are naked?!” No Jew could make that preposterous claim even in the interests of humility. “Even the sinners of Israel,” the Talmud declares, “are filled with Mitzvot as a pomegranate is filled with seeds.”
If the Mitzvot are likened to garments then we are wearing exquisitely beautiful garments.
The second way we may look at ourselves in a negative light is to focus on the lack of sensitivity we have towards spiritual matters due to the effects of Galus. The second lesson we can glean from the narrative of Moses is that while we do sometimes lose some of our sensitivity there is no need to strike the rock. Soft words of encouragement and inspiration will suffice to melt even the most hardened personality.
And the third lesson relates to the lack of grain (the metaphor for Torah knowledge) and wine (the metaphor for the mystical teachings of Judaism that engender joy) in our lives. We might feel parched and devoid of any substance. Compared to our forebears we lack the devotion to and the knowledge of Torah.
To allay this pessimistic view of ourselves we are told that even after the king of Israel deemed the situation hopeless, the prophet Elisha reversed everything.
The same can be said of our generation. No matter how lowly we consider ourselves and our generation to be— especially as we compare it to our forebears’ generation— we know that imminently Moshiach will come and reverse that situation and usher in the age when the entire world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d. We will have both an abundance of grain and the wine of Torah.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Chukas by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
