An Arm or a Leg

We have two choices how to cope with the harsh nature of the earth that will determine the outcome of our struggle: The poorer choice is to wait until we are jolted into submission to normalcy. The ideal choice is for us to divorce ourselves from its harshness and negativity by equipping ourselves with the proper attitude towards life and our environment.

Words of Rebuke

The Children of Israel are finally standing poised to enter the Promised Land after all the hitches that plagued their sojourn in the desert for forty years. And now a new crisis erupts. The two tribes of Gad and Reuven approach Moses and request that they not be given a share of the land on the west bank of the Jordan River with the other ten tribes, but rather in its more verdant east bank.

At first, Moses was extremely upset with this request. Moses admonishes them for their reluctance to cross the Jordan with all of their brethren and accuses them of following in the footsteps of their fathers who refused to go to the Land of Israel, and then reminds them of the tragic consequences of their rebellious behavior.

Clarification

Upon hearing these rather sharp words of rebuke from Moses, they proceeded to clarify their position:

“We will build sheep enclosures for our livestock and cities for our children. We will then arm ourselves quickly and go ahead of the Children of Israel until we’ve brought them to their place.”

They continued to commit themselves to not return to their territory on the east bank of the Jordan until every Jew receives his share of land on the west side of the Jordan.

When Moses hears their willingness to lead the Jews into battle and not take their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan until every last Jew is finally settled on the west side, Moses accedes to their request and says to them:

“If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves for battle before G-d, and your army crosses the Jordan before G-d… you will be free to G-d and Israel, and this land will become your heritage before G-d.”

Armed or Shoeless?

Ba’al Haturim notes the use of the Hebrew word “chalutz” which is translated as “armed” and discovers that there is another totally unrelated usage of this word in a different Biblical context.

When a man dies without children, the Torah requires that his brother marry his widow. If the widow’s brother-in-law refuses to marry her the Torah provides for a special ceremony called “chalitzah” that allows her to marry anyone she wants.

This ceremony involves the widow removing a special shoe from her brother-in-law’s foot. The Torah concludes: “His name in Israel will be called, ‘The household of the one whose shoe was removed.’” Here too, the word “chalutz” is employed as a translation of the word “removed.”

What in the world is the connection between the armed Gadites and Reuvenites and the removal of the brother-inlaw’s shoe? At first glance any association between these two themes is far-fetched!

Ba’al Haturim explains the connection:

The Talmud states that before a soldier would go out to battle in King David’s army, he would first write a bill of divorce for his wife. This “get” was motivated by love, for if the soldier dies in battle and they were childless, the widow would not have to go through the chalitzah ceremony with her brother-in-law in order to remarry.

Thus, by employing the same word “chalutz” in both sections of the Torah—here in the narrative of the Gadites and Reuvenites going into battle and in the requirement of the widow to go through the chalitzah ceremony—the Torah is thereby intimating that when Moses sent them into battle they would likewise write these bills of divorce to protect their wives.

Soldiers in King David’s Army

There must, however, be a deeper connection between these two very disparate themes that can provide us with some insight into our own battles and struggles.

The Rebbe Rashab—Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe—referred to his students, and by extension all Jews, as “soldiers in King David’s army.” The Rebbe explained that we are all fighting the last battle before entering into the Promised Land of the Messianic Age, ushered in by King David’s descendent, the Moshiach.

But before we fight this battle we must first “divorce” ourselves from the limited and stifling influences to which we’ve wed ourselves. We cannot win the struggle against all the negativity in the world around us without having a clear sense of who we are and what positive resources we possess. We must know that we are the masters of our environment and not the other way around. For if we think that we are hostages to the mindset of society then we cannot possibly change it.

Before we go out and fight the final battle for the supremacy of good over evil, etc., we must be armed (chalutz) with the appropriate spiritual weapons.

Head and Arm in One Fell Swoop

According to the Torah, the Gadite method of killing their enemy was to sever their arms and head with one fell swoop.

In a spiritual sense this has been translated to mean that they employ both action and reason in their pursuit of serving G-d. Action alone doesn’t suffice. A Jew must employ and apply his mind to his or her Judaism.

And conversely, one cannot delay doing that which is right until one has a full understanding of the subject. Action in the performance of the Mitzvos must precede understanding; but understanding must follow soon afterwards.

Avoiding Removal of the Shoe

Armed with the appropriate weapons we can avoid the painful removal of the shoe that is a part of the chalitzah ritual. The shoe is the object that signifies our connection to the earth upon which we tread.

We have two choices how to cope with the harsh nature of the earth that will determine the outcome of our struggle:

The ideal choice is for us to divorce ourselves from its harshness and negativity by equipping ourselves with the proper attitude towards life and our environment.

Alternatively, if we cannot sever our obsessive, compulsive attachment to worldly perspectives, we then become hostages of the worldly mindsets that can cause spiritual death (a metaphor for losing our footing and slipping in a spiritual vein).

When that occurs, the world itself ultimately “removes the shoe from us.” This means that society itself—and the way of life that we feel so attached to that we cannot find it in our hearts to distance ourselves from it—rejects us. This rejection is symbolized by removing the shoe making it hard to feel connected to the ground, and thereby forcing us to reexamine our relationship with the world. And while this method works, it is painful and protracted and by far the inferior of the two approaches that are available to us.

As we wait for Moshiach (the scion of King David) to arrive, we ought to choose the method of Gad and Reuven and arm ourselves with the confidence, conviction and courage to take on the world with positive energy and thereby usher in the Age of Redemption when we will no longer have to fight any wars or battles.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Matos-Masei by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.