Parshat Matos-Masei: Purging Our Utensils

Moses’ devotion to his people was so great that he was willing to sacrifice his own spiritual standing, by virtue of his anger, to teach them important lessons and to help rehabilitate them. The faithful leader of the Jewish people was willing to degrade himself for their sake. And indeed, his anger had consequences. He erred. Thus, instead of seeing Moses’ anger as a sign of his weakness and “humanity” we should see it as a manifestation of Moses’ self-sacrifice for the well-being of his people.

“Koshering Utensils”

This week’s parsha describes the war the Jewish nation was commanded to fight against Midian before entering into the Promised Land.

Midian was the nation that sent its women to seduce the Jewish men and ultimately got them to worship their idols. G-d’s wrath was kindled against them, as the Torah puts it, and commands Moses—before he was to pass on—to wage war against them.

Upon their return from the battlefield, Moses realized that they had not properly carried out his orders, and was enraged. He then instructed those who were involved in the killing to be separated from the camp for a period of seven days, during which time they would undergo ritual purification.

After Moses’ instruction to them, Moses’ nephew Elazar proceeded to instruct them as to the laws of purging the utensils that were captured from the Midianites and had absorbed non-kosher substances. Utensils that were used in fire must be purged with fire. These laws form the basis of the “koshering” method to render non-kosher utensils usable that are routinely used to this day.

Why Elazar?

Rashi, anticipating the obvious question as to why Elazar instructed them and not Moses, explains that Moses’ display of anger caused him to forget the laws concerning the purging of utensils. Rashi then cites two other examples of Moses erring as a result of his anger.

Before we explore the significance of the specific law that Moses forgot as a result of his anger, it is important for us to understand how it is that Moses the greatest of all people that ever lived, the person closest to G-d and perfection, should be brought to anger. Anger, our Sages tell us, is one of the worst traits that one must distance oneself from. It is compared to idol worship. How could the most perfect of all humans sinned so grievously?

We must conclude that Moses justified his anger at the Jewish nation for their repeated lapses. In Moses mind, his anger was intended to make the people realize how they have strayed and correct their errant ways. Moses knew that his anger would cause him some harm because even justifiable anger is harmful to the person who gets angry.

Moses’ Sacrifice

Thus, instead of seeing Moses’ anger as a sign of his weakness and “humanity” we should see it as a manifestation of Moses’ self-sacrifice for the well-being of his people.

Why did He Forget this Law?

Having explained the rationale for Moses’ anger we can now reflect on the specific law that Moses forgot: the law of purging utensils. As stated, this law relates to utensils that were used by non-Jews that absorbed non-kosher food. The Torah relates that non-kosher utensils can be purged of the noxious substances that they have absorbed by way of fire.

We may ask, why was it that of all the laws that Moses could have forgotten as a result of his anger, it was this law in particular that he forgot? Is there anything that connects this law with the anger he exhibited towards the people?

Purging Negative Traits

Every law of the Torah expresses truths that can be applied to each and every person. The idea of purging an inanimate utensil can serve as a lesson for us as well. This law, when applied to human behavior and character, demonstrates how it is possible to get rid of unwanted traits that contaminate our personalities. A person should not think that they are forever locked into their personalities. A person can change as long as they are willing to unleash the fiery passion of their G-dly soul that has the power to reshape one’s personality.

Moses’ anger was a result of the high expectations he had for the Jewish people. When they did not live up to his expectations he got angry thinking that they were incapable of changing their behaviors otherwise. They were doomed to repeat the same mistakes. In Moses’ mind, there was no alternative but to chastise them with his anger, come what may.

Thus the result of Moses’ anger was his forgetting the laws of purging undesirable matter from utensils. This was G-d’s way of showing him that his anger was misplaced. They were indeed capable of purging their own flaws the same way a contaminated utensil can be decontaminated. They did not need the anger to change; it sufficed for them to uncover their soul’s fire and warmth.

Faith in G-d and Faith in the Jewish People

Indeed, one of the other examples of Moses’ anger and the resultant error, cited by Rashi, also involved Moses lack of faith in the ability of the people to change and do what was right on their own. Moses got angry when the people demanded water. G-d told him to speak to the rock and it would produce water. Moses got angry and hit the rock instead.

G-d’s command to him to speak to the rock rather than strike it was, in addition to its plain meaning, also a metaphor. Moses should have realized that the Jewish nation had come a long way from the time almost forty years earlier when he was told by G-d to actually hit the rock. That was a metaphor for their raw state of mind at the time of the Exodus that could not be changed except by employing a harsh disciplinary approach. G-d ordered him then to strike the rock. Only then did it produce the refreshing water that sustained them for almost forty years of their wanderings in the desert.

However, the next generation of Jews did not need to be struck. Talking to them would have sufficed to reveal their inner goodness. G-d therefore commanded Moses to talk to the rock.

It is interesting that according to Maimonides’ Moses “sin” in that episode was his anger. According to Rashi it was his disobeying G-d’s command to speak to the rock.

In truth, both explanations are complementary. His anger was his way of jolting the people, causing them to soften and allow their fountains of life sustaining water to gush forth. Metaphorically speaking, that was in fact what is meant by striking the rock instead of speaking to it. Moses concluded that they needed tough love and he was prepared to give it.

However, Moses was faulted for not recognizing that there was a radical shift in the state of the Jews from the time of the Exodus to the time that they were ready to enter into the Promised Land. For the new generation it was imperative that they be treated with more love and compassion—the soft approach.

Lesson for Days of Moshiach

The lesson for our generation is obvious:

We are living at the tail end of the period of exile; on the cusp of the Messianic Age. We have come to the end of our wanderings in the “desert of nations.” Jews today do not have to be struck. There is no justification to get angry at them in order to change them. As a people, we have been purged of all our negativity because we have been subjected to the “koshering” process through fire. The figurative and indeed literal fires of the Holocaust and all the other tragedies that engulfed the Jewish people before and after, have cleansed us and has rid us of our evil. Contrary to the popular misconception that prevails in some segments of the Jewish community, we—as a group—are far more refined and holy than our forebears.

Insofar as the individual Jew is concerned—who may be lagging behind the communal attainments—it is not necessary for us to use the stick and anger approach to get them on the right path. For even the individual Jew who has absorbed the most spiritually toxic influences can be purged of them without resorting to anger and abuse. All it takes is for us to help them and ourselves is to reveal the passion and fire of their/our souls.

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