Subj: netvort:parshas Beha'aloscha 5759
Date: 6/4/99 12:48:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Phyllostac
To: JoshHoff
BCC: UncleYitz


Only Yesterday
By Rabbi Joshua (remembered as The Hoffer) Hoffman

At the end of this week's parsha, we are told of the incident in which Miriam and Aharon speak critically of their brother Moshe, and God intervenes on his behalf, rebuking and then punishing them. This incident serves as one of the primary sources for the laws of evil speech-leshon hora. In parshas Ki Seitzei (Devorim 24,9), we are told to remember what God did to Miriam on the way when we were leaving Egypt, meaning that we are to remember the incident recorded here, and the consequences of it. In many prayer books, in fact, that verse in Ki Seitzei is included in a list of six verses bidding us to remember various episodes recorded in the Torah, all of which constitute specific commandments listed by medieval authorities who tallied the six hundred and thirteen Biblical commandments.It therefore behooves us to take a closer look at what transpired, to better understand what it is we are supposed to derive from remembering.

The Torah tells us that Miriam and Moshe spoke against Moshe regarding the Cushite woman he had married. They said that God spoke not only to Moshe but to them as well. We are then told that God heard what they said, and that Moshe was the most humble man on the face of the earth. God then spoke suddenly to Moshe, Aharon and Miriam, telling them to leave the tent of meeting. He then rebuked Aharon and Miriam, telling them that Moshe was different from other prophets, to whom He appeared in prophetic visions in dreams at night, whereas Moshe received direct prophecies while in a state of being totally awake. Aharon then saw that Miriam had been punished by being visited with an attack of tsara'as, commonly translated- perhaps erroneously- as leprosy. According to the Talmud, Aharon was also punished in this way, but his punishment lasted for just an instant, whereas Miriam's state persisted for a week, being ended as a result of Moshe's entreaties to God on her behalf, as recorded here in the parsha. In deference to Miriam, the nation did not continue to travel until after Miriam's state of tsara'as ended.

There are may different opinions among the commentators as to the nature of the complaint Miriam and Aharon had against Moshe, but we will follow the explanation of the halachic midrash Sifrei, as cited by Rashi. The Cushite woman referred to is Moshe's wife Tzipporah, and the complaint was that Moshe had ceased having marital relations with her because he received frequent prophecies from God which could come at any time, necessitating that he never be in an impure state due to a bodily emission when God wished to communicate with him.
Moshe's siblings felt this conduct was not proper. After all, they, too, were not strangers to prophesy, and, yet they continued to have marital relations with their spouses. Why, then, they asked, should Moshe act any differently, and deprive his wife of her due? God's response was that Moshe's prophecy was on a different level than their's, and required a different kind of behavior and state of preparedness.

A number of questions can be asked regarding the entire incident. First, why does the Torah tell us at this time that Moshe was the most humble of all men? Second, why was Miriam punished so much more severely than Aharon? Also, why, indeed, did Aharon and Miriam not understand that Moshe, as the one through whom Torah was transmitted, was subject to a different kind of prophetic experience than they were, and thus needed to be in a constant state of preparedness? Finally, why does the Torah single out this incident to be remembered as a deterrent to speaking leshon hora? Surely it is not the only incident of leshon hora recorded in the Torah. What is unique about this incident that warrants it to be singled out in this way? I believe that a look at the comments of the Rambam in the Mishneh Torah in which he deals with the deleterious effects of speaking leshon hora can help us answer these questions.

The Rambam at the end of his 'Laws of the Impurity of Tsara'as' (16,10) writes. "…Regarding this matter the Torah warns and says, ' Beware of a tsara'as affliction.Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way.' It is saying: 'contemplate what happened to the prophetess Miriam, who spoke about her brother, whom she was older than in years, and whom she raised on her knees and whom she endangered herself for to save him from the sea. And she did not speak in order to denigrate him, but erred in comparing him to other prophets. And he did not care about all this, as it says 'And the man Moshe was exceedingly humble.' Still, she was immediately punished with tsar'as…" The Rambam, thus writes that Miriam's sin was that she put Moshe on the same level as all other prophets. For the Rambam, this is, in fact, very significant, for, in his list of the thirteen principles of the Jewish religion, he lists belief in the prophecy of Moshe and his specialness as a separate principle, in addition to the general principle that God grants people with prophecy. Why didn't Miriam recognize this? It seems, from the Rambam's remarks, that it may have been that because Miriam raised Moshe on her knees, and had cared for him from the very beginning, that she was unable to appreciate how unique he was. The midrash in fact tells us that, had it not been for Miriam, Moshe may not have even been born, because while in Egypt she prophesied that her parents, who were then separated, would give birth to a son who would deliver the nation from Egypt. She reported this prophecy to her father and thereby persuaded him to return to his wife and resume their marital relations. Thus, it was Miriam herself, through her prophecy, who brought about the continuation of marital relations between her parents which resulted in the birth of Moshe. Given her past relationship with Moshe, it was then presumably very difficult for her to grasp how different he had become. The brother for whose existence she was partially responible was now on a higher level than any living person-yet also more humble than any man. Rabbi Menachem Kasher, in his work 'Torah Shleimah', cites a midrash to the effect that humility is the primary positive character trait which generates all others.Thus, it was Moshe's very humility that enabled him to reach the level of achievment that he had, as God then went on to explain to Miriam and Aharon.

Rav Aharon Soloveichik has demonstrated from the remarks of the Rambam that we have cited that there is a special prohibition of leshon hora, derived from the incident of Aharon and Miriam, to speak of spiritual leaders as if they were peers.We can thus understand why Miriam was punished more severely than was Aharon. Besides the fact that, as the midrash points out, it was Miriam who initiated the entire incident, Miriam had more of a reason to view Moshe as a peer than did Aharon.In her mind, it was only yesterday that she related her prophecy to her father, that she held Moshe on her knee, and stood outside Pharaoh's palace waiting to see what would become of him. Given the past she shared with him, it was extremely difficult for her to assimilate the fact that he was now so different, and, thus, she viewed him as being similar to herself, and judged his actions on her own terms. The midrash relates that she in fact suspected that Moshe was exhibiting a degree of arrogance in his actions, and , in response to this, the Torah tells us that he was the most humble of all men, and precisely for that reason was on a different plane from all other prophets. Miriam's failure to recognize this constituted a particular kind of arrogance, the arrogance that stems from viewing people one grew up with as necessarily being on the same plane.One of the primary causes of tsara'as, the rabbis tell us, is arrogance, as we explained in our message for parshas Tazria this year. Therefore, Miriam incurred this penalty for her remarks. Miriam's failing in this regards is one which we are all susceptible to. We often hear people reject the rulings or admonitions of a spiritual leader with remarks such as "I knew him when he was in knee-pants."It is, indeed, very hard to accept the leadership of a person who we remember as a youth.Part of this difficulty, perhaps, stems from the fact that we do not wish to admit our own failure to develop our potential to the extent that the target of our remarks has. It is precisely for that reason that the Torah singles out the case of Miriam, to prevent us from falling prey to this all-too-common pitfall.



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