EYES ONLY FOR YOU

They [Datan and Aviram] said, “We shall not go up! Is it a small thing that you have brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert, that you make yourself a prince over us? Furthermore, you did not bring us to a land flowing with milk and honey nor give us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? We shall not go up!” Moshe became very distressed/angry… (16:12-15)

To a certain degree, Datan and Aviram’s brazen words were a continuation, and possibly a result, of the grievances of the spies. The Abarbanel (quoted in Hagut BeParshiyot HaTorah) explains their argument as follows: “We will not, under any circumstances, go up to Eretz Yisrael as you [Moshe] desire. You have not yet kept your promise [to bring us into a good land], nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Therefore, we do not believe you…”

The Sforno offers a novel explanation of these verses:

Not only did you do us a disservice by bringing us from a “land flowing with milk and honey” to the desert, but you also mock us. For you have not brought us to the Land of which you spoke, at all. You speak [to us] as if you [already] gave us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. You command us about the land-related mitzvot… as if [the Land] was already ours and we had fields and vineyards in it. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? – Do you think you can poke out our eyes in a way that we will not recognize your tricks?

Midrash Shochar Tov (also quoted in Hagut) asserts that they were complaining about the land-related mitzvot in general. They did not want a land that had so many obligations attached to it. According to the Midrash, they went so far as to compare themselves to a poor widow who can hardly support herself and is suddenly told that she has to work harder to support the well-to-do priests.

But the most insolent part of their statement is undoubtedly the words You have brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey. They had the audacity to call Egypt “a land flowing with milk and honey” when HaShem used that description specifically for the Holy Land. This, according to the Gra, explains why Moshe got so angry. Rashi interprets the phrase ויחר למשה מאד to mean that Moshe became very distressed. Apparently, he did not want to explain it in its usual sense – “he became very angry” – because it is difficult to say that Moshe Rabbeinu, the most humble person in the world, got angry, even at such wicked people as Datan and Aviram.

The Vilna Gaon, however, understands the phrase in its usual sense. Moshe was not angered by the affront to his own honor, but by the affront to God and His Chosen Land. He could not tolerate the fact that these two resha’im referred to the land of their exile as a land flowing with milk and honey, a description designated for Eretz Yisrael. Neither could he tolerate the fact that they doubted God’s promise to eventually bring the Jews into the Land.

Nowadays, no one would have the gall to refer to America, England, Australia, etc. as “a land flowing with milk and honey” or “the Chosen Land.” Nevertheless, many of us inadvertently say things that border on the sin of Datan and Aviram. How many times have we heard people lavishing praise on the lands of exile, as if those places were God’s gift to the Jewish people?

You might ask, what is wrong with that? Isn’t the entire world God’s handiwork? The answer is, yes; of course, God created it all, but He intended for His special nation to dwell in His special Land. The fact that we are presently scattered about the four corners of the earth is a punishment! If we would only improve our ways and long to return to our only true Homeland, HaShem would reveal to us Eretz Yisrael’s true and incomparable beauty, in both a spiritual and physical sense.

After the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the prophet said that Eretz Yisrael became like a widow (Eichah 1:1). The Talmud derives from this that she is not an actual widow, “rather, like a woman whose husband went oversees and intends to return to her” (Sanhedrin 104a). Now, would it be right for a man who plans on returning to his wife to praise the beauty of or derive pleasure from other women? Someone who truly loves and longs for his long-lost wife would not be attracted to other women, even if he recognizes that they, too, are beautiful. Similarly, a Jew who truly understands that Eretz Yisrael is our only “wife” should not be attracted to the beauty of other lands. Instead, he should adopt Rav Kook’s attitude, as the following incidents demonstrate:

During WWI, when the Rav was stuck in Europe, he once visited a colleague’s apartment in Berlin. Hoping to please the Rav in some way, the colleague brought him over to a window that had a breathtaking view of the city. Rav Kook, however, was unimpressed by the view. Instead, he burst into tears and whispered, – By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept, as we remembered Zion (Tehillim 137:1). On another occasion, upon returning from a trip to America, he commented: “In America, as well, I saw tall mountains – the handiwork of HaShem, Master of the Universe. But those mountains were silent; they did not speak to us. These mountains, however – the holy mountains of Eretz Yisrael – speak to us. They speak clearly, and their lucid voices enter our ears effortlessly, penetrating to the depths of our hearts” (An Angel Among Men, pp. 250, 260).

May we soon be zocheh to fully benefit from Eretz Yisrael’s spiritual and physical beauty.

Reprinted from Eretz Yisrael in the Parashah by R’ Moshe D. Lichtman

Daily Archives: June 22, 2017

Korach

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