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NUMBERS — 11:22 enough

NUM84 (Continued from [[DEUT215]] Deuteronomy 6:5 love SINAI2 43). In our time the devout, observant Jew is like the Sage and scholar of Talmud days. Others look to him to set and maintain high standards; and they look at him, with eagle eyes, ready to find supposed defections and shortcomings, and thus derive supposed justifications for col davar assur, every kind of forbidden activity that they permit themselves. If a professed observant Jew walks into a non-kosher restaurant, even if only to make a telephone call, he may be seen and misjudged; and may cause a profanation of the Name. Every action must be carefully considered. Let us bear in mind the foremost case of hillul ha-shem that our Written Torah describes: the tragedy that resulted when Moses, instead of speaking to the rock to bring forth water, as the Almighty had commanded him, boldly struck the rock (Numbers 20:7–13). We may find it hard to understand the heavy punishment that Moses received: to us, what he did may seem but a slight, unimportant deviation from the Divine command. But as the Midrash makes clear, Moses acted in anger (Midrash Tanhuma, Hukkath 9-10 (ed. Buber, 29-30), repeated in Rabbah, Numbers xix 5 and Yalkut Shim'oni I §763; Midrash D'barim Zuta, in Yalkut ibid.) And when the greatest of the prophets, the man who spoke with the Creator "face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10) as it were, exhibits anger and impatience, the hillul ha-shem is far-reaching. The Midrash puts it in moving words: "But had not Moses said something harsher [than his present words of anger]? For it is stated [that he complained], 'if flocks of sheep and herds of cattle be slain for them, will they be enough for them?' [this verse]. There too he showed no faith, and it was a greater misdeed than this; why did the Holy, Blessed One not decree death upon him then? We may answer with a parable: A king had a friend who dared to speak hard words with him when the king and he were alone, and the ruler did not mind. In time he arose and showed the same haughtiness before his troops. Then [the king] decreed death for him (for he could not overlook or forgive a public disgrace of royal honor). Even so the Holy, Blessed One spoke to Moses [as it were]: What you did between you and Me, is forgiven you. Now it was before the multitude; that cannot [be forgiven]'" (Midrash Tanhuma, Hukkath 9-10 (ed. Buber, 29-30), repeated in Rabbah, Numbers xix 5 and Yalkut Shim'oni I §763). Let us learn from this unfortunate incident in the life of Moses, the most wonderful career we know. If high standards are demanded of us in public, let us accept them graciously. There is a good reason for them: the Name of Heaven, the "standing" of the Almighty in the eyes of our fellow man is at stake.

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NUMBERS — 11:28 restrain

NUM89 Despite emphasizing the need to participate in the community and help the Jewish community when in trouble, Judaism also recognizes the difficulties and disadvantages of being involved in communal work. When Eldad and Meidad were prophesizing in the camp and Joshua, believing them to be false prophets, wanted them to stop and desist, he said to Moses Kla'aim [this verse], which means "restrain them." Rashi (commentary on this verse) offers two explanations of how to restrain them. One is the simple explanation--to put them in jail. But Rashi also quotes the explanation cited in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 17a) that Moses should give them some community responsibility, which would automatically make them stop prophesying. What does this mean? Why would they stop prophesizing if they had community responsibility? Other commentaries explain that since a prophet had to prophesy out of a sense of joy (see the chapter "Prophecy"), a community worker would never feel joy and thus would not prophesy. Therefore, it seems that even then was understood the great discomfort caused by involvement in Jewish communal work. The Jerusalem Talmud (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 11a) makes a statement about a particular person, that he rose to greatness in the community and still lived a long life. The implication of this statement is that those who work on behalf of the Jewish community normally do not have long lives. For whatever reasons, it seems that communal work shortened peoples lives. Even today, it can clearly be seen that world leaders age very rapidly while in high office.

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