Parshas Pinchas: The Ultimate Relationship

וידבר ה' אל משה לאמר. צו את בני ישראל ואמרת אלהם את קרבני לחמי

And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying: “Command Bnei Yisroel and say to them, ‘My offering, My food”

The Midrash Pliya (Midrash pliya 67), quoted in introduction to Ein Yaakov, quotes three opinions as to what is the most all-encompassing possuk in the Torah.

Ben Zoma suggests that this possuk is none other than Shema Yisroel. Ben Nanas counters that v’ahavta lerayacha kamocha is the more likely possuk. These two opinions can be readily understood: Shema Yisroel relates to our relationship with Hashem, i.e. bein odom l’Makom. V’ahavta lerayacha k’mocha of course is a “great rule in the Torah” as it relates to bein odam l’chaveiro.

In a third opinion, Shimon ben Pazi stunningly relates that the most telling and all-encompassing possuk in the Torah is את הכבש אחד תעשה בבקר ואת הכבש השני תעשה בין הערבים -a ram should be brought twice daily, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. This is a great statement, as he is suggesting that this passuk trumps the two mentioned basic fundamentals of Yiddishkeit.

It has been explained that Shimon ben Pazi is not discounting the other two pessukim at all. Rather, he chooses the mitzvah of the korban tamid to teach us its inherent pitfall. The Korban tamid was a twice-daily mitzvah which would surely easily create feelings of rote. The challenge was to keep it new. Shimon ben Pazi challenges us to fulfill not just the korban tamid, but rather, all of our mitzvos, whether bein odom l’Makom or bein odom l’chaveiro, with alacrity and newness. This possuk is the tell-all because it relates to the performance of the entire Torah and everything in life.

Based on Rashi, there is a beautiful, Chassidishe interpretation of the background to the korban tamid which perhaps will offer us a much deeper answer.

Rashi explains: צו את בני ישראל. מה אמור למעלה? יפקד ה', אמר לו הקב"ה עד שאתה מצוני על בני, צוה את בני עלי, משל לבת מלך שהיתה נפטרת מן העולם והיתה מפקדת בעלה על בניה וכו' כדאיתא בספרי- What is said above? Moshe said, “Let Hashem set [a man over the congregation]” (Bamidbar 27:16). Hakadosh Boruch Hu, said to him, “Instead of giving Me a command regarding My children, command My children regarding Me!” A mashul- It may be compared to the case of a princess who was departing this world and gave her husband instructions concerning her children, etc., as it is related in Sifri Bamidbar 142:1.

This Midrash that Rashi quotes is mind boggling. Moshe Rabbeinu’s days were numbered. As a responsible leader, he had made the request of Hashem that there be a person to take his place, not leaving behind a nation bereft of leadership, “like sheep without a shepherd”. In response, Hashem replies, “Moshe- you are busy with the children? What about Me?” In the mashul provided, the husband turns to the dying princess and exclaims, but who will feed me my meals? Have you looked after those arrangements? את הכבש אחד תעשה בבקר ואת הכבש השני תעשה בין הערבים- “Make sure to give me my daily bread; a daily sacrifice of sheep, one in the morning, one in the afternoon,” so that, k’viyachol, Hashem will be looked after as well.

The obvious question here is: how can we compare the two? Moshe is beseeching Hashem that the nation survives and endures; Hashem wants Moshe to first tell the nation to bring the appropriate karbanos!

There is another curious question here. Rashi quotes as his source the Sifri. If we look over there, the mashul is slightly different: משל למה הדבר דומה? למלך שהיתה אשתו נפטרת מן העולם, והיתה מפקדתו על בניה- It was not the daughter, but rather the wife of the king that was dying and she left her husband (the king) instructions. In the Sifri’s version, Hashem is the King and Moshe is His queen. For Rashi, Moshe is the princess, the daughter of a king, and Hashem is her husband, a “regular” husband. Why did Rashi change the mashul?

When a king loses his wife, the kingdom does not fall apart. As difficult and lonely as it may be for the king, the show must go on. The king will still have all of his meals and everything will be looked after. But it is not so with a simple widower. The loss is so great, and often, all he is left with are his children. If they abandon him, he has nothing left, so before she dies, he asks her to encourage the children to look after him. So Rashi changed the mashul in order for us to be able to relate to it.

But how then do we understand the original mashul as brought in the Sifri? After all, Hashem is perfect and infinite which means that He lacks nothing and has no needs.

Over here, Chazal are sharing with us something incredible. Hashem desired to have a relationship with Man. Hashem created the entire universe, and Man is but a tiny creature. Yet Hashem chose us to be His children. The unlimited Borei Olam chose to make Himself vulnerable. He created His own need, and therefore it is absolute and infinite.

The mishna in Avos tells us: כל אהבה שהיא תלויה בדבר, בטל דבר, בטלה אהבה- Any love that is dependent on a need, if you remove the need, the love ceases to exist. ושאינה תלויה בדבר אינה בטלה לעולם- but if the love is not dependent on a need, the love will endure forever. אהבת עולם אהבתיך -Hashem does not love us because He needs us; He needs us because He loves us, and if the love is limitless and absolute, so is the need.

So when we would bring the korbanos as per Hashem’s request, or when we daven a simple mincha on a simple Wednesday afternoon more than two thousand years after the korbanos have ceased, we are feeding a “need” that Hashem created.

Returning to our incredible mashul, as Moshe was about to die, Hashem tells Moshe, “the children have needs but I also do.” Children need parents, but parents also need children.

We now understand what Shimon ben Pazi was suggesting. The possuk that is the most all-encompassing possuk in the Torah is the possuk of the korban Tamid because it gives us a message that Hashem wants and desires us. It teaches us that we are needed by Hashem Himself and that we aren’t just random pieces in a world of no meaning. It is Hashem Himself saying, “I need you!” This knowledge that we aren’t useless and worthless but rather, desirable, significant and important in Hashem’s “eyes”, with a mission to fulfill, might be the greatest and most vital message a person will ever hear.

Good Shabbos, מרדכי אפפעל