I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share an excerpt from an article by Dr. Avigdor Bonchek entitled 'Forgiveness As You Said', which, through the commentary of Rashi, gives a glimpse into appreciating HaShem's judgment.
Numbers 14:20 - "After the sin of the Spies, Moses intercedes with Hashem to ask forgiveness for the people. And Hashem said 'I have forgiven, as you said.' " [...]
Hashem said that He was forgiving the people. But if this were so, why does He then say (verses 23-28): "If they will see the Land that I have sworn to give to their forefathers, and all who anger Me shall not see it.... Say to them, as I live, by the word of Hashem , if I shall not do to you as you have spoken in My ears. In this wilderness shall your carcasses drop ..." Punishing the people is in direct contradiction to God's saying He forgives them. [...]
Rashi is telling us that when God said "I have forgiven," He does not mean a complete forgiveness; He means, rather, a qualified forgiveness, a forgiveness based on and limited to "your words." This means that God forgave only in accordance with that part of Moses' plea that referred to the chilul Hashem which would result if God didn't bring the people Israel into the Land of Canaan. God's forgiveness relates to the fact that, in spite of their sin, the nation of Israel - the next generation - will be brought by God into the Promised Land, thus there will be no chilul Hashem. On the other hand, this generation will be killed out. For this generation there is to be no forgiveness. Clearly the forgiveness was partial (see Ohr Hachayim). [...]
God had accepted Moses' plea for forgiveness, but only to a certain degree. On the one hand, He consented to have the next generation of the People of Israel enter the Land of Canaan, as He had promised the Forefathers. Nevertheless, He exacted punishment from the generation that sinned. We have here neither a sweeping amnesty nor a wholesale punishment. This is God's "morality."
The Psalmist says (25:8): "Good and upright is God, therefore He guides sinners on the [right] way." On these words the Midrash adds a pithy insight. "Why is He good? Because He is upright. Why is He upright? Because He is good."
An artfully succinct phrase which teaches us God's balance in judgement. If He were always good, then His goodness would lose all value. It is similar to a person who always has a smile on his face; the smile loses all significance. So the good, in order to retain its quality of kindness, must be tempered, at times, with righteousness. Likewise, righteousness, for it to remain righteous and not deteriorate into the callous, cold, impersonal implementation of the law, it too must so be tempered at times with a touch of kindness.
God maintains this sensitive balance in rendering judgment. Likewise in our case, while the Spies were punished, there was no collective punishment and the future generations did not suffer for the sins of their fathers. [...]
Have a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org
