Thanks to R’ Meir Deutsch for another guest post.
Parashat Mas’e
מאיר דויטש © כל הזכויות שמורות
These are the names of the men who shall share out the land to you: El’azar the priest, and Yehushua the son of Nun.
We just finished with the twelve tribe’s presidents returning from Eretz Cna’an. The revolt of Korach, Datan and Aviram has been settled. We had thirst again, and Moshe hits the rock with his stick instead of talking to it. For that, he and his brother Aharon get punished: “Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Yisra’el, therefore you shall not bring the congregation in to the land which I have given them.” (Bemidbar 20, 12)
We know that Moshe wanted very much to enter the promised land. He even tells it to Bne Israel: “And I besought the Lord {…} I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond the Yarden, that goodly mountain region end the Levanon…” (Devarim 3, 25). But he continues, saying to them that because of them he will not enter it: “But the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and would not hear me…” (ibid, ibid 26).
Let us see what Rashi says about Me Mriva:
” […] כדי שלא יאמרו בעבור דור המדבר נגזר עליהם שלא ייכנסו”.
Doesn’t this Rashi seem a bit puzzled? In parashat HaMeraglim G-d says who is going to enter the promised land; is Moshe one of them? It is public knowledge who is going to enter. What Rashi says here is that Moshe and Aharon were punished, as the rest of Bne Israel, to die in the desert, because of the Meraglim, but G-d wants to exclude them from the whole Edah and finds for them another sin – Me Merivah.
Was the punishment of perishing in the desert given to all the adults of over 20 years? Was anyone, beside Kalev and Yehoshua, excluded from this punishment?
After looking into these events, I came across Parashat Mas’e and the Pasuk in the caption: “These are the names of the men who shall share out the land to you: El’azar the priest, and Yehushua the son of Nun. (Bemidbar 34, 17)
and I asked myself: how come that El’azar Hakohen will enter the promised land and not perish in the desert as the rest?
After seeing that El’azar will enter Cna’an I went back to Parashat HaMeraglim and looked up the twelve heads of the tribes that went to Eretz Cna’an. There was no representative of the tribe of Levi in that delegation that went to Cna’an. That tribe did not go scouting the land, therefore that tribe was not one of the scouts that הוציאו דיבת הארץ רעה
If so, than that tribe did not sin, and if it did not sin, that tribe was probably not sentenced to perish in the desert, and will be entering the promised land.
Looking back at Parshat Korach, we can get some support to our theory. There, Korach, as a Levi, wants to rule or even be the leader, but he does not complain, like Datan and Aviram who are from the tribe of Reuven. Korach knows that his tribe is not going to perish in the desert and challenges only Moshe’s leadership. Datan and Aviram know that they are going to die in the dessert, and attack Moshe on ground of a broken promise: “Moreover thou hast not brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards…” (Bemidbar 16, 14).
I was looking for more support for my assumption that the tribe of Levi was not sentenced not to enter the land of Milk and Honey and die in the dessert.
At the counting of the tribes in the prairies of Moav on the river Jordan, just before entering the promised land we find written: “But among these there was not a man of them whom Moshe and Aharon the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Yisra’el in the wilderness of Sinay. (Bemidbar 26, 64-65).
Does this statement include the tribe of Levi? It says: מפקודי […] בני ישראל במדבר סיני . If we look at the counting of the tribes in the desert of Sinai we see that the tribe of Levi was excluded, was not counted amongst the other tribes: “But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them.” (Bemidbar 1, 47), therefore, we can deduct from it, that only the one that were counted in the wilderness of Sinay did perish מפקודי […] בני ישראל במדבר סיני , and as the tribe of Levi was not counted in the desert of Sinay, some of them, definitely Elazar, did enter Eretz Cna’an.
Moshe and Aharon needed another sin not to enter Cna’an – Me Meriva.
THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS FOR THE DELIBERATION OF THE SUBJECT. WOULD APPRECIATE GETTING YOUR VIEWS.
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