On many occasions Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded to God on behalf of the Jewish people. Throughout the generations we have been blessed with great Jewish leaders who likewise interceded on our behalf before God.
At the current crucial crossroad of Jewish history, we ought to remember that God, being entreated by our prayers and that of the great tzaddikim in our midst, will certainly intercede and grant us divine protection.
In Bamidbar (14:13-16) we find Moshe entreating God during the episode of the ten spies, arguing: “The Egyptians will hear that You have brought out this [Jewish] nation from their midst with Your great strength.… and the nations [will claim that] on account of God’s inability to bring them into the land which He had sworn to them, He slaughtered them in the wilderness.”
A glaring question arises: Why didn’t Moshe here plead with God to spare the Jewish nation in the same manner he pleaded for them after the Golden Calf incident? Why did he merely invoke the argument of the Chillul Hashem that would result if God “slaughtered them in the wilderness,” causing the nations of the world to doubt God’s power?
Should not Moshe have first beseeched God to rescind the terrible edict of annihilation, and only after that asked about what the nations would think of Him?
Pay attention to the terminology used by Moshe: “He slaughtered them in the desert.” Though the term “slaughter” with regard to people is common in English, it is not at all common in the Torah. In fact, there is only one other verse where it is used in this manner: “And Avraham sent forth his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son” (Bereishis 22:10). At least there we can understand the usage of the term, since Avraham was about to offer his son as a korban (sacrifice), and sacrifices are slaughtered in the “kosher” manner of shechitah.
But outside the setting of a sacrificial offering, why refer to “slaughter” when one talks of killing humans? The answer is that there is a beneficial side to slaughter. Slaughtering an animal, especially when it is offered as a korban in the Beis HaMikdash, generates an elevation within the animal, making it ready for both sacrificial consumption and human consumption. God wants all parts of Creation to be elevated through man, who in turn elevates himself toward God.
In the case of Avraham wanting to “slaughter” Yitzchak, the actual act would have had a similar effect: if indeed it had been God’s true wish that Avraham slaughter his son, Avraham would have been fulfilling God’s Will by doing so. Likewise, since God is good and benevolent, had He opted to “slaughter” the Jewish nation at the time of the ten spies, there would have been an element of kindness in the process. The Jews would thereby have achieved atonement and received a share in the wondrous world to come (Zohar III:276a).
But in order to ensure that the Jews would live and continue their mission of bringing God’s Light into the world, Moshe employed an ingenious strategy, imploring God in the following manner:
The nations of the world do, underneath it all, recognize the close relationship You have with Your people. Should You opt to carry out Your terrible edict, many of the nations might acknowledge it as an act with some positive spiritual connotations rather than mere vengeful retribution. Even so, it would be one thing if you carried out Your edict after keeping Your promise to bring them into the Land. Should you, however, decide to decimate them now, in the wilderness, what will the nations say? They will say: All right, they have a kind God Who is “slaughtering” them for their own benefit, but He is not the Almighty they make Him out to be. The proof is that He couldn’t keep His promise to bring them into the Land, and it must be because He cannot handle the nations that inhabit Canaan.
Advertisement
