In the year 427 B.C.E., a ship sailed from Athens for the Greek island of Mytilene, a region that had revolted against Athenian rule and lost. They had colluded with Athens’s greatest rival, Sparta. The soldiers on the warship were instructed to kill every Mytilenian and enslave every woman and child. However, back home in Athens a great debate raged whether such a harsh response was the proper strategy. Cleon, son of Cleaenetus, argued that to show mercy is to show weakness, and being perceived as weak would only invite further rebellion. Cleon insisted that Athens must project strength and determination. Diodotus, son of Eucrates, argued that the intended slaughter will only incite more desperate rebellion and convince others to fight to the bitter end rather than surrender since they would be annihilated even if they surrendered. Future conflicts would almost certainly last longer and be more costly in both lives and treasure. A vote was taken and Diodotus won the day. A quicker ship was sent to stop the warship.

We can hear echoes of Cleon and Diodotus in the commentaries reading of two stories in Parashat Chukat: Moshe backed down from a conflict with Edom, He requested permission from Edom’s king for Israel to pass through his territory and was refused. Moshe would not battle Edom, the rightful heir of Esau in the land Jacob’s brother received as his inheritance. (Numbers 20:14-21) Moshe avoided conflict with Edom only to face Sihon, king of the Amorite, a short while later. Moshe sent a similar request to Sihon: “Allow us to pass through your land.” Sihon refused and gathered his armies believing that he would successfully intimidate Israel and stop the traveling nation at his borders. Sihon was wrong. Israel fought and Sihon was destroyed. (21:21-24)

Did Sihon perceive Moshe and Israel as weak willed because of their detour around Edom and their unwillingness to fight? Would Sihon have avoided battle if Israel had warred and won against Edom?

The Cleons argue that Moshe was responsible for the conflict with Sihon because he did not project strength and determination. Diodotus and his followers supported Moshe’s actions.

We continue to debate the arguments of Cleon and Diodotus: The 2006 war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and the recent war in Gaza against Hamas, were intended to project Israel’s unbending will and determination. What would Moshe have done? Would we have seen the Moshe who avoided battle with Edom? Or, would the Moshe who destroyed Sihon have led us into battle?

There are times when we forget that the stories of the Torah continue to resonate in practical ways on the world stage and in our lives.

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Thales is usually known as the 6th Century BCE philosopher who coined the phrase; “Know thyself.” He also famously predicted the solar eclipse of 585 BCE.

He once asked to be taken outdoors by a Thracian girl so he could continue his brilliant study of the heavens. She took him outside and he fell into a ditch as he was studying the stars. On hearing his cry, she said, “How can you expect to know about all the heavens, Thales, when you cannot even see what is just beneath your feet?”

I used to wonder why Moshe chose that the earth swallow Korach and his followers. Perhaps Thales’ Thracian girl has the key: Korach and his group wanted to soar to the heavens, even if their journey meant that they would have to challenge Moses, the man who had lived in the heavens. I can hear the girl challenging Korach; “How can you expect to know about all the heavens, Korach, when you cannot even see what is just beneath your feet?”

I often meet people who are so focused on the heavens, a.k.a. their spiritual lives, that they forget to see the earth beneath their feet. Picture the man slamming a door in the face of someone else so they can kiss the Mezuzah. (The story was recently twitted to me.) We are making the same mistake as Korach and Thales when we ignore others in order to soar closer to God.

We cannot afford to forget the three thousand year old question of a young Thracian girl: How can you expect to know about all the heavens when you cannot even see what is just beneath your feet?”

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“Moses heard and fell on his face.” (16:4)

I wonder how I would have reacted upon seeing Moshe bow and fall on his face.

I suspect that I would have immediately fallen on my face and waited for Moshe to signal that it was all right to rise. But the people did not fall on their faces; they watched, unmoved by the reaction of their great leader. Perhaps they shrugged off this terrifying scene because this was not the first time: “Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the entire congregation of the assembly of the Children of Israel.” (Numbers 14:5)

Is it possible that Moshe and Aaron were not bowing in weakness, or sadness, or fear, but as a lesson? How was it received, if it was a lesson?

“Then Israel prostrated himself towards the head of the bed.” (Genesis 47:31) “As the proverb says; “When the fox has his hour, bow down to him.” (Rashi) Jacob bowed to his son, Joseph, who was at his hour as the viceroy of Egypt.

I was extremely uncomfortable when my father zt”l would visit a synagogue where I was rabbi and insist that the congregation wait for me and not for him. I cannot even imagine watching my father bow to me! How could Joseph even bear to watch his father, Israel, bow to him? How could the Children of Israel stand and nonchalantly watch their teacher Moshe bow before or to them?

The Message:

The Brothers Karamazov begins with a confrontation among members of a scattered family. Three sons, all strangers to one another, and a dissolute, cynical father gather for the first time to discuss a quarrel about money, meeting, of all places, at a monastery: specifically, in the hermitage of Father Zosima, a man with a reputation, depending on your view, of either holiness or foolishness. The argument centers upon the eldest son, Dmitri, and his negligent father, Fyodor, and quickly takes on the appearance of a trial, with each man appealing to the elder Zosima for “justice”. But then, the narrator informs us, “the whole scene was stopped in a most unexpected manner”: “The elder suddenly rose from his place and stepped toward Dmitri Fyodrovich and, having come close to him, knelt before him. Kneeling in front of Dmitri, the elder bowed down at his feet with a full, distinct, conscious bow, and even touched the floor with his forehead. “Forgive me! Forgive me, all of you!’ he said, bowing on all sides to his guests.”

The elder Zosima bows to the ground before Dmitri who is suffering. He does not judge, for he knows from within himself this pettiness and arrogance. He sees himself darkly in Dmitri, and knows that this seeing is a gift. His bow and words simply return the gift purified.

Is it possible that Moshe’s bow was a message that he understood the nation’s response to the spies’ report? Was Moshe sending a message to Korach that he understood Korach’s issues: both the ones on Korach’s consciousness and those issues underlying his rebellion?

Did Moshe observe Korach and gain insight into himself? The Ba’al Shem Tov often taught that we observe in others what we do not want to see in ourselves. (Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer used this idea to explain Proverbs 4:25)

Perhaps Moshe’s fall to the ground was an acknowledgement of what he perceived as his own shortcomings; a message to all of Israel that he was aware of his limitations.

I wonder whether anyone watching had enough insight to reflect on the powerful image of Moshe falling on his face. I imagine chills running up and down my spine at the tangible expression of Moshe’s humility. I picture myself forever changed by the scene. The participants were unmoved. Their hearts were sealed by their anger and resentment.

Imagine anger so intense that it is impenetrable even by such an awesome expression of Moshe’s humility.

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“Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of the spies of the land, tore their clothes.” (Numbers 14:6) Whose clothes did they tear? The Kotzker explains that they torn the clothes of high position off the backs of the other spies. The first step is to expose the Emperor’s New Clothes. We often fall into the trap of measuring others by their externals and Joshua and Caleb wanted to expose the other spies for what they really were.

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I love Michio Kaku’s books, but I have a problem with his Physics of the Impossible: He discusses phasers, force fields, teleportation and time travel, but he does not even mention the invention for which I am most desperate; a thought grabber. Too many of my thoughts escape through the holes in my brain.

I am not the first to seek such a device. Pascal lamented: “Thoughts come at random, and go at random. No device for holding on to them or for having them. A thought has escaped; I was trying to write it down: instead I write that it has escaped me.”

I empathize with Pascal, but my concern is quite practical: I keep a notebook of all my insights, especially those that miraculously arrive during, and as a result of, my prayers. I can usually remember all the insights I receive over a Shabbat, but a two day holiday often provides too much to recall. I want a device that will capture all my thoughts and insights. I assume that it will be in the shape of a helmet, hopefully not a black hat, battery operated to observe the laws of Shabbat and Yom Tov (Holydays) although it will come in rechargeable form for weekdays. I suspect that the physics will be less difficult than figuring out how to comfortably shape the device to be worn 24 hours a day, even when in the shower when the ideas for my newsletters appear and escape, and to allow a person to wear the headpiece without disturbing Teffilin – phylacteries.

I don’t want to scare you, but I would like to custom order a device that will catch some of the great thoughts that have appeared and disappeared over the ages. I promise not to violate anyone’s privacy. There is one person whose thoughts at a specific moment I must catch in my machine: The guilty Sotah who explodes. This woman obviously does not believe in God, otherwise she would not risk drinking the water. She drinks the water and for just a few seconds before she explodes knows that, oops, she was wrong. The water works. God does have power. (Even our friend Pascal tried to cover his bases: He sewed the following thoughts into the lining of his clothes: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,” not of the philosophers and scientists. Certainty. Certainty. Feeling. Joy. Peace.) In the few seconds before she dies, this woman has absolute clarity that God exists and that her “miraculous” death will prove God’s power to all who are watching.

I want to use my device to catch that absolutely clear that at that moment.

She may have been a sinner, but she serves as a vehicle to prove God’s Power to others, and I suspect that the clarity of that fleeting thought purifies her soul.

So, dear Dr. Kaku, please suspend your work on String Theory and start working on my device. I want that one thought, even more than all the other thoughts that were part of the great escape!

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Freud would have had a field day! “Whoever meets me will kill me!”(Genesis 4:14) The Sages teach that Cain was worried about Abel’s blood relatives – Go’eil Hadam – avenging his death. Abel’s avenger would have been Adam! That statement alone would have kept Cain on Dr. Freud’s coach for years.

The Sages also describe Adam and Cain’s first meeting after Abel’s murder: Adam was surprised to see that God allowed Cain to live. “I simply ate from a tree and lost my immortality. You actually murdered and He allowed you to live!” Adam was shocked. Cain explained that he had done Teshuva – he had repented, and God limited the punishment. The son became the teacher. We can add another few years on the coach.

Eve named her first son; “I have acquired – Kaniti – a man with God.” (Genesis 4:1) The Sages actually question whether Adam was Cain’s biological father. (Zohar, Targum Yonatan, Rabbeinu Bachya) We better extend the sessions to two hours.

Cain became a farmer just like his father despite the fact that God cursed the land after Adam’s sin. He moved to Kidmat Eden – East of Eden (verse 16) just like his father. (3:23) Only Freud could handle this case. Cain should take precedence over Oedipus!

Now let’s discuss someone else: He traveled. He insisted that his child marry a relative. He was circumcised. He was willing to sacrifice his son for his god. Who was he?

Terach, Abraham’s father. Yes, the above list also applies to Abraham. Father and son were very similar, and yet, world apart. Abraham did everything his father did, but in his individual way. He could do everything his father had done and still be the great individual we venerate.

This is why Abraham could produce a child, Isaac, and a grandchild, Jacob, who would follow his path, and yet each was able to add his own individual path to the family that would grow into a great nation.

These are our roots. We do not search for new paths. From the beginning of our history we have been able to walk the same paths as our ancestors and enrich and beautify the path with our own insights.

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Many evil and depraved men misuse music as an excitant in order to plunge into earthly delights, instead of raising themselves by means of it to the contemplations of God and to praise His glories. (Victoria – Greatest of Spanish 16th Century composers, whose works are uncommonly exciting – 1581)

My father zt”l often remarked on the non-coincidental similarity between the Hebrew word “Naivel” – lyre – and “Naval” – a disgusting person. It takes great genius and creativity to make great musical instruments and music. As with everything else, we choose how to use our creative genius.

The Tower of Babel did not begin as a building project. “Come let us make bricks and burn them in fire.” (Genesis 11:3) They decided to build their city and tower only after they had the bricks.

Why did they make the bricks? These are the first bricks in the Bible story. People were using stones to build their homes and cities. They took what was there, what God had provided, and they used whatever was available. The construction of the Tower began with a desire to create something new, bricks. They would no longer be directly dependent on what God provided. Their creativity allowed them, in their minds, to be one step removed from God. They still needed the materials He provided to make the bricks, but their new invention was theirs.

They did not appreciate that creativity is a gift from God. We emulate God when we create; “In the beginning, the Lord created.” They used their creativity as an expression of independence, a way to break free from their Creator.

They used something that should have brought them closer to God to attempt to break free. Rather than celebrate this gift and appreciate that God nurtures our creativity and independence, they acted as teenagers, resented God, and severed the relationship.

The natural consequence was the severing of their relationships.

When two chavrutot – Torah study partners – argue over a complex idea in the Talmud, creative sparks fly. Passions rise. They will do great battle with each other. Anyone, unfamiliar with Chavrutah study, observing the scene, will wonder whether the two partners will kill each other. The observer will be certain that the two have destroyed their relationship.

The study period ends. The two chavrutot shut their holy books and they walk out of the Beit Midrash as great friends. Their creative minds clashed. They waged a terrible fight. The relationship has not been severed, but nurtured. They both realize that each pushed the other to be more creative. They help each other grow. They are eternally connected through their creativity.

Abraham was a creative genius who challenged the world. Although we would expect the “Ivri,” the one from the other side, to have lost his relationships, we find the opposite: Abraham – Av Hamon Goyim – A father of a multitude of nations. People streamed to his doors to be fed physically and spiritually. His creativity did not sever relationships; it nurtured them.

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In 1509, Johannes Pfefferkorn, a Dominican monk who was also a converted rabbi, published Mirror of the Jews, an anti-Semitic book proposing that all works in Hebrew, including the Talmud, be burned.

Johannes Reuchlin, a Bavarian humanist, dismayed by the possibility of such desecration, formally protested to the emperor. Jewish scholarship should not be suppressed, he argued. Rather, two chairs in Hebrew should be established at every German university. Pfefferkorn, he wrote, was an anti-intellectual “ass.”

Furious, the rabbi who had become a monk struck back with Hand Mirror, accusing Reuchlin of being on the payroll of the Jews.

The controversy raged for six years. Five universities in France and Germany burned Reuchlin’s books, but in the end he was triumphant. Pfefferkorn’s fire was canceled and the teaching of Hebrew spread.

Pfefferkorn was the boogieman of my childhood. He was the ultimate self-hating Jew. It wasn’t enough for him to have converted and become a monk, he wanted to burn every Hebrew book in Europe. He wanted to destroy anyone who would defend Jewish scholarship.

“Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his brothers outside. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and they walked backwards, and covered their father’s nakedness.” (Genesis 9:22-23)

Ham ridiculed his father; He rejected the place from which he had come. Shem and Japheth honored their past, even when they were fully aware of its failings. They refused to look at their father’s nakedness. Ham felt that the only way to build the future was to reject the past with all its mistakes and failings. His father, Noah, represented the generation before the Deluge. When Ham saw his drunken, naked father, wallowing in his wine, he felt justified in cutting off the past, as the Sages teach, “Ham castrated Noah.” (Sanhedrin 70a)

Ham was the first Pfefferkorn. He was not satisfied in building a future; he wanted to wage war against his roots. He believed that the only way to move ahead was to destroy the past.

Shem and Japheth acknowledged the failings of the previous generations, but they understood that the future could only be built upon the past, even its ruins.

Noah deprived Ham of his future: “Cursed is Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.” (Verse 25)

Shem, the ancestor of Israel, was rewarded with the Mitzvah of Tzitzit. Japheth was rewarded with a promise that his soldiers’ bodies would be honored with burial after Armageddon. Both were rewarded in the future that would be theirs as a reward for the honor they paid to the past.

Tzitzit reflect God’s promise that all we do has the potential of an eternal future. Japheth, who followed Shem but did not act on his own, merited honor for the bodies of his descendants; honor for the lives they lived, honor of their past, but without the promise of an eternal future.

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“Why can’t you be like other kids who behave perfectly?” is a refrain I often hear parents complaining to their children. Yes, there were and are certainly moments when I wish my children were as “perfect” as other kids, but those moments are rare. I am more than happy for my kids to be individuals, albeit imperfect.

People do not do well when they are compared to other people. The damage increases when we begin to compare ourselves to others. “Why do other people have it so much easier than I?” “Why are they successful when I am not?” are not productive questions.

It becomes even worse when we compare ourselves to others in order to measure our spiritual success: “She said to Elijah, ‘what is there between me and you. O man of God, that you have come to me to call attention to my sins and to cause my son to die!” (Kings I 17:18) The Ralbag explains that she felt that Elijah’s presence in her home, with his impeccable standards of piety and Godliness, caused God to take note of her sins. When God compared her to her neighbors, she was considered righteous. However, compared to Elijah, she was a sinner.

The woman believed that God only judged her in comparison to the people around her, not as she was as an individual. How many of us could stand up to such comparisons?

And yet, the Sages understand that God did compare Noah to others: “Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations.” (Genesis 6:9) Some Sages maintain that the stress on ‘HIS’ generations is intended as praise: Noah was righteous even in his corrupt environment. How much more righteous he would have been if he had the companionship of Abraham!

According to others, the verse is critical of Noah. He was considered righteous only when compared to his generation. Had he lived in Abraham’s time, Noah would not have stood out as a righteous person. (Rashi)

That sure sounds like the comparison approach to me!

I suggest that the verse is not describing how God judged Noah, but rather how Noah set his sights on achieving his status as a righteous man. Some Sages read the story and understand Noah as someone who strove to be righteous only in comparison with his generation. He did not strive to achieve objective righteousness. He was satisfied with being more righteous than those around him. It was Noah who played the comparison game, and limited himself by so doing.

Other Sages read the story and picture Noah as someone who strove for true Righteousness. He did not play the comparison game. He set his sights on achieving the highest level of Tzidkut. He did not measure himself against his generation but against the highest levels of righteousness, the levels, we know, that were achieved by Abraham.

Rashi seems to prefer the former approach and understands the verse as limiting Noah’s praises. He comments on the next phrase, “Noah walked with God,” and says, Noah needed to walk with God because he could not maintain his standards without someone holding him up. Whereas the verse says of Abraham, “Walk before Me,” Abraham was able to walk on his own.

Harry Chapin closes his song “Greyhound” with, “It’s got to be the going not the getting there that’s good.” It seems to me that Noah was focused on ‘getting there’, he wanted to walk with God. Abraham, on the other hand, was focused on the ‘going’, the journey of his life. He knew that ultimately he would walk with God. He wanted to make sure that the ‘going’, the journey was good and productive.

Abraham was focused on the journey. His goal expanded and grew as he extended his trip and developed himself. Abrahams ‘getting there’ constantly changed as he grew as a human being and servant of God. His ‘there’ was not defined until the end of his life.

Noah was only interested in the ‘getting there’. He needed to define his ‘there’ where and when he was. Such a person can only set his sights by comparing himself with others. That was the only way that Noah could define his ‘there’.

We, the children of Abraham, follow Halacha – we are walkers and see life as a journey. We do not compare ourselves to anyone or anything other than our highest aspirations, which constantly expand and rise as we continue our journey in life.

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They listened and they watched for over a century, but they didn’t hear or see a thing. The farmer who, according to the Sages, invented the plow, changed careers, and gave up his work to become a carpenter in order to build a huge ark. He signed up at the local college for certification as a veterinarian, and pretty much kept to himself. People first attributed Noah’s change of course as a midlife crisis. After all, almost five centuries in one job is a little too much for anyone.

But people began to wonder at the size of his pleasure boat. When asked, Noah would answer. He warned people of their impending doom. His hammers banged through the neighborhood. His saws would often put people to sleep. People watched Noah build his monstrosity far away from any water. They heard and observed for the 120 years it took Noah to build his ark, but they were deaf to his words and blind to his efforts.

People lost their hearing again soon after the flood. They knew what God had done when angered. They could see the effects of the flood generations later. They listened to the stories, they observed the damage, but again they chose not to hear and not to see.

“God descended to look at the city and Tower.” (Genesis 11:5) People chose not to see so God ‘descended’ to earth to teach the sons of man how to see.

They chose not to hear, so God said, “That they should not hear one another’s language.” (Verse 7)

How interesting it is that our matriarch Sarah is introduced as “Yiskah” – “she could see the future by holy inspiration.” Sarah is presented as a visionary, and God appeared to Abraham in visions, “After these events, the word of God came to Abram in a vision.” (Genesis 15:1)

Abraham and Sarah observed and saw. They took what they saw to heart.

We live in a world in which people choose what they want to see and hear. I have attached a video of a commander of the British army, Col Richard Kemp, addressing the UN Human Rights Commission. His words are powerful. His audience chose to not hear.

We know what happens to those who choose to not hear and not see. Have we learned from their mistakes, or are we too, willing to miss the boat?

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.