Dvar Torah for Parshat Shlach

Based on Likutey Moharan I, #6

"When the Jews were in the desert they found a man carrying sticks on Shabbat."
(Numbers 15:32)

"When a person wants to walk the pathways of repentance, he must be expert in halakha (Jewish law). This demands that he have two types of expertise: expertise in "running" and in "returning."
(Likutey Moharan I, #6)

The Jews had been in the desert for just a very short while. The receiving of the Torah was still fresh in their minds. They knew how important it was to observe Shabbat: Moshe Rabbeinu (our teacher) had arranged for them to not work on Shabbat while they were still slaves in Egypt; Hashem (God) gave the Shabbat at Marah, before the Revelation at Sinai; Shabbat was (and is) one of the Ten Commandments; and they knew it was a capital crime to violate it.

{A word about reward and punishment: Rambam (Maimonides) teaches us that from the severity of the designated punishment for a violation of Torah law (i.e., a sin) we can extrapolate the reward for compliance. Since Shabbat violation is a capital crime Shabbat observance gives life - physical, as well as spiritual (Aleph-Bet Book, Shabbat 2:1).}

So why did Tzelafchad (the stick-carrier) choose to violate the Shabbat? Tosafot (Bava Basra 119b) refers to the Midrash in answering this question. Tzelafchad heard many Jews holding forth after the sin of the explorers. They were saying, "Since we are not going to be entering the Land, we are absolved from keeping the Torah." He violated the Shabbat so that the ensuing publicity of his crime and punishment would prove that the Torah was still binding. Targum Yonatan (Numbers 15:32) writes that Tzelafchad's motivation was to reveal a point of halakha: to which type of death sentence is a Sabbath violator liable?

When Rebbe Nachman refers to "running" and "returning" he is referring to success and failure, spiritual and material. There are times in life when a person grows in knowledge of Torah and gains correct insights into the Torah and/or enjoys material success (family, health, finances are all in beautiful shape) and he feels on top of the world - higher even than the Creator and His laws! And so, he decides that this or that halakha no longer applies to him.

Some people have periods in life when their efforts in spiritual growth seem to yield no growth. Or they're so burdened, broken or bitter by the empty "cup of life" from which they must drink, that mitzvah observance becomes meaningless to them (God forbid!). So the Rebbe enjoins us to walk with the mitzvot, to be "saved by the halakha."

Our Sages teach us that one who does his best to observe Shabbat is considered to have kept the entire Torah, which is the ultimate aim of repentance. Shabbat and tshuvah (repentance) are very much related. They both are an acknowledgement of Hashem's control over our lives.

The Jews on their march through the desert were "running" - they had all their material needs taken care of in a miraculous fashion, they had freedom and leisure to pursue the highest degree of Torah insight under the tutelage of the greatest teachers of all time and were on the way to settle the Holy Land to establish Hashem's Kingdom in this world, the culmination of Creation. Then, overnight, they found themselves "returning." And they were ready to give up.

They were sentenced to wander in the desert. "If we can't fulfill the Torah in the Holy Land it is a sign that has rejected us and has no interest in our progress. So there is no need for us to pursue growth in the desert either." And so, Tzelafchad had to show them the error of their ways. EiTzim (sticks) is related to the word EiTzah (advice, suggestion), the word the Holy Zohar uses as a synonym for mitzvah. He showed that the sticks/mitzvot are not ours to move about as we choose. They are subject to the halakha of Shabbat, to Hashem's control. He decided that they are in effect, even when we are sentenced to spend life in a "desert," forever thirsting for relief and progress, knowing we will never reach the Promised Land.

Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu that Tzelafchad was to be put to death by stoning, the most severe form of capital punishment. Every Jew is a crown for Hashem. As such, s/he should be studded with jewels, precious stones (Likutey MoHaran 6:15). Denying God's control and ignoring the mitzvot results in His being denied a crown laden with precious stones. So Hashem in His kindness punishes him measure for measure: the person has stones cast upon his head (God spare us) and they become the jewels that he was to have placed in God's crown.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!