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Kahane
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Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parashat Balak
SEEK NO ALLIES!!!
To be alone is the destiny of the
Jew ever since it was decreed "Hen, am l'vadad yishkon," "Lo, it
is a people that shall dwell alone" (Numbers 23:9). But the word
"hen," which is generally translated as a poetical "lo," is
much more than that, since the Torah isn't primarily a book of poetry. So the
Rabbis, noting that the Hebrew word "hen" is composed of the letters
hei and nun, state:
"Take all the letters and
you will find [that if one wishes to add two of them together to get the sum of
10] each letter has a partner, but hei [the number 5] and nun [the number 50]
have no partners. [For example, the letter aleph (one) and tet (nine) add up to
10; bet (two) and chet (eight) add up to 10; gimel (three) and zayin (seven)
add up to 10; daled (four) and vav (six) add up to 10. Only hei (five) has no
partner [except for a second hei. Similarly the letter nun (50) has no partner
other than another nun to get the sum of 100]" (Yalkut, Balak 23).
This remarkable Midrash
emphasizes more than anything the halachic injunction of isolation. Not only
must the Jew not be afraid of being isolated, he is commanded to choose
isolation. THAT IS WHY ALL JEWS MUST LIVE IN ERETZ YISRAEL- SO AS TO BE
ISOLATED FROM THE NATIONS AND THEIR CULTURES!!! In the words of the Rabbis:
"separated from the nations of the world and their abominations"
(Mechilta, Yitro, Bachodesh Hashlishi 2:3).
But there is another lesson to be
learned from the requirement of isolation, and that is that the Jew is NOT
ALLOWED to seek allies- that the very act of seeking allies is one of
faithlessness to G-d. Thus, we find the prophet Isaiah condemning the Jews of
his time for turning to Egypt for aid against the Assyrians who were
threatening them: "Woe to the rebellious children, says the L-rd, who take
counsel, but not from Me; and who prepare a plan, but not of My spirit, in
order to add sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt but did not inquire of My
Mouth, to seek strength in Pharaoh's stronghold and to take shelter in the
shade of Egypt!" (Isaiah 30: 1-2).
And again: "Woe to those who
go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses; they trust in chariots
because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they
look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither do they seek the L-rd" (Ibid.
31:1).
Consider the words of the
prophet, and the context in which they were said. Assyria, the mightiest empire
of its time, the empire that had vanquished nation after nation, is descending
on Israel. Is it not normal to seek allies? What would religious Jews and
rabbis say today about seeking help from the United States? Surely they would
all cry out the need for "practicality." But the prophet does not. He
condemns it.
And the great Biblical
commentator, the Radak, explains: "It is not enough that they have sinned
and erred, but they add the sin of asking besides me help from someone else
without My permission? And this is a great rebellion of the servant against his
master, as he places his trust in someone else besides him" (commentary on
Isaiah 30:1).
The fear of man, of human flesh
and blood, rather than trust in the Almighty, has ever been the cause of
tragedy for the Jewish people! Let's consider the national tragedy that befell
the Jewish people when its kingdom was split into two after the death of
Solomon. Why did this occur? Because Solomon sinned by marrying Pharaoh's
daughter who turned his heart from G-d, as it says (1 Kings 11:11), "And
the L-rd said to Solomon, 'Since...you have not kept My covenant and My statues
which I commanded upon you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will
give it to your servant.'"
But why such a harsh punishment
for marrying Pharaoh's daughter? It hardly, at first glance, seems to fit the
crime.
The Seder Olam writes that the
original decree was only to last 36 years "in line with the 36 years that
Solomon was married to Pharaoh's daughter...The Kingdom was due to have been
restored in the reign of King Asa...but Asa ruined it by sending a bribe to the
king of Aram [when he was attacked by Basha, King of Israel], not relying on
the Almighty but on the king of Aram." The Radak cites the Seder Olam and
writes similarly, "The decree was that the kingdom should be split for 36
years corresponding to the 36 years that Solomon was the son-in-law of
Pharaoh."
Consider the odd language of the
Radak: "the son-in-law of Pharaoh." Why not say: "the husband of
Pharaoh's daughter"? Because the real sin was that Solomon married the
woman in order to be the son-in-law of Pharaoh! Egypt was the most powerful
nation of its time and Solomon hoped to neutralize her and make her an ally by
marrying the monarch's daughter, a common method of diplomatic alliance
throughout history. Solomon feared man, not G-d, and sought through this
marriage to guarantee his kingdom. Therefore, the Almighty punished him with
the perfect and most fitting punishment: the splitting of his kingdom.
And that is the reason for the
following remarkable statement in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 21b): "When
Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, Gabriel came down and struck a reed in the
sea which gathered about it a sand-bank upon which was built the great city of
Rome." The point made by the Rabbis is clear. On the day Solomon showed
fear of man rather than faith in G-d and made an alliance with Pharaoh to save
his kingdom, the ultimate destruction of the Kingdom- Rome- was born. What a
remarkable underlining of the foolishness and sin of trusting in humans when
all flesh is in the hands of G-d! What a remarkable example of how history is
created and guided by G-d!
"Lo, it is a people that
shall dwell alone." L'vadad! Alone! THAT IS THE JEWISH WAY!
The Jewish Press, 1989
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