Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Day 48 of the Omer
Parashat Nasso - Naked Betrayal – Rabbi Meir Kahane
Hashem spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: Any man whose wife shall go astray and commit treachery against him [“u-ma'alah bo ma'al”], and a man could have lain with her carnally, but it was hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she became secluded and could have been defiled ...The man shall bring his wife to the Kohen and he shall bring her offering for her... (Num. 5: 11-13,15)
In Me'ilah 18a we find: "Ma'al" can only mean “change” [i.e., acting differently from what G-d commanded us to do]. Thus it says, “If a woman deviates and commits a “ma'al” against her husband” (Num. 5:12) [i.e., switching mates for a strange man]. It also says (I Chron. 5:25), “They committed a “ma'al” against the G-d of their ancestors and strayed after the gods of the nations of the land” [i.e., they switched from worshiping G-d to worshiping idols.] A woman who profanes her holiness by turning to harlotry is called a “zonah”, and a married woman who commits adultery is called a “sotah”. Both words convey deviation, altering the role one was commanded to follow (see Torat Kohanim, Vayikra, Parsheta 11).
In actual fact, change and deceit are one. Whoever veers from his role is untrue to it. Change, deceit and “me'ilah” are all one, as well, because “me'ilah” means casting off one's yoke, which is what one does when he wishes to alter his role and lie about his mission in the world. “Me'ilah” means betraying [begidah] one's duty, and “me'ilah” [deceit] and “begidah” [treason] resemble “me'il” and “beged”, two words for clothing. Our clothing symbolizes the Divine yoke and holiness G-d placed on Adam, naked of mitzvot and holiness, as a covering. “Me'ilah” and “Begidah” indicate the removal of this spiritual garb. As Ibn Ezra (Lev. 5:15) writes, “If anyone commit a trespass [“ma'al”]: i.e., he removes his “ma'al”, his covering, from the same root as “me'il”, cloak.” If someone casts off G-d's yoke, he is a “ben beliya'al”, a person without a yoke [“beli ol”]. This expression connotes an evildoer, as we find regarding the apostate city: “Base people [bnei beliya'al] are gone out from the midst of you” (Deut. 13:14). Sifri comments (Re'eh 93), “Persons who broke off G-d's yoke.” Similarly, Sanhedrin 111b teaches, “Bnei beliya'al”: Persons who broke off the yoke of Heaven from their necks.” Yet they are not just “beli ol”, without a yoke, but “beli ya'al”, they serve no benefit [“to'elet] to anyone. Man was created only to accept the yoke of G-d's kingdom, and if he shirks this, then he serves no purpose and is better off dead.
The sin of such a person is “me'ilah”, which connotes “change”. As our sages said (Me'ilah 18a): If anyone commits a trespass [“ma'al”] (Lev. 5 :15): “Ma'al” always refers to some change, as in, If any man's wife go astray and act unfaithfully [“ma'al”] against him” (Num. 5:12), or “They broke faith with the G-d of their fathers and went astray after the gods of the peoples of the land” (I Chronicles 5:25). “Me'ilah" refers to change involving straying from the path, changing one's role, pursuing something foreign. The “mo'el” betrays his duty, the command given him. It is as though the “mo'el” has removed the cloak [“me'il”] that covers him, like the adulterer [“boged”] removing his clothing [“beged”]. Both are naked because they cast off their “me'il”, their “beged” and their “ol”[yoke]. In the Temple, the Torah established a “me'ilah” offering to atone for the person who betrayed the holy objects of G-d, deriving benefit from them as if they were non-holy, and transferring the holy to a non-holy domain. When G-d created the world, He defined and separated His beings and gave them borders and places of their own, domains to which they belong. The word domain [“reshut”] also means “place”, and can also connote a license to be somewhere or do something. A woman is set aside specifically for her husband. When she fornicates, she betrays him and her own domain, because her domain was sanctified and set apart. She received permission to be in her husband's place, and he becomes her domain. She has no license to be with another man who is not her domain. Similarly, the Jewish People were set apart for G-d. He is their portion and inheritance. When they substitute idolatry or a foreign culture in His place, this constitutes change, straying, betrayal. The general rule is this: man was created to accept unto himself the yoke of Heaven and thereby to transcend his own egotism and fulfill his purpose in the world and the purpose of the world itself. Whoever breaks off his yoke betrays his task and forfeits his domain on this earth, because his presence here, in fact, his very creation, is no longer of benefit. How few, indeed, are the elite! Even so, we were commanded to study and to teach, to preserve and to practice G-d's idea of Jewishness as it was given to us, as we were truly and straightforwardly commanded. We must reject every trace of foreign culture, of falsification and distortion, and accept the yoke of Heaven.
Woman is the symbol of man's love and desire, for there is no love in man's nature greater than his love for woman. Precisely for this reason G-d created man and woman, so they would be bound together with fierce love and desire, ready to sacrifice for each other and to give of themselves to an extent unheard of in any other relationship. They would be willing even to sacrifice their lives for each other, so strong is that love. Being so fiercely bound to another human being is the apex of man's breaking down his selfishness, arrogance and evil impulse. G-d created this bond so that man would understand from it – at least in part – how powerful must be his love for G-d. Thus, if a husband is ever unfaithful to his wife, it constitutes betrayal of the true concept of love and a dreadful lie looming over the marital relationship. G-d decreed that this must be an exclusive relationship founded on mutual trust, a symbol of the prohibition against the dreadful sin of polytheism, worshiping idols as well as G-d (Ex.20:3). At the same time, an evil woman is a symbol of the opposite – idolatry. Whoever falls deeply in love with a woman who incites him to sin, even to heresy and idolatry, brings death unto himself. In his fierce love, he will be ready to do all she asks, even commit terrible sins. Thus, a woman can either symbolize love of G-d, or, Heaven forbid, love of heresy. After all, even heresy involves emotional attraction. As Berachot 12b teaches: Why was the third paragraph of the Shema (Num. 15:37-41) established to be recited daily? R. Yehuda bar Chaviva said, “Because it contains six elements: 1) the mitzvah of Tzitzit; 2) the Exodus from Egypt; 3) the yoke of mitzvot; and admonitions against 4) heretical belief; 5) immoral sexual thought; and 6) idolatrous thoughts...” Indeed it was learned: “After your heart” (Num 15:39) refers to heresy, and it says (Ps. 14:1), “The fool says in his heart:'There is no G-d'”. Here we have proof that heresy depends on the heart and involves desire and attraction. Hence the woman, symbol of male desire, can either symbolize devotion to G-d or pursuit of heresy. Rashi interprets the verse, “I find more bitter than death the woman” (Eccles. 7:26): “Death is the harshest of ten harsh things created (Bava Batra 10a), and I find 'woman' – i.e. heresy – harsher still.”
Compiled from “The Jewish Idea" and from "Forty Years" of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D (Source)
~ SHABBAT SHALOM! CHAG SAMEACH! ~
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