Parshat Pinchas - Inheriting Eretz Yisrael

The beginning of Parshat Pinchas tells of a census that Hashem commanded Moshe and Elazar HaKohen to take of B'nei Yisrael. After counting the people, Hashem begins outlining the eventual division of Eretz Yisrael among the tribes, families and individuals. 

I will admit that in the past, I basically just skimmed through this part of the parsha without much attention. This week though, I noticed an absolutely amazing Rashi (which I will paraphrase for clarity and convenience).

If you read this section of the parsha (Bamidbar 26:52-55) carefully, you will notice that in a span of 3 pesukim Hashem seemingly gives 2 different directives as to how the land should be divided  (I am only including English text since the Hebrew is not cooperating at the moment).

In pasuk 53-54 Hashem says that a portion of the land is given to each individual person. Therefore, the more people entering the land from a given shevet, the more land is given to that shevet to divide:

 "You shall divide the Land among these as an inheritance, in accordance with the number of names: To the large [tribe] you shall give a larger inheritance and to a smaller tribe you shall give a smaller inheritance, each person shall be given an inheritance according to his number."

Then, in the very next pasuk (pasuk 55) Hashem says that the division of the land is somehow based on the number of fathers in the previous generation who left mitzrayim.

"Only through lot shall the Land be apportioned; they shall inherit it according to the names of their fathers"

So which one is it - is the land to be divided by accounting for every individual entering the land, or is the land divided up by looking back a generation in order to divide it per-father who left mitzrayim (in other words, one equal portion per family and not per individual)??

Rashi explains - both. The nature of the inheritance of Eretz Yisrael is unique and different that all other inheritance. When it comes to Eretz Yisrael, not only do living descendants inherit from their deceased ancestors, but the departed ancestors actually inherit from the living descendants as well.

How so? It went line this:

First, the land was split up among all of the individuals who were actually entering the land to live there. Once every individual received his portion on paper, something amazing happened - the land was then "bequeathed" to the deceased ancestors and essentially divided up per family that left Mitzrayim.
Only then was it returned to back to the living individual children and grandchildren who were entering the land.

Practically, nothing changed in the end result - every individual received his portion when all is said and done. For some reason though, the process of inheritance could not be completed without the deceased ancestors becoming brief owners of the land themselves and then passing it back to their children.

The obvious question is why?? Why would Hashem want to involve the previous generation in this process? Why the need for this generation to posthumously become owners of the land and only then pass it down to their children who were to live there???

I think the message here is clear - although the generation that left Mitzrayim did not enter Eretz Yisrael personally, it was in their merit that their children were able to do so.
Yes, the actual acquisition and settling of the land was going to be done by the individuals living there, but without the efforts of the previous generation,this opportunity would have never been realized. The generation that left Mitzrayim had its ups and downs in the desert, but at the end of the day this was the generation to leave Mitzrayim and accept the Torah.

Perhaps Hashem's intent here is to tell the Jewish people as follows: Although your parents didn't make it into Israel, don't think that you could've done it without them. Realize what kind of efforts they made on your behalf. Appreciate the zechut avot from which you are benefiting.

Perhaps this is why the land had to first go through the hands of the generation that left Mitzrayim and only then could it be received by their children.

I would just add that while Rashi is clearly talking specifically about those generations, I think the same message remains true today. Many generations before ours were never zoche to visit, let alone live in Eretz Yisrael. But perhaps it is due to their tefillot and merits that we, their childen, are able to do so today.

Shabbat Shalom.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Related Links to Audio Shiurim

I have come across some audio shiurim that relate to issues we've disussed in previous posts. I thought it would be worthwhile pointing them out:

In this post we discussed the issue of having your internet business run on Shabbat. R' Elon Soniker recently gave a series on the topic. I've found 2 parts so far: Part 1   Part 2

[FYI - I found the following summary (in shorthand) of Part 1:  "Websites on Shabbat? Looks at 3 types: 1) informational only (e.g. Shul website); 2) deferred sales (widgets to be delivered in the future); 3) immediate sales (download computer programs). Well, what’s the issue for Shabbat? (Rashi in Beitzah) I) business prohibited under Mmtzoh Cheftzocha; or II) maybe you’ll come to write because of the transaction.
Mishneh Brurah says must be “obvious” that it’s business for internet so: I) wouldn’t be a problem; II) might be. Detailed discussion of time clocks/zilzul issue (but leaves out R’HS unique shitah based on “new” text of Rambam). Another issue – What if ownership action takes place on Friday but on condition that it not take effect until Shabbat day.]

Also on this topic, R' Assaf Bednarsh gives a shiur on these issues here.

We also have been discussing Machon Tzomet's solution to oil drilling on Shabbat. I mentioned R' Rozen's acknowledgement of the controversial nature of his institution's approach and the critique it has received from other halachic authorities.

I was told that R' Dovid Miller discusses this debate here.

Full disclosure - I have not yet listened to any of these shiurim so I cannot comment on the content.

243:1 - Drilling for Oil on Shabbat #3 - Response from Machon Tzomet

After sending my letter to Machon Tzomet last week, I received a brief response from R' Rozen via email. He basically assured me that there are no non-Jews working in the drilling site on Shabbat and the oil flows totally on its own.

I responded again by stressing that the non-Jewish presence at the site was not the focus of my question and that it was mentioned only to illustrate a possible concern with the current setup.

I have not yet received a second response... 

Two additional updates on this front are actually a tag-team assist from my sister and brother in law (Shira & Chaim). Chaim summarized some very good points for and against the Machon Tzomet solution for oil drilling. I've included his comments at the end of the post. Shira actually attended a shiur from R' Rozen the other day and subsequently spoke to him about the issues we raised. R' Rozen reportedly made 2 interesting comments:

1. He acknowledged that Machon Tzomet's approach in general is somewhat controversial and has historically been the source of disagreement with other Rabbinic authorities
2. He confirmed what we suspected in previous posts - the reason for the media coverage was to try and mitigate the possible mar'it ayin factor. This may be a chiddush as we pointed out, but it does seem to make sense.

Chaim's comments are as follows:

Parshat Balak - Non-Jewish Nevuah

A quick thought on the Parsha as Shabbat approaches...

Rashi (22:5) quotes from Chazal (I will paraphrase due to time constraints) - why did Hashem give the non-Jews (i.e. Bilam) nevuah? So that the nations of the world cannot claim that if they would have had the power of nevuah they would have done complete teshuva; here Hashem gave them nevuah and it actually made matter worse (since Bilam encouraged illicit relations amongst the people).


But isn't there a follow up claim that the non-Jews can make?? Granted "Bilam harasha" is not going to encourage any teshuva, but if they had a star like Yirmiyahu or Yechezkel hanavi, maybe they would have indeed lead lives of avodat Hashem!

Perhaps this itself was Hashem's answer to the world - real teshuva and self improvement is not dependent on a Navi or anyone other than yourself. Each and every individual need to work on himself and improve the areas of his life and his avoda that require this improvement.

This Shabbat is the yartzeit of our grangmother Rivka Rachel bat Mordechai Reinitz a"h. She was a woman of refined character who clearly understood this and worked on herself all of her life.

May this Shabbat grant her neshama an aliya in shamayim.

Shabbat Shalom

Juggling Priorities

A friend sent me the following thought from R' Shabtai Rappaport (for those of you who do not know who he his, you can read up on him here).

All of us face the challenge of balancing our time and our priorities in one way or another - learning, working, family, time for ourselves etc. etc. R' Shabtai's essay is a refreshing perspective on this issue and can be a great source of chizuk for those (like me) who (Thank G-d) face this challenge daily.

243:1 - Drilling for Oil on Shabbat #2 - My Letter to Machon Tzomet

In light of the issues we began discussing here I sent a letter to Machon Tzomet yesterday outlining my questions. I am posting a copy of the letter here:

They responded with a brief note telling me that the letter would be passed to Rav Rozen's desk for further review and follow-up.

Cool.

243:1 - Drilling for Oil on Shabbat

We've previously discussed some of the halachot pertaining to keeping a business running on Shabbat (See here). We mentioned that a central criterion for allowing/disallowing a business to run on Shabbat is the chance that people will get the wrong impression and suspect the Jewish business owner of wrong-doing (a.k.a. "mar'it ayin").

If the business is known to belong to Yossle and it is located in the heart of the Jewish community, it may not remain open on Shabbat no matter how many kosher arrangements are made previously with the non-Jewish workers or partners since we assume other members of the community will misunderstand when they see activity on Shabbat afternoon.

From my cursory review of these halachot it seems that the only ways to avoid running into this problem is to make sure your business is situated well outside the confines of the Jewish community or alternatively to make sure that no one knows it's a Jewish-owned business in the first place.

Theoretically though, there seems to be another solution. What if everyone knew that it was a Jewish business and it was situated in a Jewish area, but you had a way to make sure everyone knew that your business was being run in a permitted manner on Shabbat? It seems that if you could somehow avoid the possibility of such a misunderstanding through publicity and ensure that everyone in the community was on the same page then this concern would fall away.

This brings me to a real-world example I saw in the news today. Givot Olam is an Israeli gas and oil exploration firm. They are currently in the process of drilling for oil in the Megged 5 oil well near Rosh Ha'ayin in Israel.

An article in last week's news publicized the company's announcement that the drilling would continue on Shabbat - without violating a single melacha.

Together with Machon Tzomet, the company has come up with a way to automate the drilling process on Shabbat with the use of timers and other technologies, making human intervention for those 24 hours a week unnecessary.

While I am sure the experts at Machon Tzomet have their bases covered, I am still curious as to how they deal with the issue of mar'it ayin discussed by the poskim. Granted, no melachot are violated with the arrangement outlined in the article, but it would seem that there is still a big chance for mar'it ayin. After all, it is a Jewish-owned well that is operating in Israel on Shabbat...

My first thought was that this is the reason for including the media in the first place - maybe the publicity itself is their solution to the mar'it ayin. If everyone knows what's really going on, there is no chance for misunderstanding. In practice though, this does not seem like a fool-proof solution to the problem and it is likely that most of the country will not be aware of this.

Not quite sure I know what to make of it. Maybe I'll get in touch with Machon Tzomet to discuss this a little more at length. I'll also try to look into the halacha one more time to make sure I didn't miss anything...