Yosef613

BS”D
PARASHAS CHUKAS
Miriam’s Well
Without water, life cannot survive. Nonetheless, millions of Jewish
people survived in the parched and barren desert for forty years. How
was this possible? Only through a miracle. During their travels through
the desert, the Jewish people were accompanied by a rock from which
an abundant supply of water constantly flowed. It was called Miriam’s
Well, because it existed in the merit of Moses’ older sister Miriam, who
was a righteous woman and a prophetess in her own right.
In this week’s portion, we read about Miriam’s death only months
before the entry of the Jewish people into the Holy Land. The Torah
also tells us that Miriam’s Well ceased to function after she died, and
the people were faced with a critical water shortage. They besieged
Moses and demanded that he provide water for them, for otherwise they
would die. God told Moses to take his staff in hand and speak to the
rock. Instead of speaking, however, Moses struck the rock with his staff.
The waters gushed forth again, but Moses forfeited the opportunity of
entering the Holy Land. Because of his mistake, he passed away while
the Jewish encampment was massed on the east bank of the Jordan
River.
A number of questions come to mind. Why was the water given to
the Jewish people only in the merit of Miriam? Why couldn’t the water
continue after her death without Moses speaking to the rock? Why
didn’t God want to leave the faucet open for the Jewish people?
The commentators explain that one of the most striking features of
water is that its viscosity allows it to adapt perfectly to its surroundings;
water will naturally assume the shape of any container into which it
flows. Symbolically, Miriam represented this quality. She was able to
adapt her faith and her steadfast fealty to God’s will under any and all
circumstances. Come what may, Miriam shone as the paragon of
staunch faith.
Miriam was born during the darkest chapter of the Jewish bondage
in Egypt. Her name, recalling the word marah, bitter, evokes the
bitterness of the Jewish condition. When she was just a young girl,
Pharaoh decreed that all male babies be thrown into the river.
Husbands and wives separated in order to avoid producing children who
would be drowned, but Miriam persuaded her parents to have faith and
remain together. As a result, her brother Moses, redeemer of the Jewish
people, was born. Miriam was the famous midwife Puah, who crooned
to the infants when they were born.
Like water, Miriam adapted to the oppression and the suffering and
remained strong in her faith. Therefore, in her merit, God provided the
Jewish people with miraculous water in the desert. And when she died,
a new demonstration of supreme faith was required. God wanted Moses
to draw water from the rock by speaking alone.
A man hired a wagon driver to take him to a distant city. As they
traveled through dense forests and over craggy mountains, the
passenger sat relaxed in his seat, enjoying the scenery.
Suddenly, a thunderstorm arose. The passenger told the wagon
driver to pull over, but he insisted that they could not do so safely. They
had to push on through the storm.
The passenger began to tremble with fear.
“Don’t worry,” the wagon driver reassured him. “All will be well.”
“But how do I know that?”
“Because I am telling you so,” the wagon driver replied. “You were
not afraid when we were travelling through dangerous forests and over
steep mountain roads on the edge of sheer cliffs. You relied in my skills.
Well, do you think I’ve never driven through a thunderstorm? You can
trust me.”
In our own lives, we find it easier to have faith when things are
going reasonably well. When we seem to be on the road to success and
encounter trials and struggles, we have faith that we will ultimately
succeed. But what happens when things are falling apart, Heaven
forbid? What happens when they become stormy? Those are the times
that test our faith. Those are also the times when our faith can spell the
difference between hope and despair.

There are times in our lives that we see G-d from afar. What do I mean by that? There are times that even though we realize and recognize that G-d runs the world and that everything happens from a reason, we lack the clarity of a certain situation or cycle  in our lives.

I learned this week from A shir from Rabbi Eli Mansour that the greatest in Tanach have asked them selves this same question. As a matter of a fact Moshe Rabbeinu our greatest leader asked himself the same thing. When he goes up to Sinai and receives the 10 commandments from G-d he asks to see his face. Hashem responded that He would show Moshe His back, for no living mortal would be able to see His face and live.The chachamim (wise men) are puzzled as to why at the peak of clarity Moshe would ask this question or better yet what was he really asking with the question?

We learn the same in Last weeks Parashat Shemot; the medrash tells us that Amram and yochebed Moshe's parents decided to get a divorce. Miriam tells them that they are worst then pharaoh for pharaoh's decree was against the boys but by divorcing, Moshe's parents where decreeing even against the girls. Miriam also tells them that through a prophecy she knew that to them would be born a boy that would be the leader of the children of Israel. So Amram and yochebed get back together and sure enough a boy is born whom they name Moshe.

However, at the peak of revelation of Miriam's prophecy she experiences a dark moment in chapter 2 verse 4 it says "The child's sister stood herself at a distance to see what would happen to him." Our rabbis learn form this verse that when it says she "stood at a distance" it means exactly this concept of seeing G-d from afar. She didn't understand how the baby could be saved and how contradictory her situation was to the clarity of her prophecy.

At this point we can begin to understand Moshe's question to Hashem; what he was asking is why do bad things happen to good people at times and good things to bad people. Why is such a painful process necessary before the redemption comes. We can even apply it today, why do we have to go through such a rough time so that moshiach can come? Or a bal teshuva can say on a personal level, why are things so hard for me now that I'm trying to live a Kosher lifestyle.

Hashem's answer can best be explained by a Mashal (parable) 

There once was a child who grew up on a farm one day, he got up  as he looked outside his window he began to admire the beautiful grass on the field. The next day, he woke up to the noise of a tractor that was plowing that field; he yelled no! stop! what are you doing? you are ruining the beautiful field. But then he noticed one day that wheat began to grow on it; he understood that in order for wheat to grow, the field had to be plowed. The next morning, he woke up to the sound of a tractor that was harvesting the wheat and he yelled out no! no! stop! stop! you will ruin the wheat. The next day he was horrified to see people putting the wheat shafts into a machine that would crushed them into little pieces and once again he could not understand why some one would want to ruin the wheat; so he proceeded down the line to see that grains where coming out of it and he understood what they where doing it. Until one day he saw them crushing and burning the grains once again he was frustrated, in despair why would some one want to ruin the beautiful grains? Until one day he noticed what was happening in ovens where the grain was being burnt; he smelled a sweet beautiful smell and to his surprise he saw that out of those ovens came out a gorgeous piece of bread. And only then he understood why one day he saw people plowing the field and harvesting the wheat and crushing and burning the grain. He realized that what he thought was cruelty was only kindness and he was able to see that in order to make sweet tasty bread there was a rough process, that by itself made no sense but at the end was all worth it.

We are all like this child, and our lives are like that field. Seeing G-d from afar means I don't understand what I'm going through this right now but I realize that if it comes form you Hashem it is for my best;  one day I will see the whole picture and understand that instead of cruelty it was all kindness. When Hashem tells Moshe's no one can see my face and live, he is telling him only when a person dies and sees everything in retrospect can a person understand G-d and why they had to go through what they had to go through. And like wise Miriam only until she saw that the boy was picked up by pharaoh's daughter and he would grow up in the palace did she understand what G-d was doing.

There is a saying amongst the Jewish people that says "Gam zot le Tova" "this is also for the good" we say it when things are tough. the Shulchan Aruch says that this concept of "Gam Zot Le Tova " is a higher level it means being able to see G-d in everything that happens to us; however it says that our obligation minimally is to have emuna ("faithfulness") that everything comes from G-d and and its for our good. Seeing Hashem in everything is the result and level obtained after having emuna("faithfulness") that it is all for the best.

May Hashem bless us with the strength to overcome our challenges, so that we can merit to see him in every step of our lives and recognize that after all is set and done it was all for the good.

Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32)
Perfection of Character

"And as for Me - Behold I am about to bring the floodwaters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which there is a breath of life under the heavens; everything that is in the earth shall expire." (Genesis 6:17)

The prophet Isaiah (54:9) refers to the Flood as mei Noach - the waters of Noah - thereby implying that Noah bears at least partial responsibility for the Flood. Sforno suggests that Noah's failure lay in failing to teach his generation to know God and to walk in His ways. Had he taught them to know God, they would surely have repented.

We can explain this Sforno as follows. The Midrash comments on the phrase, "the path (derech eretz) to the Tree of Life," that derech eretz is middos, proper character traits. Middos are the paths that lead to the Tree of Life, the Torah. Hence, "Derech eretz precedes Torah." First one refines his middos, and only then can the Torah dwell within him. The Torah cannot reside in one who does not possess good middos: "Where there is no derech eretz, there is no Torah." (see Rabbeinu Yona to Pirkei Avos 3:22) Even though only Torah can bring one's middos to ultimate perfection, where there is no foundation of proper middos, the acquisition of Torah is impossible.

Rabbeinu Yona's categorical negation of the possibility of Torah residing in one who lacks good middos can be understood in two ways, both true. The first is that a person's lack of good middos makes ultimate retention of his Torah knowledge - no matter how great - impossible, because his lack of middos prevents the Torah from fully meshing with the essence of his soul. Hence when he leaves this world, the Torah will not accompany him, but be left behind with his other external physical components.

An alternative explanation is that even in this world the Torah will not remain with him. This idea can be illustrated with the following anecdote. Maimonides had a dispute with a philosopher whether instinct or training is the decisive factor in animal behavior. To prove the efficacy of training, the philosopher taught cats to stand erect, balance trays and serve as waiters. He dressed them for the part and conducted a banquet with the cats as the waiters. Maimonides countered his proof by releasing some mice at the banquet. The cats, forgetting all their training, let the trays and dishes crash to the ground as they rushed about on all fours in pursuit of the mice.

Human beings also have their baser instincts and desires that, without training, drag them onto all fours. A human being is distinct from the animals, however, by virtue of his ability to perfect his middos so that they control his baser instincts. One who has not worked on perfecting his middos will, like the trained cat, be able to put on a show of Torah discipline for a time, but only so long as no "mice" are released in his path.

A Torah scholar, says Maimonides, is one who has mastered good character traits. Since he has perfected his character, his sins are by their very nature incidental, not symptomatic of basic character flaws. Therefore we are told that if we see a righteous person sin at night, we should assume that by the next day he has repented. Because the sin did not flow from an intrinsic character flaw, he certainly recognized the need to repent in the interim.

Rabbi Chaim Vital explains that middos were not enumerated in the Torah among the Mitzvos because they are the very foundation of all Mitzvos and the Torah itself. It is in his ability to emulate the perfect character traits attributed to God that man is in the image of God. One who lacks proper character is therefore deficient in the very essence of humanity.

The Alter from Kelm once remarked that Darwin was able to formulate his theory of evolution only because he had never seen a real human being. Thus he could view men as no more than smarter monkeys. "Had he seen my teacher, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who developed his character traits to a degree of perfection that fully expressed the essence of the Divine Image, he never could have entertained the possibility that human beings evolved from monkeys," said the Alter.

Darwin's peers were surely socially respectable people, but with regard to true character development, they remained mere trained cats, whose instinctive desires could at any moment bring them down on all fours.

The sins of immorality and robbery of the generation of the Flood were merely symptoms of the underlying disease of deficient character development. Noah attacked the symptom, but failed to cure the disease. He did not teach them to know God through contemplation of His middos and to walk in His ways by correcting and developing their own character traits. Hence he was unsuccessful. His rebuke may occasionally have suppressed the symptoms, but they soon reappeared, since the underlying cause had not been treated. Without changing their underlying character, no true repentance was possible.

The Torah describes the generation of the Flood as "rabbas ro'as ha'adam." This can be translated to mean the evil they perpetrated was beyond the boundaries of adam - of human beings. They corrupted the very essence of their humanity, their middos. Hence, the Midrash says, they were punished measure for measure with the overflowing of the great deep. They destroyed their natural humanity, and therefore the natural order was abrogated and the waters of the deep breached their boundaries and inundated the world. Likewise, the result of the Flood was literally to dissolve their human forms - an external manifestation of their inner spiritual decay.

The mystical works explain that the colors of the rainbow are representations of God's middos (attributes). Thus, the rainbow is the symbol of God's promise not to bring another flood, for by reflecting on and emulating God's middos, we ensure that another flood will not be necessary.

Only after the Flood did God permit the consumption of meat. Sefer Halkrim explains that mankind, prior to the Flood, equated animal life with human life; man was, in their eyes, reduced to but a glorified and more developed animal. To counter this tragic mistake, God permitted mankind to eat meat. He thereby demonstrated that there is an essential qualitative difference between people and animals that gives us the right to kill them for food. That essential difference is inherent in man's ability to develop and emulate the middos of his Creator.

Unlike Noah, Abraham was able to influence the people of his generation precisely because he concentrated on teaching middos. He was thus able to remedy the disease and not just the symptoms. At the age of three, Abraham knew that there was a God, but not until 40, says Maimonides, could he be described as "knowing his Creator," i.e. as recognizing God through the comprehension of His middos and their emulation. Only then did Abraham begin to teach his generation. By teaching middos, he succeeded in breaking the idols. He convinced his contemporaries to abandon gods made in their image for the service of the true God.

God explains His choice of Abraham as the progenitor of the Jewish people:

"For I know that he will command his children and household after him that they will keep God's way, doing charity and justice." (Genesis 18:19).

God knew that Abraham would direct his descendants in derech Hashem - the path of middos that leads to the Tree of Life, Torah. That is why we, Abraham's descendants, were worthy of eventually receiving the Torah.

http://www.aish.com/torahportion/outlooksandinsights/Perfection_of_Character.asp