Parsha of the week: Rabbi Avi Billet

Parshat Matot / To not lose a man

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After the battle with Midian, the Torah tells us that the generals and captains, who were officers over the army’s divisions, approached Moshe. They said to him, “We have taken a census of the warriors under our command and not a single man has been lost!” (31:48-49)

The Battle of Midian is one of the more horrific battles described in the Torah, at least as far as casualties and what the Children of Israel were tasked to do. Isn’t it incredible, then, that after a long and arduous battle, there are no casualties on the Israelite side?

Of course, the literal translation is not the only perspective on what it means to not lose a soldier. Rashbam says no one died in a plague.

There are two ways to look at such a statement. It may be referring to a plague that G-d wrought – in other words, no one died of a sin. The other possibility is that in the history of wars, until World War II and the advent of modern medicine, it was always the case that more soldiers died of illness than on the battlefield. If no one died from illness, that was also an amazing miracle.

Chazal taught homiletically that “we didn’t lose a man” means “to sin” (Shabbat 64a), that no soldier fell to depravity and committed a moral error that makes the rest of us look bad. [Fascinatingly, the Baal Haturim notes – based on Yebamot 61a – that this Hebrew phrase has the same numerical value (gematria) as “La’aveirot” – “to sins” (718)].

The Gemara asks, if that was the case, why did the soldiers feel a need to bring a sin offering? To atone for their souls, because they had thoughts to commit sins, though they did not act upon them. The Alshikh couched this idea as two battles – the physical battle in the trenches, and the spiritual battle which one has in one’s heart.

Rabbi Yochanan Luria (Meshivat Nefesh) examined the story and concluded that much of what happens to the general populace, or to the regular soldiers, is dependant upon the behavior of the leadership. In their particular case, since the princes at their time were model citizens, it became a merit for Israel – even if the soldiers plundered for themselves (in 31:53).

The Meshekh Chokhma adds that, in a sense, this was an admission of wrongdoing in the Baal Peor incident that concluded Parshat Balak and ran into Parshat Pinchas.

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