I. Moshe’s Plea
A Talmudic aside, famous for its citation by Rashi, appears to label Moshe a quintessential halakhic man, a Litvak par excellence. This typology was enchantingly promoted by R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik in his Halakhic Man, in which he passionately described the religious figure driven to discover God and His world through Jewish law and texts. Does this Talmudic Moshe typify this category in twentieth century Orthodox Jewish thought?
Despite his previous punishment forbidding him entrance to the land of Israel, Moshe pleads with God to forgive the decree (Deut. 3:23-25). One imagines Moshe on his knees, begging in tears for this favor. Why, the Talmud (Sotah 14a) asks, did Moshe desire so greatly to enter the Land? Was it just to eat from its fruits? Note the Talmud’s dismissal of this reason. The fine Israeli cuisine is unfitting a reason for a refined individual like Moshe to desire to enter the Land. Pleasure, even from holy objects, is apparently not a goal in itself.
II. Israeli Commandments
The Talmud answers that Moshe wished to enter Israel in order to fulfill the commandments that depend on the Land. One immediately pictures Moshe’s deep desire to remove terumah and ma’aser (Priestly and Levitical portions) from Israeli produce, to dedicate his first fruits in the Tabernacle, to set aside cities of refuge. Neither his desire for physical pleasure nor his search for sanctified space (nor his concern over yeshiva tuitions) triggers his urge to make Aliyah. Like a true halakhic man, he measures the value of an action and a place in terms of Jewish law. If entering Israel is the only way he can fulfill certain commandments, then he absolutely must do so.
The Bible reports that God declined Moshe’s request. However, the Talmud adds that God judged Moshe as if he had fulfilled those commandments. In effect, Moshe won. He accomplished those commandments despite his inability to physically perform them. And in the halakhic man’s view, that is sufficient.
III. National Commandments
However, Rashbatz asks a powerful question that forces us to reevaluate this description of Moshe as a halakhic man. He points out (Responsa Rashbatz 3:198 – link) that the land where Moshe was already standing, on the banks of the Jordan, was already halakhically part of the land of Israel. In a very short time, the women and children of the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of Menasheh would settle there (while the men went on to fight). All of the land-related commandments–ma’aser, terumah, bikkurim, etc.– applied there. Moshe could not have desired to enter Israel simply to fulfill those commandments because he could already fulfill them on the east bank of the Jordan river!
Rather, explains Rashbatz, Moshe desired to fulfill the national commandments of conquering Israel, fighting its battles, establishing a government (eventually a kingship) and building a Temple. He wished to establish, maintain and defend a Jewish state. Moshe was not evaluating the land on its halakhic merit but on its value as a homeland for the people he had taken out of Egypt. His plea to God was to allow him to take part in the glorious task of creating a Jewish state, leading the people into its final stage of development.*
It turns out that halakhic man is not the best category for Moshe in twentieth century Orthodox Jewish thought. Rather than a Litvak, he was a Religious Zionist.
* The Sages teach that had the people been led into the land of Israel by Moshe, they would never have suffered subsequent exile.
If Moshe was a religious zionist, then per Vayoel Moshe, he could not by definition enter Eretz Yisrael on either side of the Jordan. (The Satmar Rebbe says any place in Israel a zionist steps loses kedushas eretz yisrael in keeping with the passuk “ותקיא הארץ את יושביה”
Oy vey! You are missing the peshat!
Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to go into Eretz Yisroel davka, not only eiver hayarden. He wanted to chap arein the inyan of avira de’ara, אוירא דארץ ישראל מחכים, to inhale the holy air, to better be able to understand the Torah hakedoshah, which, es ken zein, is only in Eretz Yisroel proper, not in eiver hayarden!
So maybe the Rashbatz’s Moshe Rabbeinu wasn’t a Litvak, but Mayshe Rabbeinu definitely was one! 😉
Great post. I’m surprised to see the thrust of one of your post have a post-Soloveitchik vein to it, and even some push against R. Soloveitchik.
However, Rashbatz asks a powerful question that forces us to reevaluate this description of Moshe as a halakhic man. He points out (Responsa Rashbatz 3:198 – link) that the land where Moshe was already standing, on the banks of the Jordan, was already halakhically part of the land of Israel. In a very short time, the women and children of the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of Menasheh would settle there (while the men went on to fight). All of the land-related commandments–ma’aser, terumah, bikkurim, etc.– applied there. Moshe could not have desired to enter Israel simply to fulfill those commandments because he could already fulfill them on the east bank of the Jordan river.
Gil, WADR, this is not what the Rashbatz says and your explanatin contradicts numerous Rishonim. Acc. to many Rishonim, to be chayyav in terumos and maasros min ha Torah, there is a requirement of bias kulchem, and that would not happen until Yehoshuah conquered the land and it was then divided among the shevatim.
Even those who reject that for terumos and maasros require that the shemittah cycle have commenced, which again did not happen until 14 years after Yehoshuah entered the land, conquered it, and divided it. (See Rashi Kesubos ve lo nischayvu)
THe Rashbatz, rather, suggests, that Moshe could have remained alive in Ever ha Yarden and Hashem’s oath that he would not cross into EY would be fulfilled. (that is what he says) 14 years later, he would be able to fufill terumos and maasros there. So his desire to enter the land and fulfill mitzvos, rather, must refer to the national mitzvos of conquering the land and setting up a king, etc.
The problem with that is that it presumes Moshe would have lived for 14 more years. Part of Hashem’s commandment is that he should die, not simply live in Ever ha Yarden. But that is what the Rashbatz says. Tsarich Iyun.
We don’t have to accept Rashbatz’ contention. See Chiddushei Hagram, the paragraph before the first piece in Hilchos Beis Habechira (in the first edition; I didn’t look in the newly reprinted & expanded edition). From that brief paragraph, we can say that Ever Hayarden was not fully E”Y because it was not included in the shvua to Avraham. Nafka mina, it would not be E”Y for Semicha etc. after Churban bayis rishon. veyesh l’ayein.
I think he was the lonely man of faith. His description in Parshat Ekev of his time on Har Sinai resonates with loneliness- not to mention their being reinforced when seeing Chet HaEgel
Litvak: He wanted to chap arein the inyan of avira de’ara, אוירא דארץ ישראל מחכים, to inhale the holy air, to better be able to understand the Torah hakedoshah, which, es ken zein, is only in Eretz Yisroel proper, not in eiver hayarden!… So maybe the Rashbatz’s Moshe Rabbeinu wasn’t a Litvak, but Mayshe Rabbeinu definitely was one! 😉
I’m not sure what you mean here by “Litvak”, but this is a mystical/kabbalistic reason which fits with many schools of Jewish thought better than with the “halachic man”.
Rather, explains Rashbatz, Moshe desired to fulfill the national commandments of conquering Israel, fighting its battles, establishing a government (eventually a kingship) and building a Temple.
R Gil:
Why are you assuming that the Rashbatz is not still focused solely on Moshe’s desire to fulfill the halakhic aspects of the kibush, i.e. only those halakhot that can be fulfilled be’ever ha’yarden? (In which case his peshat would still be in line with the Rav’s thesis).
Tal: Thank you for the correction. You are absolutely right.
The straightforward reading of the gemara in Sotah 14a supports R. Soloveichik’s view. “Thus Moshe said, Israel was commanded in many mitzvos that are not fulfilled except in Eretz Yisrael, I will enter the landin order that all of them will be fulfilled through me.” His main concern was fulfillment of mitzvos, whatever they were. (This is not limited to terumos and maasros. The din of minchas nesachim, for example, did not take effect until they entered the land.)
The level of observance of halachot teluyot ba’aretz is different in Ever Hayarden hamizrachi and Ma’aravi. When I lived in the Golan Heights we were instructed by R’ Shlomo Goren ZTZL to take TVM without a bracha mesafek. It seems that MRAH
wanted to observe these mitzvot “lekulei alma”. I agree that the desire to fulfill the “national” mitzvot of conquest and settlement were paramount in Moshe’s wish to cross the Yarden.
Moshe Rabbenu a “Mizrochnik”? I think Chardali Mamlachti is closer.
R Gil- The fact that Moshe Rabbeinu was on “his knees, begging in tears for this favor”, already tells you that he was no quintessential Halachic Man. Why was he crying? Was there a ‘din’ to cry? Did he cry before he hit the rock?
Dayan Reguer would not be impressed.
“It turns out that halakhic man is not the best category for Moshe in twentieth century Orthodox Jewish thought. Rather than a Litvak, he was a Religious Zionist.”
You are asking for trouble, and you know it.
🙂
R’Shaul S,
R’YBS wasn’t “halachic man” it was his father or grandfather he was describing. R’YBS was both a Litvak and a chasid (oops – is that a dialectic?)
KT
C’mon, RGS, aren’t enough Jews throwing labels like mud at their fellow Jews? Do we really need more of this, sanctimoniously couched in “Halachic” terms? MRAH apparently was, to put it mildly, a complex individual. Trying to fit a particular request of his into a peghole category, as per the comments above, doesn’t work very well.
Tangentially (or perhaps not so tangentially), a recent discussion re what b’nos Tzlafchad were actually asking for & what they received seems relevant. That eight-posts discussion begins with http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol30/v30n096.shtml#06 and ends in the next Avodah digest with http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol30/v30n097.shtml#10 . Worth consideration, IMNSHO, if you haven’t already seen it.
Kadesh Barnea is inside of the halakhic boundaries of Israel; thus Moshe was, at least at certain points, within Israel. Of course, without agriculture and without, perhaps, consecration under Yehoshua, he wouldn’t have been able to do many of the mitzvot.
As medrashim say, and as the Rav has repeatedly pointed out, had Moshe Rabbeinu entered E”Y, the eschatological era would have commenced. How could Moshe not cry?
This approach of course begs the question as to why the Gemara used such a “dochek” teretz. The true Halachic Man, under similar circumstances, would have simply stoically accepted the reality that he had no chiyuv to do the mitzvos hatluyos baaretz, the same way R. Chaim didn’t cry when he publicly ate on Yom Kippur due to a specific set of circumstances that forced him to do so.
R’ Arnie,
As I noted above:
http://koltorah.org/ravj/13-3%20%20The%20Rambam%E2%80%99s%20Aseret%20Yemei%20Teshuva%20Roadmap.htm
Our analysis provides some insight into a celebrated incident that occurred in the shul in Washington Heights where Rav Moshe Soloveitchik served as the Mara D’atra. Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik presents this story about his father in his essay entitled the Ish Halacha. The Baal Tokea in Rav Moshe’s shul was a Lubavitcher Chassid and he was crying intensely immediately before Tekiat Shofar. Rav Moshe (a quintessential Litvak-Mitnaged) reacted to this display of emotion by asking the Chassid whether he cries before he takes a Lulav. His son Rav Yosef Dov, though, boldly stated (in a public Shiur delivered in Boston in August 1985) that he does not agree with his father. He felt that it is apparent from the Rambam that simple obedience to the Divine Will is an inadequate experience for Tekiat Shofar (although it might suffice for most Mitzvot according to Mitnagdic thought, see for example Teshuvot Nodah B’Yehudah 2:93 where Rav Yechezkel Landau opposes the recitation of L’Shem Yichud before performing Mitzvot, unlike Sephardim and Chassidim). The Rav strongly felt that the Rambam teaches that a richer religious experience is expected from us during the Tekiat Shofar.
It seems that Rav Moshe Soloveitchik understands our passage as mere Taamei HaMitzvot. On the other hand, his son Rav Yosef Dov seems to interpret the Rambam in one of the other three possible alternatives that we suggested.
KT
Raya l’davar is this week’s Rashi that says that after milchemes Sichon v’Og Moshe thought that the neder (of not going into EY) was batel. It seems that he thought that given that he could be mikayem some of the mitzvos (at least seeting up Arei Miklat, although not yet effective) and maybe other halachos as set forth by others above, Hashem would let him in to perform all of the mitzvos. That appears to have been his goal. A true Halachic Man.
“Religious Zionist” means one supports the state established in 1948. We do not know what Moshe Rabeinu would have thought about that.
parshainsights.blogspot.com
If you bear in mind what the “glorious task” given to Yehoshua actually conisted of, by the logic of this post, “the best category for Moshe in twentieth century Orthodox Jewish thought” would be quite singnificantly to the right of Kahane.
This is absolute nonsense. When the Mikvah was dedicated in Beijing a few years ago, the Lubavitcher who spoke said that the Mishkan was the first Chabad house. In light of this, Moshe was a Chabadnic and not a religious Zionist. Keep in mind that RMMS said he subscribed to the virulent anti-Zionism of his father-in-law, although he kept this quiet.
(Posted tongue in cheek.)
Why don’t they just claim Avraham’s tent- which kind of makes more sense?