Chief of Staff – Va’eira
This week General Herzl “Herzi” Halevi became the new Chief of Staff of the IDF. HKB”H should be מחזק את ידו and also that of כל מגיני ארץ קדשנו. In this week’s shiur, I would like to talk about a different staff and a different Chief (להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות).
The Mishna (Avot 5, 6) says –
עֲשָׂרָה דְּבָרִים נִבְרְאוּ בְּעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת, וְאֵלּו הֵן: פִּי הָאָרֶץ, וּפִי הַבְּאֵר, וּפִי הָאָתוֹן, וְהַקֶּשֶׁת, וְהַמָּן, וְהַמַּטֶּה, וְהַשָּׁמִיר, וְהַכְּתָב, וְהַמִּכְתָּב, וְהַלּוּחוֹת. וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים: אַף הַמַּזִּיקִין, וּקְבוּרָתוֹ שֶׁל מֹשֶׁה, וְאֵילוֹ שֶׁל אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ. וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים: אַף צְבָת בִּצְבָת עֲשׂוּיָה.
In previous shiurim I described the reason why the above things had to be created at the “last minute” - because they were not part of the original plan, but rather part of the aftermath of חטא עץ הדעת which occurred on the 6th day just before Shabbat. They were in fact all the components that were now required for the tikkun of that sin. One of these things was the מטה, the staff.
The Midrashim (Pirkei d’Rebi Eliezer, Yalkut Shimoni, Tanchuma) go into great detail about this staff. It was made of a material called סנפיריון, the most valuable and hardest material known to man, the very same material that the luchot were made from. Its weight was 40 se’ah (the weight of all the water in a mikvah, approximately 333kg – Chaim Na’eh), and engraved on it were the שם המפורש and the letters דצך עדש באחב (which incidentally in gematria is שְׂאֹר, alluding to the fact that it was part of the tikkun for the חטא עץ הדעת which was Chava baking, eating and feeding Adam a chametz bread, Meir Panim, chap. 15).
This staff was given by HKB”H to Adam Harishon. It was then passed down from generation to generation, to Shet, Chanoch, Metushelach, Noach, Shem, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov and then to Yosef.
After Yosef died, his estate was turned into a national monument, a kind of museum. Yitro, who was one of Pharaoh’s advisors, desired this staff and decided to take it for himself (How he was able to lift it is a question. His predecessors had superhuman strength given to them by HKB”H, however at this point Yitro was still a priest to avoda zara).
Yitro took this staff back home to Midyan where he placed it in pride of place in his garden, as a kind of ornament/statue. The staff became embedded in the rock and nobody could lift it. Yitro offered a prize to anyone who could lift this staff out of the rock, his daughter Tzipporah's hand in marriage. (If this story reminds you of a similar legend, of King Arthur and Merlin, it is not surprising. The goyim didn’t “invent” anything on their own - they copied it all from us. Even the shape of the “cross” that the Christians adopted as their religious symbol originated with us, the pattern of משיחה of oil on the rekikim and also on the forehead of a newly inaugurated Kohen). No one succeeded in extricating this staff from the rock.
Then along comes Moshe Rabbeinu, fleeing Egypt where there is a price on his head for killing the Egyptian. Moshe rescues Yitro’s daughters at the well from the abusive shepherds and is invited to Yitro’s house (some Midrashim say that initially Yitro threw Moshe into a pit for many years and left him for dead with no food and water and Moshe only managed to survive because Tzipporah fed him and gave him water. Many years later Tzipporah asked her father – “What ever happened to that Egyptian you threw in the pit?” Yitro replied “He must be dead by now” and when they went to investigate they found Moshe alive and well and brought him back to Yitro’s house). Either way, while Moshe was in Yitro’s home, he saw this staff in the garden and immediately recognized the engravings on it in Lashon Hakodesh. Moshe then effortlessly lifted the staff out of the rock. And the rest of the story is “history”. Moshe married Tzipporah …… and they lived happily ever after, yada yada , like you see in Disney movies.
Except this is no Disney movie, lehavdil. This is not nearly the end of the story of the staff.
Moshe, Yitro’s new son-in-law, was tending his flocks when he saw an amazing sight, a burning thorny bush that, although enveloped by flames, was not burnt and consumed. Moshe’s curiosity was aroused and he drew closer to have a look. The Torah teaches us that this is basic human nature. We are first attracted to something by sight and when we look closer we then discover the פנימיות. This is how the נחש tempted Chava - וַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה כִּי טוֹב הָעֵץ לְמַאֲכָל וְכִי תַאֲוָה הוּא לָעֵינַיִם וְנֶחְמָד הָעֵץ לְהַשְׂכִּיל. Therefore the Lechem Hapanim, which is also a tikkun for the עץ הדעת, is a magnificently, impressive looking bread that harbors limitless, deeper פנימיות. A practical application of this (for all wives/husbands) is the importance of laying out the food on the table (the modern substitute for the Shulchan) in an attractive way to please the senses, predominantly the visual sense.
HKB”H appears to Moshe and commands him to return to Egypt and redeem Am Yisrael. Moshe is reluctant. “What if Bnei Yisrael will not believe me?” he asks. HKB”H replies מַזֶּה בְיָדֶךָ (שמות ד, ב), “What is that in your hands (plural)?” The passuk is written חסר, it should say מַה זֶּה. Moshe replies “A staff”. HKB”H then instructs Moshe to throw the staff to the ground. Moshe does and it turns into a snake. Moshe flees from it. Why is Moshe afraid of a snake? He killed the Egyptian with the Shem Hameforash, so why doesn’t he simply do the same thing here? The snake fills Moshe with such dread that he feels the need to flee. Hashem says, שְׁלַח יָדְךָ וֶאֱחֹז בִּזְנָבוֹ “Stretch out your hand (singular) and grab its tail”. Moshe does, he holds it and it again becomes a staff in his hand (singular and also a different word for hand, not יד) וַיַּחֲזֶק בּוֹ וַיְהִי לְמַטֶּה בְּכַפּוֹ.
What is this all about?
Moshe is holding Adam Harishon’s staff, the same מטה created בערב שבת שבין השמשות as a tikkun for the sin of the עץ הדעת, a chametz bread. Hashem asks Moshe מַזֶּה בְיָדֶךָ without the letter ה'. Why is there a letter missing? This is not a printing error or incidental. HKB”H is revealing to Moshe what he is actually holding in his hands. Moshe never knew before this, what the origin of the staff was. He saw it in Yitro’s garden and it had Hebrew engravings on it - that is all he knew. By saying to Moshe מַזֶּה בְיָדֶךָ HKB”H is revealing to Moshe the entire story of this staff.
The gematria of מַזֶּה בְיָדֶךָ is "וסחטה", לחמי"", "יד ידיים", דם דם"". It began with Chava squeezing grapes and giving Adam wine to drink. Adam became intoxicated and fell asleep. In his absence, the נחש tempted Chava to mix the ground-up fruit of the עץ הדעת (wheat) and make it into a chametz bread, in a similar way HKB”H created Adam, by mixing dust of the earth into a dough and breathing life into it. The snake duped Chava into thinking that she could create life on her own, without HKB”H and without Adam – לחמי – my bread, that I (Chava) myself created! After Chava realized she sinned, she deliberately caused Adam to also eat and sin. It started with bread in one יד (Chava’s only) and then the bread was in two hands ידיים, Chava’s and Adam’s. HKB”H punished Chava מידה כנגד מידה for this - דם דם (twice), דם נידה and דם בתולים.
HKB”H instructs Moshe to throw the staff to the ground and in doing so reveals to Moshe the essence of the נחש, the ס"מ and the enormity of the disaster he wreaked on humanity, all the suffering, all the sins, all the galuyot! This terrifies Moshe and he flees.
HKB”H comforts Moshe - grab hold of the tail שְׁלַח יָדְךָ וֶאֱחֹז בִּזְנָבוֹ. The remedy is in the “tail”. שְׁלַח יָדְךָ וֶאֱחֹז בִּזְנָבוֹ in gematria is "כשלג ילבינו", "אני ה' אחישנה". In the end, HKB”H will forgive our sins and redeem us - we will “all live happily ever after”, after all!
HKB”H instructs Moshe to grab the נחש with only one hand (singular). The staff was originally in Moshes hands (plural). What is inscribed on the staff? The letters דצ"ך עד"ש באח"ב inscribed already from the time of Creation. דצ"ך עד"ש באח"ב in gematria is בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה. One mighty, outstretched hand. Whose hand? HKB”H’s hand. HKB”H is the real “Chief of the Staff” it will be by His hand that we will be redeemed.
Moshe grabs hold of the tail of the snake and it turns back into a staff וַיְהִי לְמַטֶּה בְּכַפּוֹ, a different word for “hand”. Why not continue with the word יד like before? In this single word HKB”H is revealing to us the secret to our redemption - the root cause of the sin of the עץ הדעת and its remedy.
The root cause of the sin of the עץ הדעת was lack of recognition (Chava) and lack of gratitude (Adam). Recognition that HKB”H is the origin of everything. HKB”H creates life, HKB”H brings forth bread from the earth המוציא לחם מן הארץ. It is not "לחמי", “my bread” that I made with my own כוחי ועוצם ידי. It is all HKB”H. That recognition is the building block of everything. Once you understand that you are totally reliant of HKB”H for everything, then you truly value everything you have, you are grateful to HKB”H for everything He gives you, and this gratitude is called being שמח בחלקך – with the emphasis on the word שמח. This is the foundation of עבודת ה' and it is hidden in the word כף, which I explain in Meir Panim means at the same time “hand” and “smiling mouth” (also the shape of the Lechem Hapanim). When you grab and hold the נחש using the power of the כף - the above principles of recognition and gratitude, then you gain power over the יצר הרע and merit redemption.
People say that I am fixated with the Lechem Hapanim and the sin of the עץ הדעת and that “everywhere I look I see the Lechem Hapanim and the עץ הדעת“, and it is true. HKB”H did a tremendous chessed, allowing me to discover the most fundamental secret of the Torah, using the Lechem Hapanim as a gateway - because the two are intricately connected.
Understanding and applying this principle is the basis for the entire Torah, it is the reason for our existence, it is the meaning of life, it is the guideline how to live our life. It is reflected in every keter, letter, word, passuk, perek, parsha, sefer in the Tanach, in every Mishna, Gemara, in every Agaddeta, in every Halacha, in every Mussar Haskel, in the Beit Hamikdash, in every kli, in every korban, in every shir, in the structure of Am Yisrael, the hierarchy, the Twelve Tribes, every tefila, etc.. If you strip everything else away, you are left with this basic principle – recognize that HKB”H is the origin of everything and express gratitude to Him. It is the basis for Creation itself. So yes, I am fixated with that.
It is this staff that accompanies Moshe on every visit to Pharaoh, before informing him of each and every מכה that HKB”H unleashed on Egypt, engraved in ראשי תיבות on the staff, together with the Shem Hameforash - from the time of Creation.
The staff was not used by Moshe to split the Red Sea. Moshe used his hands not the staff, because he did not have bitachon in HKB”H and fled וינס from the staff when it turned into the snake. The sea split וירא הים וינס, in Yosef’s merit because he fled from sin וינס ויצא החוצה, from the wife of Potiphar.
It is with this staff that HKB”H commanded Moshe to first bring forth water from the rock, the Well of Miriam in Refidim.
According to the Machzor Vitri, when Korach caused dissention amongst Am Yisrael, Moshe took this staff and divided it into twelve portions, one for each tribe. The Nasi of each tribe wrote their name of their portion of the staff, and Aharon wrote his name on the portion of Levi. These twelve portions of the staff were placed in the Ohel Moed in front of the Aron Habrit. Levi’s portion of the staff flowered and bore fruit. It was this sign that finally quelled the dissention and restored unity to Am Yisrael.
All the tribes took their portions of the staff and they remained with the tribes for safekeeping. Aharon’s portion of the staff was permanently placed alongside the Aron Habrit as an eternal testament to prevent friction and dissention in Am Yisrael.
What became of the eleven portions of the staff belonging to the tribes is unknown. According to the Gemara (Yoma 52b), Aharon’s portion of the staff was hidden together with the Aron Habrit a few decades before the first Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, by יאשיהו המלך. There are many theories as to the precise location of these remnants of the Mikdash, but as of now nobody really knows for sure.
Nice as it would be to actually see with our own eyes a relic of the original staff of Adam Harishon created בערב שבת בין השמשות, the fact that we cannot is inconsequential, irrelevant and in truth - unnecessary. Yes, visual aids are helpful to stimulate curiosity as I described above, but it is unnecessary because we are not lacking visual aids! We simply need to look around us right this minute and we will see living proof of the Creation, that HKB”H is מחדש בכל יום תמיד, exactly the way it was in the first week. This is enough to drive home the principles described above – all we need is to open our eyes and truly see what is all around us, and rejoice!
