By the Hand of Moshe: Simple Faith Leads the Flock

1“These are the journeys of Bnei Yisrael … by the hand of Moshe and Aharon. And Moshe wrote their goings-forth according to their journeys at the word of Hashem.”¹ The commentators, the Chizkuni and the Ohr HaChaim, raise a difficulty.² We know that wherever the Torah says eileh, “these,” it sets aside what came before.³ What, then, does it set aside here, when no other journeys are listed before these?

2We must also ask what “by the hand of Moshe and Aharon” means. It would seem more natural to say al yedei, “through,” Moshe and Aharon; why does the verse say beyad, “by the hand of”? Another point needs explaining: why does the verse say, “And Moshe wrote … at the word of Hashem”? Surely everything Moshe wrote in the Torah came from the mouth of Hashem.

3We can explain this through a teaching of the Midrash: “This is what the verse says: ‘You led Your people like sheep by the hand of Moshe and Aharon.’ ‘You led like sheep’: just as sheep follow the shepherd wherever he leads them, so it was with Bnei Yisrael: wherever Moshe and Aharon led them on their journeys, they journeyed after them.”⁴ But the idea needs explaining.

4First let us cite another Midrash: “Three gifts were created in the world. Whoever gains one of them has taken the most precious thing in the whole world. If he gains wisdom, he has gained everything; if he gains strength, he has gained everything; if he gains wealth, he has gained everything. When is this so? When they are gifts of Heaven and come through the power of the Torah. But the strength and the wealth of flesh and blood are nothing. And when these gifts do not come from the Holy One, blessed be He, in the end they will leave him. Our Rabbis taught: Two wise men arose in the world … and they were lost from the world. Why? Because their gift was not from the Holy One; they snatched it for themselves.”⁵ This Midrash is very puzzling. First it says, “If he gains strength, he has gained everything.” Then it says, “But the strength of flesh and blood is nothing … for their gift was not from the Holy One.” Yet we are believers, children of believers,⁶ and we hold that everything we have comes from Hashem! We must also ask what the remarkable phrase “has taken the most precious thing in the whole world” means. For even after a person has gained wealth and strength, he has not yet gained “the most precious thing in the whole world.”

5This will become clear from the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the verse “And Aharon lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.”⁷ “His hands,” he said, allude to a person's labor, the work of his hands in material things. The task of Aharon the Kohen was to raise up the work of Bnei Yisrael's hands, that is, to help them know that everything comes from Heaven. This is the meaning of “And Aharon lifted up his hands … and blessed them”: through this very act of raising up the work of their hands, the blessing came to rest upon them. Those are his holy words.

6aThe point is that this is the task and the avodah of the tzaddik of the generation, the leader of Israel. We see it in Moshe Rabbeinu's words: “Let Hashem, God of the spirits …, appoint … so that the congregation of Hashem will not be like sheep that have no shepherd.”⁸ But why did Moshe need to add “so that the congregation … will not be like sheep that have no shepherd”? What was missing from what he had just said, “Let Hashem … appoint a man over the congregation”? The answer lies in the Midrash we cited about sheep following their shepherd. Bnei Yisrael are compared specifically to sheep because sheep go after the shepherd wherever he leads them. Even where there are thorns, briars and pits, they follow the shepherd, with no mind of their own at all.

6bA faithful leader of Israel has the same task: to root in the people a middah, a trait of character, by which they are like sheep following the shepherd. He must teach them to cast all their burden upon Hashem, blessed be He, and not to depend on their own strength and understanding at all, but to rely only on Hashem, with faith and trust. This is what the Midrash meant: “so it was with Bnei Yisrael: wherever Moshe and Aharon led them on their journeys, they journeyed after them.” Moshe and Aharon imparted their own faith and trust to the hearts of all Bnei Yisrael, so that they would rely on Hashem alone, like sheep following the shepherd.

7This is the meaning of Chazal's teaching on the verse “And it was, when Moshe raised his hand …”: “Do his hands …? Rather, as long as Bnei Yisrael looked upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven …”⁹ For this was Moshe's avodah and his power: to plant this simple faith within them, so that they would be subject only to their Father in Heaven and cast all their burden on Him alone. That is the meaning of “Moshe raised his hands”:¹⁰ he raised up the “hands” of Bnei Yisrael, which stand for their deeds and undertakings in material things, and taught them that everything is from Heaven, from Hashem alone.

8Now we can understand the phrase “by the hand of Moshe and Aharon.” Moshe and Aharon led Bnei Yisrael and rooted in them the middah of faith. The work of their “hands,” all their actions and toil in material things, was to be done with pure faith that everything comes only from Hashem, like sheep following the shepherd. The Midrash, too, is now clear: “This is what the verse says: ‘You led Your people like sheep by the hand of Moshe and Aharon.’” The words are precise: “like sheep,” and through the “hands” of Moshe and Aharon. For it is with these two that we find this very thing, as it says, “Moshe raised his hands,” and likewise, “Aharon lifted up his hands.” They raised up the work of the hands so that it would be subject to Heaven, so that people would know that everything is from Hashem, blessed be He, and that they must rely on Him alone.

9We may say that this is the meaning of the Midrash's words: “If he gains wealth, he has gained everything; if he gains strength, he has gained everything. When? When they are gifts of Heaven.” That is, when a person knows and recognizes that everything is only a gift of Heaven, and does not, Heaven forbid, credit it to “My strength and the might of my hand made me this wealth,”¹¹ then “he has gained everything.” He is privileged to cast all his burden upon Hashem and to rely on Him alone, for Hashem alone provides all his needs. It is this level of understanding that the Midrash calls gaining “the most precious thing in the whole world.” But if, Heaven forbid, he lacks this faith and recognition and does not see that his gift comes from the Holy One, blessed be He, then it is counted as if he were snatching it from Hashem, as the Midrash puts it further on. He thinks, Heaven forbid, that he will prevail by his own strength, and then the flow of blessing does not stay with him.

10Perhaps this is hinted at in the words “And Moshe wrote their goings-forth according to their journeys at the word of Hashem.” Moshe Rabbeinu wrote on the tablet of their hearts, and rooted in them the knowledge, that whatever they went forth to do, in their work and their labor, was all given to them “at the word of Hashem.” On this basis we may say that the word eileh holds a hint as well. Through Moshe Rabbeinu, Bnei Yisrael had reached a great and wondrous level of faith and trust: all their journeys and goings-forth were only “at the word of Hashem,” and in everything they always saw only the power of Hashem. So they kept rising from journey to journey in the spirit of eileh, which sets aside what came before. They saw that what they had grasped yesterday was not enough, and each day they set aside the service of the day before, so as to rise higher and higher in faith and trust in Hashem.

11a[Along similar lines, we can explain this in another way.¹² My holy father explained the verse “These are the journeys of Bnei Yisrael … by the hand of Moshe and Aharon” by way of hint. Chazal teach that Moshe Rabbeinu asked the Holy One, blessed be He, in what merit Bnei Yisrael would go out of Egypt.¹³ Hashem answered him: in the merit of “you will serve God upon this mountain.”¹⁴ They were not yet worthy of it, but the Holy One judges Bnei Yisrael by what they will be in the future, when they will reach their tikkun, their full repair. But how are we truly privileged to have the Holy One judge us by the future? Through simple faith.]

11b[As is well known, there is a simple faith that needs no philosophical inquiry. It comes through the tradition of the fathers, in the spirit of “Hear, my son, the instruction of your father.”¹⁵ When we have this simple faith, then, measure for measure, the Holy One, blessed be He, judges us by the future. Now we understand nothing and rely on the future, on the days of Moshiach, when the kingship of Heaven will be revealed and His glory will fill the whole earth. Just as we rely on the future, so Hashem judges us by the future, even though we are not worthy now. This is the meaning of “You led Your people like sheep by the hand of Moshe and Aharon.” “Hands” hint at simple faith, as Chazal teach: “Do Moshe's hands make war or break war? Rather, it tells you that as long as Bnei Yisrael looked upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they prevailed.”¹⁶ This is simple faith, without reasoning or inquiry, and that is why Bnei Yisrael were privileged to make the journeys of the wilderness when they went out of Egypt. That is the gist of his words.]

12[We may add a further point. Besides guiding Bnei Yisrael in the middah of trust, with simple faith, Moshe and Aharon also taught them to say only words connected with the honor of Heaven. This is what the Midrash means: “Just as sheep are drawn after the shepherd, so Israel was drawn after Moshe and Aharon.”¹⁷ They trained the people not to say unnecessary words, and Bnei Yisrael followed them through the journeys of the wilderness in the merit of simple faith and of guarding their speech, speaking the words that Hashem commanded.]

13May Hashem grant that we reach the level of faith and trust, and through it be privileged to see the redemption, as Chazal said that Israel is redeemed only through faith.¹⁸ Amen.