“Two Stories” Parashat Chukat 5785
Sometimes you can hear the exact same story from two different people and yet it sounds like you’re listening to two completely different tales. For instance, ask an Israeli who won the recent Iran-Israel War and he will answer that Israel clearly emerged victorious: The Iranian nuclear program was demolished, their ballistic missiles and the factories that produce them were destroyed, and Israel maintained total air dominance over Iran such that it could have continued blowing up targets pretty much ad infinitum. Yet at the same time, Iran might also claim victory in the war by focusing on symbolic achievements rather than military outcomes. Despite heavy losses, Iran survived, retaliated, and maintained regime stability, defiance and strength. Iran’s suspension of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was portrayed as resistance to international pressure. While Israel achieved tactical success, Iran’s narrative emphasizes strategic endurance and ideological resilience. They might have lost the battle but they believe they won the war.
The Jewish People are on final approach to the Land of Canaan. Because of the sin of spies, they have been doomed to march in the desert for forty years and they must take a circuitous route. One of the last places they pass through is the Land of Edom[1], the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother and nemesis. Moshe sends emissaries to the King of Edom to request safe passage through his land. But first, Moshe tells the king what can only be considered a sob story [Bemidbar 20:14-16]: “You know all the hardships that have befallen us: that our ancestors went down to Egypt, that we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and that the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our ancestors. We cried to G-d who heard our plea, sending a messenger who freed us from Egypt. And now here we are at your front door.” Moshe tells the king that the Israelites will remain on the highway, they will not litter, and they will not make off with the towels, as some modern-day Israelites have been accused of doing. But the King of Edom[2] will hear nothing of it [Bemidbar 20:18]: “You shall not pass through, else we will go out against you with the sword.” Moshe tries some more diplomacy but once again he is rebuffed, this time forcefully [Bemidbar 20:20]: “Edom went out against them in heavy force, strongly armed”. Moshe, not wanting to fight an unnecessary war against a disgruntled cousin, makes a route change and the Israelites bypass Edom.
The Book of Devarim is, in a large part, a recapitulation of events that occurred in the previous books of the Torah. Much can be learned by comparing stories as they appear in the Book of Devarim with the way they appear when they actually transpired. Let us compare the above story of the aborted negotiations with the King of Edom with the way they are retold in the Book of Devarim [2:4-8]: “You will be passing through the territory of your kin, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they will be afraid of you, be very careful not to provoke them. For I will not give you of their land so much as a foot can tread on; I have given the hill country of Seir as a possession to Esau… Indeed, G-d has blessed you in all your undertakings. [He] has watched over your wanderings through this great wilderness; G-d has been with you these past forty years: you have lacked nothing. So we moved on, away from our kin, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the road of the Arabah, away from Elath and Ezion-Geber; and we marched on in the direction of the wilderness of Moab.” This does not sound like a different story – it sounds like a different book altogether. In this rendition, there is no king, no negotiations, and no threat of kinetic warfare. G-d simply tells the Jewish People that they will be bypassing their “kin” and that their land is not for sale, which is not such a big deal because you are doing pretty well for yourselves even without their land. These stories are so disparate that the Rashbam[3], widely renowned as being the most straightforward of the medieval commentators, asserts that these are, indeed, two different stories, and that “Esau” and “Edom” are two different nations. This is anything but the straightforward interpretation, as the Torah tells us explicitly [Bereishit 36:8]: “Esau settled in the hill country of Seir – Esau being Edom.” So how are we to understand the fundamental variations between these two stories?
R’ Shimon Mandelbaum, a friend and a teacher from Moreshet, has an interesting way of explaining these sorts of mismatches. He asserts that the stories told in the Book of Devarim have a different audience than the ones told earlier in the Torah. The Books of Shemot, Vayikra, and Bemidbar were spoken to a people who had just been freed from hundreds of years of slavery, who were just beginning to coalesce into a unified nation. The Book of Devarim, on the other hand, was spoken to a nation that that stood at the doorstep of their destiny. They were meant to use everything they had learned during their sojourn in the desert and to build their homeland. Moshe is not teaching these people history; he is preparing them for the next phase of their lives[4]. It turns out that implementing R’ Shimon’s innovation onto our imbroglio is also not straightforward. The reason is that very little time transpires between the occurrence of the actual event and its retelling. According to Rashi[5], the words [Bemidbar 20:1] “The Israelites – the entire nation – at the wilderness of Zin on [the first day of Nissan]”, were spoken thirty-nine years after the exodus, about one year before the Israelites crossed the Jordan river and entered the Land of Canaan. This means that the negotiations between Moshe and the King of Edom that appear later in the same chapter also took place during the last year in the desert. In other words, the people hearing the story in the Book of Bemidbar are more or less the same people hearing the story in the Book of Devarim.
That said, I suggest that a derivative of Rav Shimon’s thesis can help extricate our cart from the mud. Let’s zoom out and analyse the context in which the two versions of the story appear. The story as it appears in the Book of Bemidbar is preceded by the story of “Moshe and the Rock” in which the Jewish people thirst for water, Moshe smites a rock instead of speaking to it and as a result, he is banned forever from entering the Land of Israel. The story as it appears in the Book of Devarim is preceded by the story of the spies, in which every person between the ages of twenty and sixty is banned forever from entering the Land of Israel. In the first version, as the story actually transpired, the leader has failed his people, and in the second version, as the story was retold, the people have failed themselves. Now here is where things get interesting. In the first version, even though the leader has lost the confidence of his people, he continues to represent his nation on the world stage. He stands toe to toe with the King of Edom and he backs down only when he chooses a better strategic policy. But when it is the nation who has lost all confidence in themselves, their leader can no longer speak for them. He cannot take the initiative, he can only react to events “beyond his control”. Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter[6], writing in the “S’fat Emet” on Shemot [17:1], teaches that the source of the strength of a leader is in his people. We might not always merit having a “worthy” leader, but our actions can transform the leader that we were given into the leader that we desire, the leader that we need. By presenting the story in two vastly different ways, the Torah is not giving two different messages or two different viewpoints – it is giving one message in two parts: When we believe in ourselves, in the justness of our way, and in the certainty of our destiny, we are a nation that cannot be stopped.
Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5785
Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Iris bat Chana, Shlomo ben Esther, Sheindel Devora bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, Esther bat Hila, and Meir ben Drora.
[1] The Land of Edom is in modern-day Jordan, across from the Israeli Arava.
[2] Strangely, the King of Edom remains nameless. Compare this with “Sihon, King of the Amorites” and “Og, King of Bashan”, whom the Jewish People encounter immediately after the King of Edom.
[3] Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir, known by his acronym “Rashbam”, was the grandson of Rashi, and lived in France in the 12th century.
[4] See our essay on Devarim 5777.
[5] Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known by his acronym “Rashi,” was the most eminent of the medieval commentators. He lived in northern France in the 11th century.
[6] Rabbi Alter was the “Gerrer Rebbe” in the second half of the 19th century.
