Parasha Matot-Masei
"The Creator spoke to Moses saying:
'The children of Israel will avenge themselves on the Midianites and then you will join your people'
And Moses spoke to the people saying: 'Arm yourselves men for the army, and march against Midian to enforce the vengeance of the Creator against Midian' ... "
(Bamidbar-Numbers 31, 1-3)
"For whoever rises up for evil against Israel, it is as if he had done it against the Blessed Creator"
The war against Midian was a war against wanton hatred and discord. The Creator orders us to wage this permanent war so that hatred, discord and resentment are replaced by love, harmony and goodness.
In addition to the obvious benefits of this struggle for us as individuals and as a society, the blessed Creator also "benefits" from it. As the great sage Rabbi Akiva said: "Brotherly love is the basis of all the Torah"
The Creator assures us that our constant war against hatred, just as it happened in the original war against Midian, we will end without suffering losses of any kind, whether physical, spiritual or financial.
The Midianites had no motive to attack the People of Israel, yet they did so only out of gratuitous hatred.
Our sages say that the root of senseless hatred is the ego.
That is why the egocentric person feels threatened by others, because their very existence threatens his irritated feeling.
Therefore, even if he does not actively seek to harm others, he will experience a certain secret pleasure in seeing them suffer, or at least, his suffering will not affect him at all. It will even be blind to the positive qualities of other people.
Since he is not sincere in his relationship with the Creator and the world around him, he cannot believe that others are.
On the other hand, the person who is not egocentric focuses only on the positive qualities of others, he will feel genuine concern for his suffering, since he will judge them from a favorable light and will find no justification for his pain.
You, whose side do you want to be on?
I know of those who seek to do good to others and to themselves, this is "gratuitous love" and I do not hate gratuitous like those Midianites.
"And the priest Eleazar said to the men of the army who had gone to war:" This is the statute of the Torah that the Creator has commanded Moses "(Bamidbar-Numbers 31,21 )
After the battle against the Midianites, the Jews brought Midianite women, their children, livestock, and utensils as spoils of war. Moses was upset, as he assumed that another immoral act was taking place because of the captive Midianite women.
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Since he lost patience, believing that it would be very difficult to effect the necessary purification for further immorality, he forgot the laws of immersion of utensils.
But it was Eleazar, the Kohen Gadol who explained the laws, since the Kohen Gadol is the symbol of purity and atonement.
"Certainly gold and silver and copper and iron and tin and lead" (32,22)
(Metal utensils require immersion of a Mikvé, not ceramic utensils)
The forces of evil try to grasp everything they can.For the larger the object, the more they will try to trap it in their realm. Metal, which has great value, is under constant attack from the force of evil. Therefore, metal utensils must be immersed in a Mikveh before they can enter the realm of holiness. If metal utensils have been contaminated with non-kosher foods, they should also be heated to red-white and purified in fire, although evil forces continually attack what is valuable, there is always a way to purify and purify it. make him return to the realm of holiness.
This is similar in our life. for
(The Mikvé or ritual bath is a special place for purification with water)
By contrast, a ceramic utensil has very little value, it can be brought to sanctity very easily to the point of not requiring immersion in a Mikvah. But if the ceramic utensil is used for non-kosher foods, then even purification won't help. Such a utensil must be broken and destroyed, for something of very little value does not need to reach a state of holiness.
"Everything that goes to fire will be made to pass through fire and thus it will remain pure, as long as it is purified with the waters for impurity, but everything that does not go to fire, they will go through water "(31,23)
One should always seek the Creator to purify his heart!
If you have already begun to serve the Creator, it will be necessary to increase your devotions with renewed passion. But if until now you have been burning with a passion for the things of this world, then that desire must be transformed into a passion for service to the Creator. Thus, "everything that goes to fire" -the fire of material passion- "they will make it go through fire" they must transform it into a passionate devotion to the Creator!
The Garden of Breslev recommends: