Torah Table of Contents
The Holy Spirit of the Jewish People, Imrei Aish The Idle Worship of Money, Divrei YisraelThe Holy Spirit of the Jewish People
based on a ma'amar by the Imrei Aish in Ashei Yisrael
"Ki Ani Hashem shochen b'soch Bnei Yisrael - For I am Hashem, Who dwells amidst the children of Israel" (Bamidbar 35:34).
The Imrei Aish tells us that if we take the name of Hashem and put it between the words Bnei and Yisrael, reading it "Bnei Hashem, Yisrael, " these words have the gematria [numerical value] of Ruach [spirit] and Kedusha [holiness] (Editor's note - they both equal 629).
In other words, if we as a nation allow Hashem to dwell amongst us, then our lives will be filled with His spirit and His holiness. Let us hope that we will be Zoche [merit] to have our lives filled with the Ruach and Kedusha of Hashem Yisborach.
The Idle Worship of Money
Based on the Divrei Yisrael on Parshas Massai, from the sefer Ashei Yisrael
"U'vEiloheihem Asa Hashem Shfatim ... VaYashav al Pi HaChiros Asher Al Pnei Ba'al Tzafon... And Hashem administered judgements on their gods... and it turned back towards Pi HaChiros, which lies before Ba'al Tzafon." (Bamidbar 33:4 and 7)
One of the most difficult aspects of ancient civilizations for modern minds to fully comprehend is the idea of idolatry. How can thinking people fashion with their own hands something of wood, clay, or metal, and then attribute to it supernatural powers? What is the nature of this particular yetzer hara (inclination to evil/sin)? It simply defies reason. The Divrei Yisrael's insight into the two half pasukim quoted above gives us an insight into how this can be, and how it's still a painfully relevant problem even to this day.
One of the common idolatries (Avoda Zara) in Egypt was known as Ba'al Tzafon, in fact, it was the only one of their idolatries to actually outlast the others. The Divrei Yisrael is puzzled by this. How did this idolatry survive, if Hashem promised "And I shall administer judgement on all of the Egyptian gods/idols..." (i.e. - destroy them)? Hashem specifically said all.
The Divrei Yisrael bases his answer on a well-known concept from the Iggeres HaKodesh found in the Sefer Noam Elimelech of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. The Anshei Knesses HaGedola - Members of the Great Assembly of Sages (prior to the Tannaitic Era) "killed" the angel/inclination to be drawn after idolatry. How does one "kill" an angel? The Noam Elimelech explains that the Anshei Knesses HaGedola transmuted the way that this angel/evil inclination works from simple idolatry. They didn't destroy it, but altered it. So what is this angel/evil inclination's new line of work?
Money. Fervent attempts to force people to blindly chase after money and riches, which is often done as blindly and illogically as idol worship was done previously.
To support this idea, the Divrei Yisrael quotes the explanation of the Kli Yakar that the Egyptians had a plethora of idols to worship. The idolatry of Ba'al Tzafon was one that focused on the wanton chasing of wealth. And this is the only idolatry that survived from Egypt. Hashem destroyed the idols and their typical forms of worship, but the weak human inclination to be drawn after what they represent was left untouched. (Translator's note - apparently, that would be tampering with human free will.)
This now helps us to understand other events. When the Jews were still in Egypt, Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to ask and beseech Bnei Yisrael to please take the spoils that were due them (during the plague of darkness). But at the Red Sea, when they plundered the destroyed Egyptian armies, Moshe Rabbeinu had to force them to leave. The reason is because while they were still in Egypt, Ba'al Tzafon expressed itself as idolatry, and the evil inclination to follow it meant to worship that idol. After Hashem destroyed the Egyptian idols (including Ba'al Tzafon) this evil inclination transmuted to the wanton seeking of money. This is why Moshe Rabbeinu had to literally drag them away - it was the first time they had faced this, and despite the miracles that they had just witnessed, they weren't yet up to the task of fending it off.
Translator's note - And ourselves?