Printable PDF available here. A previous piece on Parshat Chukat is available here.
Rav Kook (Based on Ein Ayah, Shabbat 55b)
The ministering angels said before the Holy One, Blessed be He, “Master of the Universe, why did You penalize Adam, the first man, with death?” He said to them, “I gave him a simple mitzva, and he violated it.” They said to Him, “Didn’t Moses and Aaron, who observed the whole Torah in its entirety, nevertheless die?” The Holy One, Blessed be He, responded to them with the verse (Kohelet 9:2) “All share a common destiny, the righteous and the wicked.”
It is a basic tenet of Jewish faith that every person is defined by his/her free will and moral stature. Our lives are the sum of the moral and spiritual choices that we make, choices for which we alone bear responsibility. Even so, a person is affected by the character of the collective soul of humanity (lit. נפש האנושית בכללה) in ways that transcend freedom of choice. We are all burdened by the spiritual descent engendered by the primordial sin of Adam and Chavah. None of us hear G-d’s presence or encounter Him with the clarity and intensity that they did in the Garden of Eden.
But humanity’s spiritual development will eventually be restored to its height of completeness. Such is the aspiration of G-d’s beneficent will for humanity. But humanity’s elevation is not a simple matter, and it will not be attained by marginal improvements or enhancements. A categorical, qualitative transformation is required.
Death is part of the Divine plan for facilitating this transformation. For death is more than just a punishment or a mere ‘expiration date’ on the lifespans that G-d grants us in this world. It is part of a Divinely decreed process, the passage through which will eventually lead humanity back to Eden and the highest levels of perfection.
It follows that even elite individuals – those who climb to the highest peaks of spiritual accomplishment by their virtuous choices – cannot escape death. Even though such people have perfected every aspect of their individual spiritual persona, a portion of their soul is still bound up with, and draws upon, the collective oversoul of all humanity. In a post-Edenic reality, that portion of their being cannot be propelled to perfection, no matter how hard or vigorously they exert themselves.
Thus, it is not entirely true that death and sin are inextricably linked. Death is not always dependent upon one’s actions. Even Moshe and Aharon had to die – and not because of anything they did wrong by striking the rock at Mei Merivah. As G-d declared to the ministering angels, “All share a common destiny, the righteous and the wicked.” This is not cruel or arbitrary. It is simply a reflection of the reality that humanity is marching toward the day when the “earth is filled with knowledge of G-d like the water covers the ocean floor,” but it is not there yet. Our current way of being in the world – what we call ‘life’ – must come to an end in order for us to eventually reach that destination.
Food for Thought
Abarbanel: The root of the answer is to identify the sin of Moses and Aharon, the sin that sentenced their death, preventing them from entering the Land. This is a very deep matter, who can find it? Indeed, my own opinion is different to all those who preceded me.… Moses and Ahaon did not die due to the sin of Mei Meriva … Aharon, the holy one of G-d, died due to the sin of the Golden Calf, and Moses, our master, died for the sin of the Spies. This is not to say that Moses – G-d forbid – backed up the Spies’ advice. But Aharon as you know, with no evil intent, created the Calf… and even though his intent was to lead them calmly until Moses would arrive, we know the end of the story. Indeed, the people were punished severely for their sin, some died in the plague and others by the sword. They didn’t enter the Land, according to G-d’s decree, and Aharon caused all of this! It would only be appropriate justice that just as Aharon caused many people to die in the wilderness, similarly he should die there and not enter the Land. Admittedly he was not like the others who sinned willingly, and so he was not punished together with them, at that time.
… As for the sin of Moses our teacher, when the people requested Spies, they asked only regarding “the route by which we will invade and the cities we shall meet.” (1:22) Indeed G-d also said simply: “Send men that they shall tour the Land of Canaan.” (Bamidbar 13:2) But our master Moses added many dimensions to their mission, ordering them to investigate the nature of the people there, “strong or weak” (Bamidbar 13:18) and the nature of the land etc. … and there is no doubt that all these questions were well intended to boost the nation’s enthusiasm, but we all know how the story ended! The answers regarding the strength of the people and their fortified cities, and the land that consumes its inhabitants etc. deflated their confidence entirely. This all lead to the decree that the nation not enter the land…”
When, in Parshat Chukat, the people complained regarding the lack of water…then G-d commanded them to perform the action of bringing forth water., Moshe got angry with the people … and G-d was furious with Moses …at this point G-d gave them the punishment for their earlier sin. Mei Meriva was just the trigger; it was not the primary cause.
Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato (Derech Hashem, I:3): If Adam had not sinned, he would have been able to attain total perfection. His soul would have purified his body step by step, until he reached the level required to permanently partake of everlasting bliss. When Adam sinned, however, things were greatly changed. The amount of evil that existed initially was just enough to assure that man would be in a perfect balance, allowing him to gain perfection through his own efforts. When man sinned, though, he caused evil to increase, both in himself and in all creation. As a result, it became much more difficult for him attain the perfection that G-d intended for him.
At first it was very easy for man to overcome his natural faults and attain perfection. The Highest Wisdom had arranged things in the best and fairest manner. The only reason why evil and deficiency existed in man was to make it a part of his nature, a part that he would willfully abandon in favor of good. By simply disassociating himself from deficiencies [in both himself and in the world] the first man was supposed to bring about the perfection, immediately. [No further effort would be necessary.] When Adam sinned, however, he personally caused concealment of perfection and thus an increase of evil. Man himself was responsible for the greater amount of evil that existed in him, and it therefore became much more difficult for him to abandon it. He could no longer earn perfection as easily as when he personally bore no responsibility for his deficiencies. The effort required to earn perfection was therefore doubled. Man must first bring both himself and the world back to the state in which they existed before the first sin. Only then can he raise himself from that state to his destined level of perfection.
Besides this, justice decreed that neither man nor the world will ever be able to rise to perfection while still in their current fallen state. Because they remain in this spoiled, non-ideal| condition, and evil in the meantime has increased, both must anew go through a stage of destruction before either can arrive at perfection. Man must therefore die, and everything else that was corrupted with him also must perish. The soul cannot purify the body until the body dies and deteriorates and a new structure is composed, that the soul can enter and purify. The entire world must likewise be destroyed and cease to exist in its present form, and it must then be renewed in a new state worthy of perfection.
It was therefore decreed that man should die and then be brought back to life. This is the concept of the Resurrection of the Dead (Techiyas ha-Mesim). The entire world must similarly be destroyed and then renewed. This is the meaning of what our Sages taught, “Six thousand years will the world exist, and for one thousand it will be desolate. At the end of this thousand years, G-d will again renew His world.”
Kohelet 9:2 with Rashi: “Everything [comes to them] as [it comes] to all; [there is] one occurrence for the righteous and for the wicked, for the good, and for the pure, and for the unclean.”
one occurrence: And they know that the end of everyone – whether righteous or wicked – is to die, and they all have one fate in this world. All this they know, but nevertheless, they choose for themselves the good way, because they know that there is a difference between them in the World to Come.
for the good: This is Moses.
and for the pure: This is Aaron.
and for the unclean: These are the Spies. These [Moses and Aaron] spoke well of the Land of Israel, but those spoke derogatorily about it. These did not enter the Land, and those did not enter the Land; hence, they have one fate.
Food for Thought
- Why is free will a basic tenet of Jewish faith?
- According to Rav Kook, individual spiritual development is constrained by humanity’s spiritual level on a cosmic, meta-historical level. To make these ideas a little more ‘down to earth,’ are there ways that our spiritual development is constrained/limited by the generation that we live in? If so, how?
- See Abarbanel in “Food for Thought” above. In what sense does he agree with the gemara in Shabbat about Moshe and Aharon not deserving to die? And in what sense does he disagree?
- Rav Kook claims that humanity cannot reach the highest levels of perfection without experiencing death. What do you think he means? How does death help humanity reach perfection? (See Derech Hashem above for a possible explanation.)
- See the midrash cited by Rashi in “Food for Thought” above. How is it different from the gemara in Shabbat and how is it the same?
- Rav Kook refers to a “collective soul of humanity.” What is that, and how else does it express itself?
