Masei, The Journey To Humility

This week we are privy to the travelogue of the Israelites in the desert. What are the highlights of the trip? We find that it speaks about the great pride the Yad ramah, the Jews had as they went out of Egypt while the Egyptians were busy burying their dead. Then they traveled, they narrowly escaped the attack at the red sea, they had shortages of water, but once they found an oasis with dates and wells. The last detail that is mentioned is that Aharon died in the fortieth year. It says he died on rosh hodesh av. The rabbis say that it was on the 15^th of Av that year that the last Jews of the 40 years of the desert perished. So Aharon was one of the last to die from that generation.

Actually, all the masaot and all the travels could be seen as a corrective to their original attitude with which they left: breish glei, with pride. Usually we read that as a positive attitude. After all, they defeated the Egyptians. Why shouldn’t they have pride, as rashi says: bigvurah gvoha umfursemet, with great and famed heroism. But I would like to make a radical suggestion; that it was that very pride which caused the Jews to wander in the desert for 40 years. This is why we had to suffer with a lack of water and food. They had no right to have pride. They had worshiped idols in Egypt. G-d had saved the Jews without the Israelites ever having to lift a finger. Victory belongs to G-d alone.

Had the Jews gone on at that point and tried to conquer Israel, they would have entered the land with hubris of having defeated Egypt. But after 40 years of death, and after the death of beloved Aharon, which caused great mourning, and after the death of Moshe, after the Jews had to burry their own dead, the Jews ready to conquer with humility and with an understanding that victory belongs to G-d.

It is interesting to note that only after the entire Jewish people wept and mourned for the death of Aharon, then and only then do the Jews win their first battle against the Canaanites. The Jews thought they could enter Israel with pride, head held high, with pride in their accomplishments. Instead, they entered Israel, humbled by 40 years of precarious living, 40 years of funerals of their own. They entered Israel mourning the death of Aharon and later Moshe.

What happened in 40 years? One thing. They were humbled. And with that corrective, they could enter Israel. Let us learn this lesson that it is through humility that greatness is achieved.