Ladders to Heaven, Elokim is Chesed, Waiting 5 Days, Small Miracles, Abimelech son of Jerubaal

18 Sivan 5784

Chumash Rashi

“Caleb hushed the people toward Moshe and said, “We shall surely ascend and conquer it, for we can surely do it!” (Bamidbar 13:30)

Rashi explains Caleb’s words “We shall surely ascend” as “Even if our destination would be in the heavens, and Moshe were to say, make ladders and go up there, we would succeed in all of his words, i.e. in all that he says.” Why the peculiar expression of taking ladders up to heaven? We know that Rashi is very precise in his language, so this analogy must have a tangible contribution to our understanding of the literal text.

The Sfas Emes answers as follows: Basing themselves off of Koheles 3:1 “Everything has its season, and there is a time for everything under the heaven,” the spies were concerned that the time wasn’t yet right for the Israelites to go up to Eretz Yisrael. They assessed the spiritual stature of the Israelites and concluded that they weren’t yet ready for the spiritual challenges awaiting them, they hadn’t yet acquired the spiritual rung to persevere. The decree of the forty years of exile in the wilderness bears witness to the accuracy of their assessment. What the spies didn’t consider, however, was that this was not a matter “under the heaven.” Moshe Rabbeinu himself had ascended to heaven to receive the Torah. Under his leadership the Jewish people were functioning on a completely different level. They were not operating on their own spiritual rung alone, but received guidance from a leader above the natural order of the world. This meant that they could be assured that their conquest of the land would be under an overt Divine Providence, which would render all concerns within the natural order irrelevant.

Tanya

“These two Names are actually one, i.e., although Havayah represents chesed and revelation and Elokim represents tzimtzum and concealment, they are nevertheless truly one, for even the Name Elokim, which conceals and contract the light of the Divine life-force that is responsible for creation, is a quality of chesed, just like the Name Havayah.” (Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah Chapter 6)

We thus see that Elokim (gevurah) is also chesed, because its concealment creates the earthly vessel for creatures to exist and Hashem’s chesed to be expressed. Hashems essence thus seems to be only chesed.

Rambam

“In certain places, the practice is that a woman must consider herself a niddah for seven days even though her bleeding lasted only one day. [Then] after these seven, she must count seven ‘spotless’ days. This is not a [proper] custom. Instead, it is an error on the part of the one who ruled in this manner and is not worthy of being given any consideration. Instead, [the law is that if a woman experiences] one day of menstrual bleeding, she should count seven “spotless” days afterwards and immerse on the night [following] the eighth day, which is the second day after her [‘days of] niddah.’ She is [then] permitted to her husband.” (Sefer Kedushah, Hilchos Issurai Bi’ah 11:14)

Our current practice is to wait 5 days (Ashkenazim) or 4 days (Sefaradim). The Rambam seems to have very strong words for this. How can this be? It seems to have to do with the emission of semen from the last relations https://halachipedia.com/index.php?title=The_Purification_Process_of_Niddah#cite_note-2

Toras Menachem

“A land that consumes its inhabitants” (Bamidbar 13:32)

What did the spies mean by this? The spies perceived a binary order to the world. Either Hashem acts through open miracles or the world functions according to the rules of “nature.” When the Jews were in the desert Hashem provide them water miraculously through Miriam’s well and Mannah miraculously from heaven. When the Jews would enter the land this would seize and they would have to abide by the rules of nature, according to which they had no chance of remaining spiritual. They couldn’t perceive that Hashem could miraculously assist the Jewish people through daily “small miracles” without shattering the rules of nature.

Tanakh

Shoftim Chapter 9: Abimelech son of Jerubaal (Gideon) usurps power in Shechem, killing his 70 brothers. He is cursed by his lone surviving brother Jotham. Hashem sows discord amongst his subjects after three years of rule. Gaal son of Ebed, an unrelated heathen, seeks to exploit the situation and challenge Abimelech’s rule. Abimelech sets a trap for Gaal and destroys his troops. He then goes on to attack and destroy the city of Shechem in retribution for their disobedience, burning the citadel in which the inhabitants took shelter. He then moves on to the city of Thebez, also seeking to set fire to the tower the inhabitants are sheltering in. A woman drops a millstone on his head, wounding him lethally. He asks his attendant to quickly kill him so people will not say, “A woman killed him.”