Forty years, Cleaning Up the Lineage, Ratzoh ve Shov, Jephthah the Gileadite, Thermos on Shabbos

20 Sivan 5784

Chumash Rashi

“Your children shall wander in the desert for forty years and bear your defection until the last of your corpses has fallen in the desert.” (Bamidbar 14:33)

Rashi explains why the decree was for forty years: “Not one of them died before the age of sixty. This is why forty [years] was decreed, so that those who were twenty years old would reach the age of sixty.” G-d did not want them to die before they reached sixty, for although they had sinned, they were not guilty of a sin which is punished by “death at the hands of Heaven,” which is carried out before the sinner reaches sixty.

There seems to be a contradiction with Bamidbar 14:34 which explicitly states that the punishment of forty years was measure for measure for every day the spies spent touring the land of Israel. Gur Aryeh explains that Rashi is not coming to explain here why the decree was for forty years, but why the decree wasn’t for less than forty years. Rashi comments on Bamidbar 13:25 that G-d shortened the spies’ journey to limit the extent of their punishment (a year for a day). That poses the question why G-d didn’t shorten the trip further. The answer is that Hashem did not want to make it look like the people were guilty of “death at the hands of Heaven,” a severe punishment. We see here that both the shortening and not shortening further of the spies’ tour was a gratuitous kindness from G-d.

Rambam

“This is the general principle: When a child is born from a servant, a gentile, a maid-servant, or a female gentile, he is like his mother. We are not concerned with the father. For this reason, [the Sages] permitted a mamzer to marry a maid-servant to purify the lineage of his descendants. For he can free them and they will be free men. [Our Sages] did not ordain a decree forbidding a maid-servant to a mamzer, so that he can legitimize his sons.” (Sefer Kedushah, Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 15:4)

The procedure of cleaning up the lineage is then as follows: A mamzer marries a maid-servant, has children with her and then frees them all. It necessarily follows though that the children have no halachic relationship to him, see Sefer Kedushah, Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 12:13.

Toras Menachem

The Rebbe explains the inner connection between the laws of libations as they appear at the end of today’s Parashah and the sin of the spies: The spies sin was one of ratzoh. They wanted to expire from the world and thus not be bogged down in “a land that consumes its inhabitants.” The libations are a representation of shov. Even though the korbanos go up in smoke, rising from the world, ratzoh, the libations are poured down right after, representing the need to be inspired back down to action.

Tanakh

Shoftim Chatper 11: Jephtah was the son of Gilead and a concubine. His brothers taunt and banish Jephtah because of his lineage. He becomes a mighty warrior. When the Children of Israel are pressed by the Ammonites they call upon Jephtah to lead them in battle. Jephtah puts up the condition that if he defeats the Ammonites, he becomes the leader of Gilead. The Gileadites accept. Jephtah sends emissaries to the king of Ammon. Ammon accuses Israel of stealing his land. Jepthah gives the king of Ammon a history lesson, G-d gave them the land of Sichon after he refused them passage. Ammon now seeks to inherit this land, he has no right to it. Jephtah vows to offer the first thing that comes out of his house if he wins against the Ammonites. He wins against the Ammonites. The first thing that comes out of his house is his daughter. He thinks he must uphold his vow and offer her to Hashem. She pleads with him to spare her and instead chooses to submit herself to the vow figuratively, by living in seclusion and devoting her life to prayer.

Note: Jephtah should have gone to Phinehas to have the vow simply annulled. Jephtah held however that Phinehas should come to him. Phinehas held that Jephtah should come to him. So the nullification never happened. They were both punished for this.

Hilchos Shabbos

May one use a thermos on Shabbos?

It is rabbinically forbidden to insulate hot foods or liquids in a Keli Rishon on Shabbos. This however does not apply to a Keli Sheni. Accordingly there is no prohibition with a thermos (or stomach pad) seeing that it is a Keli Sheni.

https://shulchanaruchharav.com/may-one-use-a-thermos-on-shabbos/