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July 25, 2003/Tamuz 25 5763, Vol. 55, No. 48
Leaders succeed, fail through words
Torah study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Matot-Masei/Numbers 30:2-36:13
For me, the saddest book of the Bible is what is called the book of Numbers, or by the original Hebrew, Bamidbar.
It begins with a sublime description of the 12 tribes, united by the great liberator-leader Moses, surrounding the sanctuary, poised to enter the Promised Land. It concludes in disgruntled disillusionment, a catalogue of rebellions and recalcitrance, with Moses discredited and disregarded by the people, forbidden to enter his beloved Israel by God, and virtually the entire desert generation doomed to die in the wilderness.
This week's Torah reading begins: "If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath imposing an obligation on himself, he shall not break his pledge; he must carry out all that has crossed his lips." (Numbers 30:2)
The biblical text goes on to delineate the various kinds of possible oaths an individual can make, including vows to God, as well as oaths that may impinge on one's relationship with one's spouse or with one's parents. In fact, this segment of verses serves as the basis for no less than two Talmudic tractates and is the theme of the melodically haunting Kol Nidre prayer that opens our Yom Kippur liturgical service.
Why attribute such overriding importance to the laws of oaths and promises, and why place it here at the end of Numbers?
I believe that the Torah is stressing the power of the word - the word that can create reality and the word that can destroy reality, the word that can establish a relationship and the word that can besmirch a relationship.
After all, we are the people of the word, the "ten words" (Ten Commandments), which were more powerful than the massive Egyptian pyramids and which continue to influence the standards of world morality to this very day.
Moses' inability to properly utilize the word - to speak to the rock rather than strike the rock (symbolic of the Israelite nation, stubborn as a rock) - is what causes him to be banned from entering the Promised Land.
Indeed, from the very outset of his ministry, Moses seeks to deflect the divine call and to cast God's call for leadership upon another because he is a kvad peh, heavy of speech, a man of thought rather than words, a prophet who seeks spiritual contact with the divine rather than verbal relationships with people.
As narrated in Numbers, he has neither the patience nor the wherewithal verbally to persuade the people to reject the report of the scouts and to conquer the land of Israel. At the end of the day, the negative, inciting words of the scouts influence the nation and doom the generation to die in the desert.
To understand the power of words in our age, just consider how the rhetoric of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats uplifted a nation to transcend itself, and how Hitler's incitements and Islamic fundamentalist preachments have destroyed innocent lives.
From this perspective, the laws of oaths and promises, the legal ramifications of the power of the word, encapsulate the promise of the people of the word as well as the tragedy of the book of Numbers.
It is hardly accidental that the Hebrew and Aramaic word for leader is dabbar, for a great leader guides and directs by means of speech. I would even submit that the root word of Bamidbar is "dbr," the leader-shepherd, who guides his flock largely by words and sounds that come forth from his mouth. In the words of the Yiddish folk saying, a patsch dergent, a vort bashten, "a slap goes away, a word lasts forever."
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
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