Pinchas was a hero!! He practically saved the day. Although 24,000 people died, which is pretty devastating, our sages, however, say it could have been a lot worse. There is a lingering question that Rav Henoch Leibowitz z’l asks. After all is said and done and all damage has been tallied, how can the Jews have faltered? How could they have been seduced by the Moabites and Midyanit girls? What’s so special about them? You see, when the Israelites were in Egypt for 210 years, there was only one incident where a Jewish woman acted somewhat immodest. In 210 years, only one incident? That’s not bad!! Don’t you think? The sages say that Egypt was the dirtiest, slimiest, most impure place that ever existed. In fact, Maimonides writes in his books, “Every day that I’m living in Egypt, I transgress the Torah law of one is not allowed to live here.” One would figure if there is any place in the whole wide world the Jews would falter in the avenue of immorality, it would be Egypt. And yet it was Bilam and Balak, not Pharaoh, that did in the Jews.
The sages say the Jews had their guard down as they walked past the Moabite stores. The old ladies were sitting outside trying to peddle their merchandise inviting the Israelites into the tent to try it on. However, as they innocently walked in, they discovered lo and behold their daughters. Hey, what happened to Aunt Phrecha? This was a carefully designed plan. Now, what happened next in the tent was the main part of their scheme and the reason why the Jewish men came back a second time. A little while before the old lady outside gave the customer one price, inside the tent, the young woman gave him a much lower price. The two women started arguing but at the end of this staged argument, the young woman prevailed and gave the Jewish customer the better price. This act was intended to warm up the heart of the Jewish man. A gesture of a nurturing caring woman who is willing to give up her family for the cute Jewish guy.
Regardless of his strong Jewish identity, the next day he was back for more. The warmth that was displayed by the young woman was irresistible. Who would not be attracted to that? This was the beginning of the disaster. Rav Chaim Volozhin says the ideal woman is not a “yes lady.” It says that Adam found a wife “ezer k’negdo” – a wife beside him. Rav Chaim says ezer k’negdo also means “against him.” She should voice her opinion if she feels the husband is wrong, which is 90% of the time according to the women’s poll (HA, HA! The women are shaking their heads in approval). She should voice her opinion against the husband. In this way, the husband will get an objective opinion and then decide strategies of life. However, we tend to differ with this portrayal of the optimal choice. Hey, Rav Chaim, that’s not what we want; we want a Stepford wife. This is our dream, our desire; however, it’s not what we need.
Bilam and Balak played on the male desire. They didn’t just bring to the table flesh, a pretty face; they brought a situation, a Hollywood script that’s attractive. The smiley wife beautifully made up with an apron. This was the irresistible attraction generously engineered by very intelligent sinister people and it worked.
A CARING WIFE – A man sneaks into field level 50 yard line section from the upper-deck at a championship football game. Boy, he has chutzpah; he quickly sits next to this little old lady in the front row. “Can I sit here ma’am?” he said . “Oh sure, go right ahead,” she replied. Ten minutes later, she commented how great these seats are, that her late husband and her had these season tickets for the past forty years and went to every single game. A little while later, the man, out of curiosity, asks the old lady, “These are such good seats and such an important game, how come you couldn’t get a friend or a relative to come with you?” “They couldn’t make it, they all attended my husband’s funeral.” |
