Parshas Naso
I Bet You Can Do Even More!
“Then Ritzpa daughter of Aya… stayed there from the beginning of the harvest until rain from the sky fell on the bodies. She did not let the birds of the sky settle on them by day or the wild beasts [approach] by night.” ( II Shmuel 21:9)
As a result of a raging storm, a ship sank in the ocean. Amongst others, a Jewish man (according to one version of the story, it was the Vilna Gaon’s grandson) and his two children were thrown overboard. The father was able to swim to reach his two children, neither of whom knew how to swim. He held his son in one hand and his daughter in the other as he started swimming towards a distant shore. After a while, his arms became very fatigued, and he felt that he would be unable to make it to shore if he continued holding both of his children. He had to come to a decision that no parent would ever want to make! He felt that he would have to let go of one of his children to save himself and his other child. That meant that the child would drown. He conducted a lottery in his head to determine which child he would have to let go. He made the sad decision that he would have to let go of his daughter’s hand. He explained the situation to his daughter. As he was about to let go of her hand she screamed, “Daddy please save me!” No parent could ignore that cry. It pierced his heart! He told himself that he had to try even harder to save BOTH children. He infused himself with more strength and reached the shore safely, with BOTH of his children. He had truly felt that it was impossible. Infused with the added inspiration, he renewed his strength and succeeded in doing what he had previously thought would be impossible.
The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabba 8:4) quoting the Talmud (Yevamos 78B-79A) tells us that during the reign of King David there was famine in the land of Israel for three years. King David tried to determine if the famine was a result of certain specific sins of the people. When the king determined that the people had not transgressed those sins, he inquired from Hashem through the Urim veTumim to determine why there was a famine (The Kohen Gadol had a breastplate with 12 different precious stones, representing each of the 12 tribes. Each stone also had a few letters on it. In the breastplate was a scroll with an inscription of Hashem’s holy name which was called the Urim ve Tumim. When the Kohen Gadol inquired from Hashem through it, Hashem answered his question by causing the relevant letters on the breastplate to light up, with the answer. The Kohen, then had to put the letters in the correct order).
Hashem responded that the famine was due to two sins. One sin was that, as the pasuk (Shmuel beis 21:1) says, King Shaul had killed the Givonim, a nation of Canaani servants who had insincerely converted to Judaism. The Talmud explains that King Shaul did not actually kill them however, King Shaul had killed the people of Nov. The people of Nov had provided the Givonim with food and water. When the people of Nov were killed, the Givonim lost their source of food and water which they needed to live. This was considered as if King Shaul had killed the Givonim. The other sin that led to the famine was the lack of respect that the Jewish People had displayed to King Shaul by not eulogizing him properly. Hashem told King David that King Shaul had been a great man. “Is he not Shaul who was anointed with the anointing oil? Is he not Shaul, who, during his reign, no idol worship was performed in Israel? Is he not Shaul, whose portion is with Shmuel the prophet?” Etz Yosef (Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4:21) explains that after King Shaul and his son, Yonasan died, they joined the great prophet, Shmuel in his elevated portion of Olam Haba, the World to Come. Hashem was also unhappy that King Shaul was not even buried in Eretz Yisroel.
With this knowledge, Kind David attempted to correct what he could, to end the famine. He begged forgiveness from the Givonim. The Givonim were not appeased by the offer of gold and silver. They wanted revenge! So, they murdered some of King Shaul’s children. Their bodies were left hanging for 7 months to show everyone the severity of the sin of harming converts. In fact, gentile passersby who saw the bodies hanging wondered why they were hanging. Upon hearing that they had harmed insincere converts, they were impressed. Even insincere converts were treated very respectfully. How much more so would sincere converts be respected. The gentiles were so inspired by the importance that Jewish People attached to converts that over 150,000 gentiles converted to Judaism.
King David did not correct the second sin of improperly eulogizing King Shaul. He felt that the twelve months of mourning had already passed, and it was too late, halachically, to eulogize him.
Then King David heard something incredible about Ritzpa, daughter of Aya, who was the mother of two of the children whose bodies were left hanging. For the entire seven months that the bodies were hanging, she stayed with the bodies. protecting them during the day from the birds and at night from the beasts.
Hearing about this selfless action inspired King David. He had the body of King Shaul exhumed. Chiddushei HaRadal (Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4:28) says that King Shaul’s body was intact, indicating that he had been a special tzadik.
King David traveled with King Shaul’s coffin around the country eulogizing him in every city. Then King David buried him in Eretz Yisroel. After that second sin was corrected, the drought ended.
King David had determined that according to halacha it was too late to eulogize King Shaul. Why did he change his mind? How did hearing about what Ritzpa had done cause him to reverse what appeared to be the correct halacha?
Rabbi Henach Leibowitz zt”l answered that this teaches us the power of added inspiration. Knowing that a lack of respect towards King Shaul was part of the reason for the famine, King David undoubtedly tried to find some allowance to permit him to halachically eulogize King Shaul. But he couldn’t find anything! When he heard about the self-sacrifice of Ritzpa, of her special kindness, that inspired him and made him more determined. He concentrated on an even deeper level than before until he finally found an allowance in halacha which permitted him to eulogize King Shaul.
Interestingly, although King David initially put in so much effort to find permission in halacha to eulogize King Shaul, the Maharzu (Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4:52) says that he exhibited a very slight degree of laziness which prevented him from understanding the depths of halacha. The added inspiration with which he was infused helped him overcome that very slight degree of laziness. With renewed vigor, he discovered the answer that he needed.
Often, we think that we have done all that we could, and we could not possibly do more. We see the limitless capacity of a human. An added inspiration can propel us to a higher level, enabling us to do more acts of chesed, learn more, etc, something that we did not think was possible before.
(based, in part, on a dvar Torah by Rabbi Henach Leibowitz zt”l
