Matos: The Good Fight
The Chovos Halevavos in the section Yichud Hashem describes the following scene. A group of soldiers are returning from a victorious battle. They are dirty and worn, having just fought a tough battle. But also, happy and content, they won. As they enter the city a pious man says to them, “You have returned from the small war with your spoils, now prepare for the big war!” They respond, I imagine a little spooked, “Which big war?” The pious man answers, “The war of the yetzer and his army.” The yetzer of course refers to our yetzer hara, the part of us that drags us down, the part of us that urges us to abandon our spiritual pursuits.
This scene always resonated with me. Applying the picture of war-worn soldiers to everyday people validates the struggles of the regular folk who find themselves swimming upstream, trying to live a good, spiritually fulfilling life.
In Matos after the Jewish people win their war against Midyan they return back to the camp. Eliezer the Kohen Gadol instructs them to kasher the utensils they now had in their possession, part of the spoils that they had seized in the war. At this point, the soldiers are taught the specific laws of koshering non-kosher utensils:
“…the gold, the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin, and the lead whatever is used in fire you shall pass through fire and then it will be clean; it must, however, [also] be cleansed with sprinkling water, and whatever is not used in fire you shall pass through water.”
The interesting thing is that the verse tells us that Eliezer gave these instructions to the soldiers who were “Habai’im l’milchama” which literally translates to, were going to battle. These soldiers had already finished fighting. They weren’t going to battle; they were coming from battle. Moreover, this verse teaches the less than glamorous laws of kashering pots and pans. Surprisingly the Torah uses the dramatic phrase “zos chukas hatorah” which can be read, “these laws contain the underpinnings of the entire Torah. ” How can these seemingly technical laws connect to the entire Torah?
After the fight with Midyan, the Jews finished the small battle and were ready to fight the Great War, the lifelong battle to live a pure, spiritual life. This life struggle is represented by the law of purifying impure vessels. Everyone has “impurities” that drag him down; the kashering of the most impure vessels demonstrates that we are able to purge ourselves of those negative elements within. R’ Moshe Feinstein adds one more idea which digs into the allegory a little deeper. The Torah teaches that to effectively kasher pots and pans we must match the heat used to infuse the vessel with impurity to purge the vessel of its impurity. Similarly, the impurities that were a result of deep drives and desires require an equally strong teshuva to expunge. It’s a difficult fight, a great war. Like great wars, the aftermath matches the fight. When we engage and are victorious, the spoils are extraordinary.
