Rabbi Zalman Melamed: Parshat Matot - Masei
Parshat Shavua
The Shiur was given in 5749- 54
Parshat Matot - Masei
To Speak or Not to Speak
Rabbi Zalman Melamed
Summarized by students
Dedicated to the memory of
R. Avraham Ben David
1. Not Just Anyone
2. With Complete Faith
3. Man's Creative Energies
4. Perception Deceptive
Not Just Anyone
Parshat Matot opens with the laws of vows and oaths. In the midrash, our Sages (of
Blessed Memory) include a lengthy discussion regarding such declarations: “'And
Moshe spoke to the tribal heads, saying: One who takes a vow to God’. Elsewhere it
is written, ‘You swore, says Hashem, in truth, justice and righteousness.’ The Holy
One, Blessed be he said to Israel: ‘Do not think that you have been permitted to
swear in My name even truthfully, unless you have all of the following qualities: 1)
‘You should fear the Lord your God.’ You must behave similar to those who are
known as the ‘fearers of God,’ - Avraham, Job and Yosef..’ 2) And you should serve
Him’ - you should make yourself available to engage in Torah and the performance of
mitzvot; 3) 'And you shall cleave to Him’. Can a person truly cleave to the Divine
Presence? Does it not already say, ‘The Lord Your God is an all-consuming fire?’
Rather, the meaning of this verse is that one must marry off his daughter to a Torah
scholar who learns Chumash (Bible), Mishna, and one should engage in business
deals to financially benefit the Torah scholar. This is what the Torah is referring to by
the commandment to ‘Cleave to Him.’ If you have all of these personal attributes,
then you are permitted to swear, and if not, you are forbidden to do so.” (Bamidbar
Rabba 22).
With Complete Faith
A person’s ability to have his words virtually create "kedusha", or holiness, to link his
words to Heaven, is contingent on his complete faith that he has the ability to fulfill
those words. This kind of trust and faith exists only in a person who has successfully
1
Rabbi Zalman Melamed: Parshat Matot - Masei
Parshat Shavua
cleaved to God, in a person who is totally at one with God and who possesses the
fear of Heaven. Such a person has complete faith that he can and will fulfill his
words; he does not risk offending "Shem Shamayim" - "Heaven's name." It follows
that one who is not on this level is forbidden to swear. His oath is liable to be
destructive - as elucidated in the midrash. It recounts how King Yannai, who ruled
over two thousand cities, all of which were destroyed as a result of true oaths. In
the end ,there was no affront to the name of Heaven. Yannai stood by his every
word, and even so, the oaths brought with them a certain degree of danger of the
desecration of God’s name. There was no certainty that the words of King Yannai
would be fulfilled. As a result, the cities over which he ruled were destroyed.
Man's Creative Energies
We should stress, however, that our sages did not have a completely negative
attitude towards oaths: “And you should take an oath, says God.” The Holy One,
Blessed be He is interested in having a Jewish person attain the level of perfection
that will enable him to sanctify his speech and to direct his words towards Heaven.
In the parsha (portion) dealing with oaths, the Torah introduces the concept of man
being able to infuse his reality with holiness through the power of speech. Such a
power stems from the principle elucidated in Tehilim (Psalms): “By the word of God
were the Heavens fashioned.” This same power, of shaping reality through speech,
characterizes the Children of Israel, whose power also lies in speech. Our forefather
Yitzchak recognized this quality prior to issuing the blessing to Ya'akov: Hearing
Ya'akov speak, Yitzchak exclaimed:“The voice is the voice of Ya’akov"...
In fact, according to Jewish sources, the entire world is sustained by the merit of the
Torah learning, by prayer uttered by the Jewish people, and by virtue of the breath of
young children learning Torah in their rabbi’s classroom. (Talmud, Shabbat 119b)
The parsha of nedarim (vows) teaches us the power of speech, that one’s words are
able to create realities. With our words, we can transform a mundane head of cattle
into a “korban” or holy sacrifice. According to Maimonedes, if someone were to come
thereafter and affix this animal to a plough along with an animal that is not in the
category of “hekdesh” (Temple property) - he would be transgressing the prohibition
of “Kila’im” (forbidden combinations) - having bound a non-Hekdesh animal with one
dedicated to Hekdesh).
2
Rabbi Zalman Melamed: Parshat Matot - Masei
Parshat Shavua
Perception Deceptive
Despite the fact that our words can create realities, these changes are not always
perceptible. Nevertheless, we must not say that no change has been effected simply because we cannot appreciate it with our senses! Science has revealed many
new realities and facts, forces that have a tremendous impact on our world,
phenomena that simply cannot be “absorbed” by our five senses. In fact, It often the
most impressive, powerful forces that cannot be absorbed by the senses because of
the limitations of the latter.
Our sages maintain that evil gossip is equivalent, on its own, to the three cardinal
sins of murder, idolatry and sexual immorality. (Talmud, Arachin 15b) The reason for
this is that speech has a real, substantive impact on the world. Evil talk brings about
destruction in the world, just as do the three cardinal sins. From the parsha of vows
we learn - from one perspective - the need to refrain from forbidden talk; even though
we don’t sense it, it has the potential to bring great harm to the world. From another
perspective, we learn about the power of holy speech, that words that have the ability
to positively affect the world, to fill it with blessing.
E-mail : beitel@yeshiva.org.il
For more Shiurim from the site: www.yeshiva.org.il
3