Weekly Dvar Torah: Aharon, the Land, and the Long Journey
This Shabbos blesses the month of Menachem Av. With the arrival of Rosh Chodesh, we enter the Nine Days, when our mourning over the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash intensifies.
Yet at the very threshold of this painful period, the Torah presents us with a remarkable surprise.
Rosh Chodesh Av is the Yartzeit of Aharon HaKohen.
Even more remarkable, Aharon’s passing is the only Yartzeit whose date is explicitly recorded in the Torah. The Torah tells us the exact day that Aharon passed away. Why? Why is this date so important that every year, just as we begin the month of Av, we are reminded of Aharon’s final day?
Perhaps because before the Torah reminds us of the tragedy, it first reminds us of the cure.
Chazal tell us that the Second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of Sinas Chinam—baseless hatred.
Who better to introduce the month of Av than the man who devoted his entire life to Ahavas Chinam—baseless love?
Aharon did not merely love peace. He pursued it. If two friends stopped speaking to one another, he intervened. If a husband and wife drifted apart, he would not rest until they were reunited. He refused to accept that conflict was inevitable. Peace was not simply one of his virtues; it was his life’s mission.
That is why, when Aharon passed away, the Torah tells us that the entire congregation mourned him. Every Jew felt that they had lost someone personally.
It is no coincidence that our Parshah describes Moshe’s battle against Midyan.
On the surface, it was a military campaign. But beneath the surface, it was something much deeper.
Aharon represented harmony.
Midyan represented division.
The very name Midyan is associated with contention and strife. If Aharon’s mission was to bring people together, Midyan’s influence was to pull them apart.
How appropriate that as we begin mourning a Temple destroyed because Jews became divided, the Torah reminds us both of the greatest peacemaker who ever lived and of the obligation to wage war against the forces of discord.
But that naturally raises another question.
If hatred destroyed the Beis Hamikdash, what exactly did we lose?
The answer unfolds in the second Parshah.
Parshas Masei devotes an extraordinary amount of space to describing the borders of Eretz Yisrael. At first glance, it almost seems out of place. After forty years in the wilderness, why spend so much time discussing boundaries and geography?
Because this is no ordinary piece of land.
This is the land that Hashem chose as the place where His Presence would dwell. It is the land where the overwhelming majority of the Torah’s Mitzvos can be fulfilled in their complete form. It is the land upon which the Beis Hamikdash stood, where the Korbanos were offered to Hashem, where Heaven and earth met.
As we mourn our exile from that land and the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, the Torah redraws its borders before our eyes.
Hashem is saying, “Never become comfortable in exile. Never forget where your true home is.”
Throughout history, nations have argued over the ownership of this tiny strip of land. Yet long before there were maps, governments, or international resolutions, Hashem Himself defined its borders in the Torah.
The Jewish connection to Eretz Yisrael is not political.
It is eternal.
It is Divine.
It is inseparable from the very purpose for which the Jewish people were chosen.
So how do we find our way back?
The answer is hidden in the names of the two Parshiyos themselves.
Matos.
Masei.
A Mateh is a staff.
Firm.
Strong.
Unbending.
There are moments in Jewish history when we must refuse to bend. When the world changes around us, our values cannot. Our commitment to Torah, to Mitzvos, to the Jewish people, and to our connection with Eretz Yisrael must remain as solid as an unyielding staff.
But the Torah immediately gives us the second Parshah.
Masei.
Journeys.
Movement.
Progress.
Standing firm does not mean standing still.
The Jewish people have never survived by becoming frozen in place. Throughout thousands of years of exile, we have continued moving forward. We have built communities, established Yeshivos, sent Shluchim across the globe, raised new generations of proud Jews, and carried the dream of redemption from one generation to the next.
We stand firm in our principles.
And we never stop journeying.
Perhaps that is why this Shabbos concludes with one of the most stirring proclamations heard in every synagogue.
As we finish the Book of Bamidbar, we rise together and declare:
Chazak! Chazak! V’nischazek!
Be strong.
Be strong.
And together, let us strengthen one another.
Could there be a more appropriate message as we enter the darkest days of the Jewish calendar?
We mourn.
But we do not despair.
We remember.
But we do not surrender.
Aharon teaches us to replace hatred with peace.
The borders of Eretz Yisrael remind us what we are longing to regain.
Matos teaches us to stand firm.
Masei teaches us to keep moving forward.
And together they remind us that even during the Nine Days, Judaism never ends with destruction.
It ends with strength.
May we merit to replace hatred with love, division with unity, exile with redemption, and mourning with everlasting joy, with the coming of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Third Beis Hamikdash, speedily in our days.
Chazak, Chazak, V’nischazek!
Have a Strong Peaceful and Loving Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Yosef Katzman