Haftorah Commentary Parshas Behaaloscha
BEHA’ALOSCHA
Zecharya 2:14–4:7
The Everlasting Merit of Selfless Devotion
This week’s Haftarah gives us an important insight into our present exile and our final redemption. It helps us realize how and why the Jewish people made such a miraculous comeback and rebuilt, in a short period of time, such a devout sound infra-structure of devotion to Torah principle.
The Trial Against the High Priest
The Haftarah begins with Zecharya Hanavi beholding a vision wherein Yehoshua, the High Priest was brought to a serious trial regarding his esteemed priestly position. The prophet said, “He [the angel who shared the vision] showed me Yehoshua, the High Priest standing before Hashem’s angel [to judge him] and the prosecutor was standing on the right to accuse Yehoshua.” (3:1) The reason for this trial is expressed further with these cryptic words, “Yehoshua was clothed with soiled garments.” (3:3) Chazal explain that those garments referred to the wives of Yehoshua’s offspring. Although Yehoshua was a very pious man, some of his children did not follow in his path and they, amongst many of their brethren, were affected by their foreign Babylonian environs. Yehoshua’s descendants strayed from their prominent priestly heritage and married women prohibited to them according to priestly regulations. (Sanhedrin 93a) Because of his offspring’s offenses, Yehoshua’s personal priestly status was under serious review. The vision continued and Hashem’s angel responded to the prosecuting one and defended Yehoshua with the following words, “Is not Yehoshua an ember rescued from fire!?” (3:2) The angel’s defense was well received and Yehoshua was granted opportunity to influence his offspring to forsake their shameful ways and accordingly to return to his lofty priesthood status. The angel continued and stated, “Remove the soiled garments from upon him [Yehoshua]… He then said [to him], ‘I have removed your sin from you; you will be clothed with fresh garments…and they placed the pure, priestly turban on his head.’” (3:4-5) The angel’s words referred to Yehoshua’s opportunity of rectifying his offspring’s conduct and to his response to his charge. Yehoshua acted immediately and successfully influenced his offspring to divorce their wives and to choose acceptable partners in life. Once Yehoshua’s “garments were cleansed” he merited to wear the priestly garb and to return to his lofty priesthood position. (Rashi, Malbim ad loc)
The Powerful Merit of Selfless Devotion
What defense did Hashem’s angel present that produced such immediate, favorable results? After neglecting to react to his offspring’s disgraceful acts to the priesthood, what outstanding merit did Yehoshua have that returned him to his priestly position? Chazal explain the angel’s defense in the following manner. When the angel said that Yehoshua was an ember rescued from fire, he referred to the fact that Yehoshua had previously allowed himself to be casted into a fiery furnace to sanctify Hashem’s name. They share with us the circumstances that brought about this daring, noble act. Two imposters approached the king’s daughter and claimed that they were prophetically charged to conduct a bizarre immoral act with her. After she shared the message with her father, he immediately summoned them and informed them that the pious Jewish prophets declared that Hashem never did and never would sanction an act like that. Accordingly, the king ordered the imposters to prove their authenticity through their miraculous salvation from the fiery furnace they were soon to enter. After claiming that Hashem would only save a group of three, they requested for Yehoshua, the High Priest to accompany them. Yehoshua consented and apparently trusted that for the sake of Hashem’s glory, the pious would be spared and the immoral would be broiled, and so it was! Rashi explains that Hashem’s angel defended Yehoshua and claimed that evidently he had special merits to be protected from the fiery furnace and with those merits he deserved to continue his lofty priestly service. One could explain that those merits were his selfless devotion to Hashem’s service and to Hashem’s honor. In essence, a High Priest leads an intense spiritual life of self-negation, devoting almost every waking moment to Hashem. In addition, Yehoshua displayed his incredible devotion to Hashem’s honor by risking his life without any Heavenly affirmation that he would be spared from the blazing fiery furnace.
A Perfect Role Model of Priesthood
One could offer that Hashem’s angel argued that Yehoshua’s life was miraculously spared so that he could serve as a shining example of the merit of selfless devotion and of the degree of Heavenly assistance it produces when necessary. Since Yehoshua did not personally reduce his level of devotion, he deserved a fair chance to rectify his neglect and to alter his offspring’s behavior and to continue afterwards to serve as the shining example of selfless devotion. Metzudos adds here a poignant point and interprets the placing of the pure turban to refer to placing the crown of priesthood on Yehoshua’s family. He explains that when the prophet beheld his astounding vision, he was inspired to entreat Hashem for Yehoshua to permanently inherit his priesthood rights and pass them on to his children, once they would rectify their offence to the priesthood. It seems that the angel’s point was so strong that it even addressed the potential of Yehoshua’s children. Although they had followed the prevalent path of their brethren and severely desecrated their priestly status, much hope remained for them. Yehoshua’s shining example of selflessness yielded serious potential for his children to follow his sacred ways. Even they could someday become devout servants and attain lofty levels of priesthood. There was strong reason to believe that, given proper direction, they would rise above their physical pursuits and would emulate their father’s pure ways.
Role Models of Selfless Devotion
This lesson parallels one of the messages of this week’s Parsha. The Jewish people strayed from the proper path and began displaying strong physical tendencies. They complained about their Heavenly manna bread and expressed a powerful craving for every food-taste that the manna bread did not contain. They even complained about the Torah’s restrictive policy against marrying certain relatives and they sought to be exempt from their demanding, spiritual lifestyle. Hashem severely responded to their complaints and on the spot, punished thousands of Jewish people. At that same moment, Hashem’s instituted a judicial system and appointed seventy elders to share the judicial burden with Moshe Rabbeinu. During those moments the seventy, hand-picked judges experienced an incredible transition. The Torah states, “Hashem extended the Divine Spirit that rested upon Moshe and He placed it on the seventy elders.” (Bamidbar 11:25) The elders, along with their new position, received prophecy and merited momentarily for Hashem’s Divine Spirit to rest on them. Rashi quotes Chazal who reveal the secret identity of those elders. Chazal explain that they were the Jewish policemen in Egypt who were mercilessly beaten in place of their Jewish brethren. (Rashi ad loc. 11:16) During the Jewish people’s last year of Egyptian affliction many appointed Jewish policeman refused to force their brethren to fulfill their impossible Egyptian quota of daily brick production. The Jewish policemen accepted the blame for the crime and opted to subject themselves to torturous Egyptian blows on their brethren’s behalf. Years later that self-negation became a focal point for the Jewish people. After travelling away from Mount Sinai, the Jewish people began treading on a path of self-pursuit, leading towards immorality. Hashem responded to their inappropriate direction by elevating a group of their peers to the position of leadership. Those elders were certainly not proponents of self-pursuit, but were, instead, perfect role models of self-negation. Their interest was of spiritual nature and because of their devotion they merited to become personal sanctuaries for Hashem’s Divine Spirit. Their self-sacrifice had the true potential of securing the Jewish nation’s survival and would, hopefully deter the Jewish people from plunging into self-pursuit and immorality. In our days we hear repeated interests of some of our people to follow the foreign paths of world nations. Let us remember that many of our forbearers were embers rescued from the fiery furnaces of Europe. Their self-sacrifice and selfless devotion to Hashem serves as ‘our’ everlasting merit and privilege of existence. Those fortunate souls who were miraculously spared from the fiery furnace were chosen to be shining examples for us. Their self-negation and sacred devotion has the potential to deter the remnant of our people from catering to self-pursuit, and to replace it with a true yearning for spirituality. May their merit continue to inspire us and pave the way for Mashiach for whom we anxiously await every day of our lives.
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Date: June 10, 2025
