CHUKAT
06/18/2021 01:55:05 PM
What merit?
"… fear him not for I have delivered him into your hand… and you shall do unto him as you did unto Sichon King of the Amorites…." (21, 34)
The Parsha of Chukat ends with the description of the victory of the Children of Israel over two kings east of the Jordan River, Sichon the King of Amora and Og the King of Bashan. It is surprising that after the decisive victory over Sichon Moshe Rabeinu was apprehensive about the battle awaiting him against Og the King of Bashan to the point that G-d had to encourage and strengthen him saying "fear him not for I have delivered him into your hand… and you shall do unto him as you did unto Sichon King of the Amorites".
This surprising idea is brought in Masechta Nida: "Why was Moshe afraid of Og and not afraid of Sichon? The Gemara answers: Moshe was afraid that Og's merit of helping Avraham Avinu might be in his stead. It says "And the one that had escaped came and told Avrahm the Hebrew…" and Rabbi Yochanan said- this was Og who escaped (was saved) from the generation of the Deluge.
On this Gemara Rabbi Yakov Moshe Charlap of Jerusalem said: Og the King of Bashan had evil intentions when he appeared at the home of Avraham Avinu to tell him that his nephew Lot had been taken captive, as our Sages said: His intention was that Avraham would be killed in the war and he would take his beautiful wife Sara as his wife. Nevertheless, since the news Og brought resulted in good for Avraham it is considered a great merit - and Moshe Rabeinu was afraid that this merit from the days of Avraham would be in his stead in the war between Og and Israel.
We see – Rabbi Charlap concludes – how great is the merit of a person who performs kindness, even if his intentions are not good and not desirable.
SHABBAT SHALOM!!