Rectifying Spoils Through Effort

בענין המכס של המלקוח

Concerning the tax taken from the spoils of war.

The piece opens by raising the topic of the levy taken from the booty captured in the war against Midyan.

וגם אשר הקריבו שרי האלפים עבדיך נשאו כו' ונקרב כו' קרבן כו' לכפר על נפשותינו כו' מה היו צריכים כפרה

And also the matter of that which the officers of the thousands brought near, saying, "Your servants have taken the sum... and we have brought near... an offering... to atone for our souls..." (Bamidbar 31:48-50) — why did they need atonement?

The Sfas Emes asks why the army officers, who brought a special offering after the war, needed atonement at all.

אכן להיות שנק' נקמה כמ"ש נקום נקמת בני ישראל ומשה רבינו ע"ה אמר נקמת ה'

However, since it is called "vengeance," as it is written, "Take vengeance for Bnei Yisrael" (Bamidbar 31:2), while Moshe Rabbeinu, alav hashalom, called it "the vengeance of Hashem" (Bamidbar 31:3) —

He notes a discrepancy: Hashem called it vengeance for Bnei Yisrael, while Moshe called it the vengeance of Hashem.

היינו שהי' סיוע משמים לנקום מהם שלא במדריגה

this means that there was assistance from Shamayim to take vengeance from them, beyond their own spiritual level,

This tells us that Bnei Yisrael received Heavenly help to defeat Midyan above their own actual spiritual standing.

ויותר מכח זכותם

and more than the power of their own merit warranted.

The victory exceeded what their personal merit alone could have earned.

לכן הוצרך השלל תרומה ומכם

Therefore the spoil needed to have a terumah and a tax taken from it.

Because they gained more than they deserved on their own, a portion of the spoil had to be set aside as terumah and tax.

כי הנה איתא יגעתי ומצאתי תאמין היינו שע"י היגיעה מוצא האדם מציאה שאינו עפ"י קו המשפט ולכן נקרא מציאה

For behold it is brought down, "If a man says: I labored and I found — believe him" (Megillah 6b), meaning that through toil a person finds a find that does not come according to the line of strict judgment, and therefore it is called a "find" (a metziah).

Chazal teach that something found through toil is a "find" precisely because it exceeds what strict justice would grant.

ובפרט במלחמה שהי' במס"נ כדכ' וימסרו כו' לכן אמרו איש אשר מצא כלי זהב והם היו אנשים גדולים ע"כ הבינו שצריכן לתקן השלל והמציאות אשר מצאו כו'

And especially in war, which was waged with mesirus nefesh, as it is written, "And they delivered over..." (Bamidbar 31:5) — therefore they said, "Any man who has found a vessel of gold..." (Bamidbar 31:50); and since they were great men, they understood that they needed to rectify the spoil and the find that they had found.

Since the war was fought with self-sacrifice, the soldiers received gold beyond their due; being great men, they recognized this gain needed rectification.

ובמד' שה"ש דורש עליהם שיניך כעדר הקצובות

And in the Midrash on Shir HaShirim it is expounded concerning them, "Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that are counted" (Shir HaShirim 4:2) —

The Midrash applies the verse "your teeth are like a counted flock" to these soldiers.

היינו השלל מה שמזמנים להם לאכול את אויביהם צריך להיות במדה ובצמצום שלא יבוא לידי התפשטות יען כי הוא בא ממקום רשעים

meaning that the spoil, that which is set ready for them to consume their enemies, must be in proper measure and with constriction, so that it should not come to spreading out, since it comes from the place of the wicked.

The spoil that lets a person consume his enemies must be taken in careful measure, because it derives from a tainted source and must not be allowed to expand.

וכן הענין בפנימיות נצחון המלחמה שבלבות בני אדם

And so too is the matter regarding the inner victory of the war that is within the hearts of men.

This same principle applies to the inner war a person wages within his own heart.

ושם במד' משבחם שלא הקדימו תפלין של ראש לשל יד ע"ש שעמדו המפ' הכן רמוז זה בתורה

And there in the Midrash it praises them that they did not put on the tefillin of the head before that of the hand — as the commentators have established that this is hinted at in the Torah.

The Midrash praises them for not donning the head-tefillin before the hand-tefillin, which the commentators show is hinted in the Torah.

וי"ל דכתיב נשאו כו' ראש אנשי המלחמה אשר בידינו

And one may say that it is written, "They have taken the sum... the head of the men of war who are in our hand" (Bamidbar 31:49) —

He connects this to the verse describing "the head of the men of war who are in our hand."

היינו שלא להתפשט כחות הראש יותר מהתיקון בידים

meaning not to let the powers of the head spread out more than the rectification accomplished in the hands.

The lesson is not to let the powers of the "head" expand beyond the rectification achieved through the "hands."

והענין כמ"ש

And the matter is as has been explained:

He now explains the deeper meaning of this order.

כי תפילין של יד הוא העבודה לשעבד המעשים והכח ונגד הלב כו'

for the tefillin of the hand represents the avodah of subjugating one's deeds and one's strength, and it is placed opposite the heart;

The hand-tefillin, placed opposite the heart, represents a person's own avodah of subduing his actions and strength.

ותש"ר הוא השפעה הבאה משמים כמ"ש חז"ל שם ה' נקרא עליך זה תפילין שבראש כו'

while the tefillin of the head is an outpouring of bestowal that comes from Shamayim, as Chazal said there, "The Name of Hashem is called upon you" (Devarim 28:10) — this refers to the tefillin of the head.

The head-tefillin represents a bestowal that flows down from Shamayim, the resting of Hashem's Name upon a person.

אבל צריך להיות שיקדימו הכנות שבמעשה האדם כענין יראת חטאו קודמת אז חכמתו מתקיימת:

But it must be that one first puts in place the preparations that lie in a person's own deeds, in the manner of "One whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom, his wisdom endures" (Avos 3:9) — only then does his wisdom endure.

But the Heavenly bestowal of the head only endures when a person first lays the groundwork through his own deeds, just as fear of sin must precede wisdom for that wisdom to last.

Summary: The Sfas Emes asks why the officers who returned from the war against Midyan needed atonement, and answers that their victory came through assistance from Shamayim beyond their own merit. Because they gained more than strict judgment would have granted — like a "find" obtained through toil — the spoil had to be sanctified through terumah and the tax, taken in careful measure since it stemmed from a tainted source. He then applies this to the inner war within a person's heart: the Midrash praises the soldiers for placing the hand-tefillin before the head-tefillin. The hand-tefillin, opposite the heart, represents a person's own avodah of subjugating his deeds and strength, while the head-tefillin represents a bestowal of Hashem's Name flowing down from Shamayim. The enduring lesson is that the Heavenly gift of the "head" only takes hold when a person first prepares the ground through his own actions, just as fear of sin must precede wisdom for that wisdom to endure.