BOUNDARIES

A little boy had just attended his first geography lesson and was both excited and puzzled. He was fascinated by the map of the world with its array of colours, lines and figures. But he was also confused by something and his teacher, noting his serious demeanour, walked over to assist. “What’s the matter?” he asked. The little boy replied, “Sir, I know that God made the sea, the land, the rivers and the mountains, but who drew the lines around all the countries?”

In this week’s parsha (Bamidbar 34:1-12), God ‘draws the lines’ around the Holy Land. He instructs Moshe, in very fine detail, what the boundaries of Israel must be, using natural features such as rivers, mountains and seas, and place names such as Azmon and Zifron. Rashi (verse 2) notes that the main reason for knowing the boundaries of the Land is not political. Rather, because there are many mitzvoth that apply only in Israel, it is essential to know the precise borders of the Land. Boundaries are a vital part of human life. They exist in many different forms – physical, political, social, religious and legal. Without proper boundaries, life would be chaotic and human civilisation would be plunged into anarchy. Moshe made this point to Korach when the latter rebelled against his authority and, in particular, his appointment of Aharon as Cohen Gadol. When Korach presented his claim to Moshe, he replied (Bamidbar 16:5): “In the morning Hashem will make known the one who is His own and the holy one, and He will draw him close to Himself, and whomever He will choose, He will draw close to Himself.” Moshe’s intention in saying “in the morning” was to buy time in the hope that, in the interim, Korach’s followers might come to their senses. Furthermore, they had just been at a party where wine was served and some of them were drunk and not thinking clearly. A good night’s sleep would help to sober them (see Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin’s Oznayim L’Torah, citing the Midrash Tanchuma). However, Moshe had something else in mind when he spoke of “the morning”, as the Midrash (Tanchuma Korach #5) explains: “Moshe said to them, ‘God made boundaries in His world.  Can you mix day with night?  Morning and evening?…Just as God separated night from darkness, He separated Israel from the nations of the world…and He separated Aharon [from the congregation] to be the holy of holies.  If you can mix the day and night that God separated, then you might be able to cancel this separation…” Tinkering with the boundaries God emplaced in the world is a risky business.

Tehillim (104:7-8) describes God’s magnificent creation, highlighting the formation of the seas: “The watery deep, as with a garment You covered it; upon the mountains, water would stand. From Your rebuke they flee, from the sound of Your thunder they rush away. They ascend mountains; they descend to valleys, to the special place You founded for them. You set a boundary they cannot overstep, they cannot return to cover the earth.” The seas are hemmed in by the sand on the beaches and they dare not overstep their boundary and come up onto dry land. After the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, my Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Azriel C. Goldfein, of blessed memory, spoke at length on this topic. He mentioned that God’s promise to ensure that the seas do not flood the dry land is conditional on the behaviour of man.  If man oversteps the boundaries of morality, he risks the possibility that the seas [or other natural phenomena] might overstep their boundaries. The ensuing tragedy takes all in its path, both the righteous and the wicked.

The body also has its own boundaries. There are some limbs and organs that can cause harm if they extend beyond their boundaries. One of these is the tongue. King David speaks about this tiny trouble-maker (Tehillim 120:3): “What will He give you and what more will He add to a deceitful tongue?” God has done so much to ensure the tongue will not cause harm, yet it continues to do so – what more can He do? The Talmud (Arachin 15b) lists the protective measures God gave the tongue: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the tongue, ‘All the limbs of a person are upright and you lie flat.  All the limbs of a person are external and you are internal. Moreover, I hemmed you within two walls – one of bone (the teeth) and one of flesh (the lips) – what more can I give you?’” A tongue that consistently breaks through its barriers can be a very dangerous weapon.

The Torah is also surrounded by a wall. It is the invisible but powerful fence that the sages created to protect the mitzvoth and ensure that people do not come close to transgressing any negative commandments. It is a duty to construct such fences (Pirkei Avot 1:1 and Yevamot 21a). For example, the Torah prohibited a number of intimate relationships (Vayikrah 18 and 20) including incest, bestiality and adultery. The sages, in their wisdom and with a profound understanding of human sexuality and desire, added ‘secondary prohibited relationships’ (shniot l’arayot) so that a Jew would never even come close to actually committing a Torah prohibition. A further example of this is the law of yichud. A man and woman who are forbidden to one another may not be alone behind closed doors unless there is a chaperone present. Human nature is very powerful and more often than we would care to admit, ‘one thing leads to another’. How many sexual harassment incidents would never have happened had the laws of yichud been applied?  King Solomon lamented in Kohellet (10: 8): “He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who breaks down a wall will be bitten by a snake.” The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 27b) applies this verse to someone who brazenly transgresses a rabbinic law. There is good reason why the sages constructed a fence. It was not to be difficult or restrictive, but rather to protect Jews from the consequences of coming too close to a Torah prohibition. Just as a wall around a field or forest keeps wild beasts at bay, so too the fence around the Torah keeps spiritual harm at arm’s length.

A well known dictum in the Talmud (Succah 26a) is pirtzah korah l’ganav, a hole in the wall beckons to the thief. No one has the right to break into someone else’s home and we certainly cannot blame a victim of theft, but we must be proactive when it comes to securing ourselves. Any security breach is a welcome sign to potential burglars.

The Torah (Devarim 19:14) warns against encroaching on another’s boundary. Although the narrow context of that prohibition is the stealing of land by moving the boundary marker between neighbouring fields, nevertheless this law can be (and has been) applied to other circumstances, such as copyright infringement. We live in an era in which almost all boundaries have been broken down. There is very little privacy and very little respect for personal space. Human beings can traverse boundaries of space and time in seconds using the internet and social media. But for civilisation to function we need boundaries. We need to know what is appropriate and what is not; what should be said and what should not; where to walk and where not to walk; how to behave and how not to behave. The breaking down of boundaries in our generation brings with it enormous benefits but also dangerous side-effects. We must look to our Torah for guidance to set up and maintain boundaries in a world that possesses very few.

Lee, Chani Merryl & Naomi join me in wishing you Shabbat Shalom.  

Rabbi Liebenberg.

Rabbi’s YouTube message: https://youtu.be/mSObwVlpQCo