Or HaChaim on Numbers 21:17/אור החיים על במדבר כ״א:י״ז

1 אז ישיר ישראל, Then Israel sang, etc. What precisely was the point of this song? Besides, why had the Israelites not acknowledged the mannah by a song just as they acknowledged the water? The entire paragraph needs explaining. Perhaps the entire song really was an acknowledgement of the Torah. This is why one cannot criticise that generation for not breaking out in a song of thanksgiving when the Torah was described as its מורשה, something precious left to them as an ongoing possession (Deut. 33,4). The reason is that the people had already acknowledged the gift of the Torah in the song recorded here, the song acknowledging "water." After all, Torah has frequently been compared to a well of water. It is called "well" because it originates with G'd the ultimate well from which all springs forth. It is also called "water" as it symbolises water and its life-giving properties. When the people sang עלי באר, "arise o well," this was not a reference to the physical well and the waters beneath the earth's surface, but to a celestial well. The words ענו לה are similar to Exodus 15,23 ותען להם מרים, the responsive nature of the chant.

2חפרוה שרים, which the princes dug. Bereshit Rabbah 64, states that by means of Torah study man is able to make repairs to celestial sources called באר, "well." The extent of the "repair" achieved depends on the depth of the Torah study by the individuals concerned and the spiritual level of those scholars. The Patriarchs who were on a very exalted spiritual level dug this "well," and made its waters fit to drink. This is the mystical dimension of Genesis 29,10 והאבן גדולה על פי הבאר, ויגל את האבן העל פי הבאר וישק את הצאן. "The stone was large on the mouth of the well, and he (Jacob) rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flocks." From that moment on the Torah was fit to be given to the people of Israel although the stage had not yet been reached where Israel could drink from it. This stage was not reached until Moses "dug" in it, i.e. brought it down to the Jewish people from Mount Sinai. The שרים in our verse are the Patriarchs, the נדבי העם is a reference to Moses. Subsequently the Torah was handed from generation to generation through the elders, the prophets, and eventually, through the Men of the Great Assembly. These people explained the Torah and its secrets. The meaning of the words כרוה נדיבי העם is that if we have only the written Torah without the oral Torah we cannot drink from the Torah's waters.

3במחקק במשענתם refers to the additional insights into Torah the scholars have revealed throughout the generations. These insights are likened to someone who adds decrees to existing decrees, not comparable to the earlier generations who have truly dug to explore primary meanings of the Torah. Even the additional aspects of Torah discovered by scholars in recent generations were discovered only with the help of the earlier generations, i.e. במשענתם, by using them as a crutch. We are not free to innovate new meanings and הלכות unless we can show that our conclusions are the direct continuation of the path in Torah shown us by the earlier generations of scholars.

4The Torah goes on וממדבר מתנה, "and from the wilderness to Matanah." This is a hint that whatever Torah-scholarship we acquire is due only to our first making ourselves like a wilderness, as we explained on Exodus 19,2 on the words "they camped in the desert." Torah can be acquired only by men who first train themselves to be humble. The Torah goes on in verse 19 וממתנה נחליאל, "and from Matanah to Nachliel." This is an allusion to the fact that G'd inherited us as it were by means of the Torah which He gave to us. This is spelled out in Deut. 32,9 יעקב חבל נחלתו. The words also mean that G'd chose only us as we know from Psalms 135,4: "for the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel as His treasured possession." He even left His abode in heaven and took up residence amongst us.

5ומנחליאל במות, "and from Nachliel to Bamot." Due to the fact that we have become His inheritance, He has turned us into במות, someone on a high elevation, i.e. higher than the angels. The Torah goes on ומבמות הגיא אשר בשדה מואב, "and from Bamot to the valley which is in the field of Moav." This whole line is a reminder that the principal reward for מצוה--performance is not in this world, "in the valley," but in a higher world and that in this world true spiritual wealth cannot be achieved.

6As a result of the foregoing considerations it is essential that man must be removed from this earth in order for him to receive the full reward he is entitled to at the hands of G'd. When it appears to us that death has been caused by sin, this means that but for sin man would live on earth forever. If that were so, how could G'd pay man the reward due to him for his good deeds, etc.? Kabbalists answer that had it not been for sin, man would have ascended to heaven and have been allocated appropriate accomodation there. The prophet Elijah is an example of someone who had not died and who ascended to heaven in order to receive the reward due to him. It is true that the body finds it impossible to survive in those regions even after it has been refined to the highest degree possible so that it is has become comparable to something spiritual. Still, such spirituality is as nothing when compared to the higher degrees of spirituality. Our sages in the Zohar, volume 1, page 209 explain that as soon as Elijah had reached the domain (galaxy) of the sun (in his ascent) he was stripped of his body, leaving it behind in that domain. Whenever he has occasion to descend to earth to fulfil his various assignments, he picks up his body in the גלגל חמה before completing his journey to earth. Our sages have also said that at the moment G'd gave the Torah to the Jewish people they were freed from the need to die and became like original man before the sin. They allude (Exodus 32,16) to this by reading the expression charut al haluchot as cherut al haluchot (compare Shemot Rabbah 41,7). Since this was the new found status of the Israelites, at that time, they too ascended to the domain (galaxy) of the sun and divested themselves of their bodies there, just as Elijah did many years later. When the Torah writes here מבמות הגיא, "from the heights to the valley," this describes the subsequent descent of the Jewish people from their places in the celestial domain to a domain called "valley," i.e. the grave. This valley was in the "field of Moav," i.e. the earth is called "field." The resason the Torah speaks of מואב is a reference to the "Father" who has created the universe.

7Alternatively, the word שדה refers to woman who has also been called שדה as we know from Zohar volume 1 page 36. The meaning of the verse then would be as follows: "the valley (grave) which was a state reached due to woman, who had been formed out of the "father" of all mankind, Adam, is the only one who had been created in this fashion, part of the rib of Adam, her husband." She had become the cause of mortality of man so that man's bones (remains) are buried in the grave, i.e. בגיא. This situation can be retrieved only by means of the Torah which is the remedy that can help us be restored to the condition of Adam before the sin. When man achieves that state his body will be of the order of the "valley" in the Celestial Regions, just as it used to be when G'd had created it.

8I do not know the precise parameter of the region the Torah describes as ראש הפסגה. Perhaps it is a place in higher Celestial Regions, the area where G'd keeps the souls before they are assigned to bodies or after they have returned from earth. This might be alluded to by the words ונשקפה על פני הישימון, "looking down upon the desert" in verse 20. The word ישימון is connected to שממה, a wasteland, the letter י suggesting a land which is going to be laid waste. It may also be called thus as an allusion to the evil urge as it tries to dominate and lay waste all creatures. The area it looks down upon is the galaxy of the sun where all the people destined for the גיא, the grave, are found. The upshot of the paragraph is that the useful function of the Torah is that it enables both body and soul to remain alive.