These few פרשיות here at the end of ספר במדבר are filled with various incidents of ה' displaying מדה כנגד מדה towards various individuals. Last week פרשת קרח we saw how קרח got what was rightfully coming to him. In this week’s פרשה, in פרק כ פסוק ב the תורה writes "ולא היה מים לעדה", that there was no water for the nation. Granted, the water was in the זכות of מרים who had just died, but had כלל ישראל done something wrong that now they deserved to be punished with having no water to drink? The אלשי"ך therefore writes that the תורה doesn’t say that כלל ישראל wept and cried and mourned her death as it does by the deaths of משה ואהרן. Since they didn’t mourn her properly, and did not shed any tears over her death, the source of their own water dried up, because it was as if her זכות and what she gave to כלל ישראל did not even matter to them.

Last week in א"י our people as a whole suffered a tremendous loss. הרב מרדכי אליהו זצ"ל, a previous ספרדי Chief Rabbi in א"י, was נפטר after having been sick for a very long time. I was told that there were approximately 20,000 people at his לוויה, of which my brother-in-law was one, I am proud to say. We know that when a גדול leaves this world, something major leaves along with his soul, and it is up to the rest of כלל ישראל to try and fill that gap. When I mentioned his death to a few people in America, I was shocked to see how few people had even heard of him, let alone known that he was sick for a long time! בע"ה, I hope that we can be מתקן for what we lost.

It is brought down that during the עקבתא דמשיחא, many גדולי תורה will be נפטר so as to not have to see the pain that will be brought down on the world during this period. יה"ר that this great person should be the last of the great people that כלל ישראל is destined to have lost before משיח comes, which should be soon במהירה בימינו אמן!

Have a wonderful שבת קודש!

מרדכי שמחה טיפנברון