“Behold, a man from the children of Israel came and brought near to his brethren the Midyanite woman, before the eyes of Moses, and before the eyes of the entire congregation of the children of Israel. And they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 25:6). “Behold, a man from the children of Israel came and brought near to his brethren” – what did he see that led him to do so?
It is to teach you that he neither accorded deference to Heaven nor to people. In his regard it is stated: “A spiteful and arrogant man, scoffer is his name; he acts with spiteful ire” (Proverbs 21:24). She88The Midyanite woman. said to him: 'I will submit only to Moses your teacher, as my father is a king.' He said to her: 'I am as great as he is.
I will bring you before their eyes.' He seized her by her forelock and brought her to Moses. He said to him: 'Son of Amram: Is this one permitted or prohibited?' He said: 'She is prohibited to you.'
Zimri said to him: 'But the one who you took is a Midyanite.'89Moses married Tzipora, who was a Midyanite. Immediately, Moses was incapacitated and a halakha escaped from him.90He forgot the halakha. They all bawled in their weeping, as it is written: “And they were weeping.” Why were they weeping?
It is because their hands were rendered powerless at that moment. To what is the matter comparable? It is to a king’s daughter who adorned herself to enter the wedding canopy and to sit on the palanquin, but was found sinning with another; the hands of her father and her relatives were rendered powerless. So, Israel, at the conclusion of forty years, encamped on the Jordan to cross into the Land of Israel, as it is stated: “They encamped along the Jordan, from Beit Yeshimot until Avel Shitim on the plains of Moav” (Numbers 33:49), and there they behaved with harlotry, and the hands of Moses and the hands of the righteous were rendered powerless.
“And they were weeping” – when he was standing against six hundred thousand, “He took the calf that they had crafted [and burned it in the fire…]” (Exodus 32:20), and [yet here] his hands were rendered powerless? It is, rather, for the sake of Pinḥas, so he could come and take that for which he was worthy.91See the next verse. Because he [Moses] was tentative, “no man knows his burial place” (Deuteronomy 34:6), to teach you that a person must be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong like a lion to perform the will of his Maker. From here you learn that He is scrupulous with the righteous up to a hairbreadth.