When thinking of parshat Shelach Lecha few people would highlight the story of the “mekoshesh eitzeem”, generally translated as the gatherer of wood. Between the story of the spies and the mitzva of tzizit there is little time left to study this most cryptic story.
The Torah records that the Jewish people were in the dessert – a seemingly unnecessary introduction to the story – and they “found” someone who was mekoshesh eitzeem on Shabbat. What a mekoshesh eitzeem is is unclear but apparently it is something to avoid doing on Shabbat. Hence those who “found” him brought him to Moshe, Aharon and to the people – though what the people were supposed to do is unclear. They – presumably Moshe and Aharon – put him in mishmar, custody, because כִּ֚י לֹ֣א פֹרַ֔שׁ lo purash, it was not clear what to do with him. It is not clear what is not clear – was it lack of clarity as to what he did wrong, or what the punishment should be for his actions?
G-d then tells Moshe (only) that the entire nation should stone him to death. He was taken out of the camp by the entire congregation where he was stoned to death as G-d had commanded Moshe (Bamidbar 15:32-36).
What is this story all about and what is it doing here in parshat Shelach Lecha? If it is to tell us that one who violates shabbat is worthy of a death penalty, the Torah has already made that clear. That there were those who violated shabbat, that too we know. The very first time the Jewish people hear about shabbat, being told they should collect a double portion of manna on Friday because it will not fall on shabbat, we are told that some, (not just one) “of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing” (Shemot 16:27). G-d was angry. “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will you all refuse to obey My commandments and My teachings?”
What new information does this story tell us? Furthermore, Rashi notes that this story actually took place much earlier, when they first arrived in the desert. It is even possible (though Rashi does not claim this) that this story took place on the same shabbat that people went out to collect the manna. Maybe one of those who did so was the actual mekoshesh eitzeem. Be that as it may, if the story happened so much earlier, what is it doing here after the story of the spies and before the mitzva of tzizit?
Perhaps the key to the story is the fact that it took place in the desert and involved trees. There are few trees in the desert. Trees need water, shade and proper soil to grow, all things lacking in the desert. Not only can’t trees survive in a desert so too a desert is a place not fit for human habitation.
The root of מְקֹשֵׁשׁ, mekoshesh, is קשש and appears one other time in the Torah. Moshe and Aharon have arrived at Pharaoh’s palace and tell him that the G-d of Israel demands that he let the Jewish people go and worship Him for three days in the desert. The request did not go over well.
Instead of freeing the people, Pharaoh decided to intensify the slavery. “Pharaoh charged the taskmasters and overseers of the people, saying, you shall no longer provide the people with straw for making bricks as heretofore; let them go וְקֹשְׁשׁ֥וּ לָהֶ֖ם תֶּֽבֶן, and gather straw[1] for themselves” (Shemot 3:6-7).
The Jewish people have just been told that they are to remain in the desert for 40 years, that they will die in the desert. This news did not go over very well; “the people mourned greatly”(Bamidbar 15:39). Many, despite being warned this mission was doomed, decided that they were going to go then and there to the Land of Israel. That was not a smart decision. “And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country came down and dealt them a shattering blow at Hormah” (Bamidbar 14:45).
This defeat made it clear to all that they were actually going to die in the desert. This was a fear the people had (and will) expressed many times.“Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us be, and we will serve the Egyptians, for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’?” (Shemot 14:12).
The mekoshesh eitzeem decided he was going to do just that, if not actually, then at least symbolically. As he did recently in Egypt, he would have to work hard to get his “straw”. He had to travel far to find trees[2] and was “found” by others[3]. Unlike the desert where trees are few and far between, in Egypt trees were (or used to be) everywhere. “Throughout the land of Egypt the hail struck down all that were in the open, both human and animal; the hail also struck down all the grasses of the field and shattered all the trees of the field” (Shemot 9:25). “They [the locusts] shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They shall devour the surviving remnant that was left to you after the hail; and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field” (Shemot 10:5).
It would have been much better the mekoshesh argued, to have left the trees alone, left us alone, and not taken us to die in the desert.
And what better day to stress this point that on Shabbat. True we may not have had a day of rest in Egypt but we had “fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic” (Bamidbar 11:5).
The mekoshesh did not just (or maybe even) violate shabbat[4]. Rather, he defiantly rejected G-d and Moshe. He wanted nothing to do with them. While one can hear his despair and even feel sorry for him, this had the potential to foment a revolt against Moshe. Perhaps Korach was “inspired” by the mekoshesh.
This story reminds one of another cryptic story, that of the blasphemer recorded in parshat Emor. Here too the story appears seemingly out of nowhere with no clear relation to what comes before or afterwards. It too involves an unnamed sinner who is brought to Moshe (but not Aharon and the people) and put in a mishmar lifrosh as they waited for instructions from G-d as to what to do. Here too he was taken out of the camp and stoned.
The Torah in the many parallels of these stories is indicating that what might appear like a simple act of gathering wood was in fact an act of blasphemy against G-d.
Appearances can be deceiving. And that brings us to tzizit where what appears to be but a blue thread is actually what links man to G-d. As the Talmud (Menachot 43b) explains “the tekhelet is similar to the sea, and the sea is similar to the sky, and the sky is similar to the Throne of Glory[5]. May we merit to strive to reach it.
[1] It is from the use of the word by Pharaoh that the many explain the mekoshesh eitzeem, was a gatherer of wood.
[2] Many commentaries actually explain his sin being that he went far outside the camp on Shabbat despite Moshe’s warning not to do so. “Let everyone remain in place: let no one leave the vicinity on the seventh day” (Shemot 16:29).
[3] What they were doing there is not clear. Perhaps they felt the same way yet as often happens in times of crisis they snitched on one of their own.
[4] While our Sages debate which of the 39 forbidden acts of labour he violated, it is not evident from the text that he did actually desecrate the shabbat. Had it been clear what he did wrong there would be little need for a debate and it would have been clear what should be done with him.
[5] For a very different approach to this story please see here
