The Jewish soldiers valiantly carry out their mission and decimate the male populace of Midian, taking captive the womenfolk and children.

Discovering this, Moshe is incredulous, challenging the commanders on how they could have possibly thought to keep alive the very women who so disastrously caused the nation to sin.

Defending themselves, they report how they took an exact census of soldiers at the inception of the war and miraculously lost not one soldier in battle, adding that neither did any single soldier succumb in the heat of battle to the enticements of the Midianite women. (שבת סד)

Despite their confident stance that G-d was on their side, nevertheless, they present an offering for Hashem, displaying the various gold ornaments worn by the Midianite women they confiscated from them, to atone for our souls before Hashem.

(במדבר לא נ)

Why the sudden doubt? Didn’t they just assert how divine providence was obviously on their side as evidenced in the remarkable fact that they had not experienced even one casualty — physical or spiritual?

The Talmud records that in fact Moshe asked them this very question. “If indeed you were clean from any taint so why then the need for atonement?”

It goes on to record the commander's response.

 אם מידי עבירה יצאנו מידי הרהור לא יצאנו— Although we have avoided committing a sin, we have not escaped inappropriate thoughts.

Were they deceiving themselves in their initial claim of purity of motive and now confessing to weakness after being confronted?

The Targum Yonoson describes in detail how the soldiers entered the homes of these women, carefully extracting their ornaments and avoiding any contact.

And we entered into their chambers, and there saw their daughters, fair, tender, and delicate; and every man who found on them jewels of gold, loosened the coronets from their heads, the earrings from their ears, the necklaces from their necks, the bracelets from their arms, the rings from their fingers, and the brooches from their bosoms; — but in all this we abstained from lifting our eyes upon themselves, or gazing on one of them, lest we should sin with any one of them, and die the death which the wicked die in the world to come. And may this be had in memorial for us in the day of the great judgment, to make propitiation for our souls before the Lord.

How are we to reconcile these conflicting accounts?

In a fascinating parallel, similar types of these body ornaments were eagerly donated by the wives together with their husbands when responding to the call for donations to build the Mishkan — Tabernacle. (שמות לה כב)

Then as well, the nation was instructed to donate the Machtzis HaShekel — Half Shekel for the Mishkan, as an ‘atonement for your souls.’

In both instances — the donations and efforts towards the construction of the Mishkan, and the offerings of gold ornaments as vessels of service in Midian — were to serve as cures for the sins of idolatry and promiscuity.

At the Sin of the Golden Calf, they worshipped the image, and we are taught their entire goal of worshipping idols was to gain license to indulge in licentiousness. (סנהדרין סג)

After the Midianite women succeeding in luring the men, they would first demand of them to worship Pe’or, before fully submitting to them.

Even more intriguing is that we are taught that the Machtzis Hashekel serves as an atonement for the sin of the sale of Yosef by his brothers, since the twenty pieces of silver he was sold for when divided between the ten brothers who were privy to the sale, had each one entitled to two silver pieces, the equivalent of a half shekel.

Pinchos was appointed to accompany the army in battle specifically against the nation of Midian so that he may avenge the honor of his maternal grandfather, Yosef, who was purchased and sold by the Midianites to those who took him down to Egypt.

The downfall of our people began amidst its nucleus, the twelve sons of Yaakov.

The playing down of Yosef’s stature in light of their collective self-righteousness created a flaw that would continue to haunt us through history until we would rectify it. To totally discount those who interfere with our notion of right and wrong, prevents our mission of promoting the unity of G-d in the world to be properly fulfilled. If we cannot master the art of validation, we are doomed to descend further along the path of self-absorption that can lead to the worst sins, murder, promiscuity, and idolatry.

The selling of Yosef was the catalyst for our descent to Egypt, a land of depravity, and eventual slavery where we were to be forged anew in that iron furnace, to restore the glory of our past, promoting to the world the oneness of G-d and the morals of Torah.

We rose to new heights receiving the Torah at Sinai yet slipped once again when in a moment of fear and doubt, lost our senses, defying Moshe, ignoring Aharon, murdering Chur, and sliding down the slope of idolatry and licentiousness at the Sin of the Golden Calf.

We picked ourselves up by the bootstraps once again, accepting the Torah anew with a greater commitment.

The Mishkan indicated G-d’s desire to reside amidst us once again. The Machtzis Hashekel we each gave represented our affirmation of every person’s equal worth before G-d. When counting people by head, we treat them as simply a single digit among a large nondescript number. By not ‘narrowing’ our view of the individual and counting a representative coin of their value to arrive at the larger number, we reiterate our validation and regard for every single invaluable Jew.

Rashi explains that by giving a half shekel, we avoid the reducing people to mere numbers, which can affect a plague. It is for that reason it serves as an atonement. But if we count half shekels, not people, then we haven’t erred and there is no need for atonement? Evidently, preempting the problem — by affirming each person inestimable value — is the greatest atonement.

Midian had exhibited corrupt character early in their history. In their role as slave traders, they not only reduced man to being another object, but worse, making him into a vessel for their own gratification.

That same depraved attitude is what compelled their womenfolk to utilize their beauty in captivating men, ingratiating themselves with indulgent pleasure, manipulating the men towards idolatry, and treating them as fodder for their own devious objectives.

It was thus Pinchas, the descendant of Yosef, who would vanquish this rotten core, once and for all.

The commanders of the Jewish army in this epic battle sought to take these vessels of manipulation, the tools of the trade of these self-serving Midianite women and transform them into tools of service in the Mishkan. This would bring a tikkun to the world in teaching that we are not placed here to be self-serving, rather to serve up ourselves for the benefit of others.

Rashi on the verse that expresses the commander's intention to offer the ornaments as an atonement, adds: על הרהור בנות מדין — for the sinful thoughts of the Midianite women.

It was the decadent attitude of these women who used their womanly ‘weapons’ (יבמות קטו) to lure men for their own devious objectives, that these valiant commanders sought to quash.

In the same vein that the half shekel was preemptive atonement, here too they sought to inspire their comrades by confiscating these ornaments of seduction and transform them into symbols of purposeful devotion.

There is then no contradiction. They remained faithful and untainted but explained their objective to secure these ornaments so they may serve as powerful symbols of our mission to never ever minimize the value — and certainly not abuse the greatness — of our fellow man.

May we never be self-serving. May we never belittle others. May we serve up our very selves to assist and uplift all those in our circle and beyond!

באהבה,

צבי יהודה טייכמאן