|The Profundities of Torah-Matot-Well Done| |Écrit par HaRav
Yochanan Zweig| “Take vengeance for the children of Israel
against the Midyanites...” (31:2) Since Midyan was responsible
for Bnei Yisroel’s sins of immorality and idolatry which
resulted in the deaths of twenty-four thousand Jewish men,
Hashem instructed Moshe to lead the Jewish army into war against
the Midyanites.1 The Midrash asks why Moshe delegated this
responsibility to Pinchas if Hashem instructed him to lead the
army. The Midrash explains that the Torah is teaching us a
fundamental principle: “Bor sheshasisa bo al tizrok bo even” -
“Into a well from which you have drunk do not cast a stone.”2
Moshe had sought refuge in Midyan when fleeing from Pharaoh for
having killed an Egyptian taskmaster. Having benefited from
Midyanite hospitality, it would have been inappropriate for
Moshe to lead the effort to annihilate them. In Parshas Va’eira,
Hashem commanded Moshe to defer to Aharon the task of
implementing the first plague, transforming the wat