Parshat Beha'alotcha

(Zechariah 2:14 – 4:7)

June 14, 2008
11 Sivan 5768

In the second prophecy of the haftarah, Joshua, the High Priest, is arraigned before the angel of
God. On his right side stands the Satan, acting as the prosecuting attorney who has come to
challenge the acts of Joshua: "He (God) showed me Joshua, the High Priest, standing before
the angel of the Lord, and the Accuser (Satan) standing at his right to accuse him." (3:1)

The significance of this prophecy rests, in part, on determining exactly who is "Satan" in this
prophecy? Rabbi David Altschuler (18th century Galicia) reports what would seem to be the
pshat or plain meaning when he identifies "HaSatan" as "the prosecuting angel". (Metzudat
David) Rashi seems to follow this line of reasoning. Targum Yonathan, the 7th century Aramaic
translation to the Prophets, offers a slighty different nuance. He identifies "HaSatan" as the
personification of the sin that Joshua has committed which now stands before God pleading
against its perpetrator. God ultimately sides with Joshua, purifies him and sends him on to lead
the people.

The rationalist school offers an alternative approach. Saadiah Gaon (9th century Egypt, Eretz
Yisrael, Babylonia), one of the giants of our tradition, seems to be the first recorded voices of
this school. He writes: "With regard to 'HaSatan', this refers, in truth, to a person… like in the
case of Joshua ben Yehotzadak: 'and the Accuser standing at the right side to accuse him' and
it is possible that this refers to Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe (two heads of
the Samaritan community which was offended when the Jews returned from Babylonian at the
end of the first exile and complained to the Persian king). Scripture here records their advocacy
against Joshua (the High Priest of the returning Jews)". (MePerushei Rabbi Saadiah Gaon, p.
230) Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra ((12th century Spain) also follows this line of thinking: "HaSatan
refers to the 'enemy', someone like Sanballat or those who troubled Judea by writing accusatory
letters against Joshua since they did not want the Temple rebuilt."

Both Saadiah and Ibn Ezra place this prophecy within an historical context and assume that it is
an allegorical interpretation of those events. Joshua, as one of the leaders of the Jews who
have returned from Babylonia, is confronted by the Samaritans who are not interested in this
return. The complaints against the Jews are brought before God (the letters against the Jews
sent to the Persian king) and God ultimately sides with Joshua and the Temple is rebuilt.

These two very different interpretations of this passage offer us one of the blessings of Torah
study. Each message is so pregnant with potential meaning and multifaceted. One offers a look
into the Jewish soul, its purification by God and its return to its mission in life. The other offers a
look at the struggles of the Jewish nation in the world of realpolitik where every breath causes
reverberations.