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At the end of our parsha (Balak), there appears one of the hardest to digest episodes in all of the five books of Moshe. As the Jews made their final approach to the holy Land, the surrounding nations became more and more nervous. Two of them, Midian and Moab, joined forces to hire a sorcerer to curse the Jews, but the plan was foiled from Above. The sorcerer was Bilam, of the nation of Midian, and it was the king of Moab, Balak, who sought to hire his services. However, Bilam (the protagonist of this week’s parsha) was unable to utter any curses against the Jews and indeed, he was only able to bless them, much to Balak’s chagrin. But at the end of our parsha, there was one bit of advice that Bilam managed to pass on to the Moabites. He said, “The G-d of this nation hates promiscuity.” So, the advice went, if the Moabites could send their woman to seduce the Jews, maybe their G-d would turn against them. That sets the stage for the end of our parsha, in which the head of one of the Jewish tribes actually was seduced by a Moabite princess. His name was Zimri, head of the tribe of Shimon, and he appeared with Cozbi, daughter of a Moabite chieftain, and challenged Moshe; “Is this Moabite princess permitted to me?” And if not, “Who permitted you to marry your wife, the daughter of Yitro” (herself from non-Jewish beginnings)?

Moshe Rabeinu was stuck. He didn’t know what to answer. That itself is strange; Moshe wasn’t the type to get confused or crack under pressure. During his stint as leader of the Jews, he fought far more dangerous enemies than Zimri, whether physically, spiritually or verbally. He was always victorious, and a simple question such as this should not have “stumped him.” In any event, another member of the congregation – Pinchas – took the matter into his hands and simply executed Zimri and Cozbi on the spot. (This is not the place to go into the details of the Jewish law regarding this case, though we may do so next week). No questions asked, but none answered either. So, we are left to try to understand what really took place here in the conversation between Moshe and Zimri…

Rashi explains, “Before the giving of the Torah, Moshe married Zipora. When the Torah was given, everyone was considered a ‘ben Noah,’ and then they all came under the category of those who were obligated to observe the mitzvoth.” That is, before the Torah was given, there was no distinction between Jews and non-Jews (the children of Noah were all obligated to reject idol worship and take on the other six Noahide commandments), and that was why Moshe was allowed to marry Zipora. At the time the Torah was given, they all, including Zipora, “converted” to Judaism, and that is why it was permitted for them to be married.

However, the above distinction is very basic, not the kind of information that would have been hidden from Zimri, who was the head of a Jewish tribe. Zimri certainly knew the difference between marriage before and after the giving of the Torah. And if, on the other hand, there was some detail of the law or some twist that gave rise to Zimri’s question, then certainly Moshe should have been able to deal with it and answer Zimri. Why do we see that he was unable to answer and it fell to Pinchas to take the law into his own hands?

There are those (the Iyun Yakov on Sanhedrin 82A) who wish to say that it was this distinction itself that slipped Moshe’s mind, causing his failure to answer Zimri. However, aside from the fact that Moshe was unlikely to forget such a simple distinction as marriage before and after matan Torah, it is unfathomable how Zimri could have asked such a question. Was he relying on the vague possibility that Moshe might forget the difference between before and after the giving of the Torah?

And here is another difficulty that existed even before Zimri’s question. Moshe Rabeinu was considered to be a Cohen, or priest, and a Cohen is not allowed to marry a woman who converted. It is the Torah itself that decrees this prohibition, and even though it is also mentioned in the Talmud (Kiddushin 78A) and derived there from a verse in the prophet Yehezkel, the Talmud concludes that this is only “support and evidence,” and the real source of the prohibition is the Torah itself. Elsewhere (in Zevachim 102A), the Talmud discusses the nature of Moshe’s priesthood. One opinion (Rav) is that Moshe was a high priest (since he never left the priesthood, only his offspring did). The other opinion is that Moshe was a Cohen only during the seven days in which it was required to inaugurate the mishkan, or tabernacle in the desert (some ten months after the giving of the Torah). But in either case, Moshe was a Cohen, and it was forbidden for him to marry a convert?

Perhaps we could say that this was Zimri’s question; he challenged Moshe by asking, “You are not allowed to marry a convert, and yet you married Zipora. So, why should I not be allowed to marry this Midianite woman?” But again, if this was Zimri’s question, what was the answer, and why does Moshe fail to provide the answer?

Here is another possible explanation; there were three things that Moshe undertook of his own initiative, and later G-d agreed with him. One of them was that he “separated” from his wife Zipora when he realized that as a prophet he would be in constant communion with G-d. And if so, Zimri had no claim, because in truth Moshe was separated from Zipora. In fact, according to Rashi, Moshe was not only separated, but divorced from Zipora, as Rashi explains on the verse (Num. 12:1), “Moshe married a cushit, and now divorced her.” And Zimri could not have known of this, because no-one knew. Out of tremendous modesty, Moshe preferred that his personal business remain private, and even his sister Miriam didn’t know of his divorce until Zipora happened to let it slip out as she and Miriam were talking together.

Still, this could not be our explanation, since the reason for Moshe’s divorce was the fact that he was a prophet of the highest order, and he could not remain married when in fact G-d might appear to him at any moment. And that does not fit with the challenge issued by Zimri, that if he could not marry a Midianite woman, then how could Moshe marry a convert? The reasoning behind Zimri’s challenge had nothing to do with prophecy, and everything to do with marrying “out of the faith.” So, the fact that Moshe actually separated and divorced Zipora was not an answer to Zimri.

The real explanation is as follows: There is a Mishna that states, “If he [a regular Cohen] got engaged to a widow and was then appointed as the High Priest, he may proceed to get married” (Yevamot 61A). Even though a High Priest is generally not permitted to marry a widow, if the engagement took place under circumstances that were permitted, the marriage is allowed to go through. The Talmud derives this law from the verse in the Torah, “And he took (“got engaged”) to a woman” (Lev. 21:14), implying that as long as the engagement took place under conditions that were permitted, then even if his status changes (i.e. from regular priest to High Priest), he may nevertheless marry the woman to whom he got engaged. And if so, we may imply that to our circumstances in even stronger terms. Moshe Rabeinu not only got engaged, but married to Zipora under circumstances that were permitted. So, even though the circumstances later changed and the Torah was given, formalizing Moshe’s position as a Cohen, nevertheless the marriage that he consummated before the Torah was given remained in effect after it was given as well.

Now, it could be argued that since their status after the Torah was given was not the same as before, and the act of getting engaged before the Torah was given was not the same as after, therefore, the Jews needed to repeat their engagement and marriage process after the Torah was given so that it would follow Torah law. And if so, even if Moshe married Zipora properly before the Torah was given, he needed to re-marry her afterward. And that being the case, we are presented with the same problem all over again; how could a Cohen (re-)marry a convert?

But in truth, this does not present a problem. For, the Jews, including Moshe and Zipora, certainly did “re-do” their engagements and weddings after the Torah was given, and this must have happened immediately after the Torah was given, before Moshe took on the status of being a priest. That is, he must have re-married Zipora after the Torah was given, but before the inauguration of the tabernacle took place, in which Moshe was the supervising priest. Therefore, there was no difficulty in Moshe as a priest marrying Zipora, because he did not become a priest until after their (re-) marriage.

And, according to the opinion that Moshe was, and remained a priest his entire life (and only his offspring failed to continue as priests), there is yet another explanation. In Exodus (2:1), the Torah tells us that “A man from the house of Levi went and took a woman from the house of Levi.” The “man” was Amram, Moshe’s father, and the Torah tells us that he performed “acts of engagement” toward his ex-wife, Yocheved, re-marrying her after having divorced her for some time. That is, even though it was still before the Torah was given, he used the same techniques for getting engaged that we now use after the Torah was given. So, we see that even in Egypt before the Torah was given, the Jews knew how to get engaged and married just as they would do after the Torah was given. Therefore, when Moshe married Zipora before the Torah was given, it must have been done according to the dictates of the Torah, and it wasn’t necessary to repeat the act after the Torah was given. The engagement and marriage that took place before remained in effect even after the Torah was given.

And now we can answer the two questions; one, what was Zimri’s claim against Moshe when he asked, “Who permitted you to marry the daughter of Yitro?” and two, why did Moshe not answer him?

Apparently, Zimri did not agree with the above learning from the Talmud regarding engagement before the Torah was given (derived from Ex. 2:1), and claimed that Moshe must divorce Zipora, the daughter of Yitro.

And Moshe could not answer him because he was not objective – he had a personal stake in the outcome of the case. This was an example of a case where a judge must recluse himself because the outcome of the case applies to him directly. A Torah scholar who is asked to judge in a case in which he has a stake is not believed to say, “This is the law as I received it.” And since Moshe would have had to pass judgment on whether he could remain married to Zipora, it was not possible for him to say anything to respond to Zimri.

The lesson; there are times when it is not necessary to answer questions. When the question is a valid request for information, especially information from the Torah, then everything must be done to respond and fill the gap in the knowledge of the person asking. However, sometimes the question is not a request for knowledge, but a challenge. In that case, the best response is not verbal, but action. When one asks if it is permissible to intermarry, then it depends. There are people who do not know the difference, or do not sense the difference, and to them it does not matter if they marry a Jew or a non-Jew. In that case, a verbal response is necessary, to at least attempt to persuade them not to marry out of the faith. But, more often the person doing the asking knows that Judaism does not permit marriage out of the faith. In such case, it may be necessary to take strong action to prevent it from happening. Even then, it may not work, but actions speak louder than words, and such a question indicates that drastic action is necessary to stem the tide. The same is true of the “old and foolish king inside” – the yetzer harah, or “evil inclination.” There are times when it makes unreasonable demands that it knows are out of order. At such times, it is necessary to stand up against it with total determination. Where arguments and logic will not help, stubborn determination may be effective, and that is the answer to those who challenge seek to “permit” intermarriage.

From Likutei Sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, ztz’l, vol. 18, Pp. 285-292 Rabbi David Sterne, Jerusalem Connection in the old city of Jerusalem