פרשת פינחס תשט"ו - המדיינים

for they harass you, by their wiles wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.’

Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to revolt so as to break faith with the LORD in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD.

Balaam said to them: The God of these Jewish people despises lewdness, and they desire linen garments, as they have no new garments; come, and I will give you advice. Make for them enclosures using wall hangings and seat prostitutes in them, with an old woman outside the enclosure and a young woman inside, and have the women sell them linen garments.

לזנות אל בנות מואב TO COMMIT WHOREDOM WITH THE DAUGHTERS OF MOAB — by the advice of Balaam, — as is related in the chapter חלק (Sanhedrin 106a).

וישתחוו לאלהיהן AND THEY PROSTRATED THEMSELVES BEFORE THEIR GODS — When anyone’s passions overpowered him and he said to her, “Submit to me”, she took out for him an image of Peor from her bosom, saying to him, “First prostrate yourself before this" (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 18).

With their guiles. Hashem commanded them to take vengeance from the Midianites, but not the Moabites. The Midrash explains this was because the Moabites acted out of fear since Yisroel was looting and taking booty from them, but the Midianites mixed into a dispute that did not involve them, as Rashi wrote later on (31:2). Moreover, it can be explained, according to the plain meaning, as follows: Hashem gave the lands of Amon and Moav as an inheritance to Lot’s descendants, due to the merit of their family head Lot who served Avraham and went into exile with him to the Land of Canaan. Therefore, Hashem prohibited Bnei Yisroel from doing anything bad to them in their land. However, since the Moabites and Ammonites sinned by not offering food and drink to Bnei Yisroel and driving them away, Hashem punished them by driving them away from His people and commanded (Devorim 23:4): “Neither an Ammonite nor a Moabite may enter”, measure for measure.

And they said one to another: ‘We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.’

We saw the anguish. They considered their callous deafness to Yoseif’s pleas to be a greater wrong than the actual sale.