A few weeks ago my children asked me to choose a number from one to ten. Sizing up the situation, I realized they both wanted to play with a certain toy and decided that the best way to resolve the standoff was to make a raffle. Whoever chose the number I had in mind got the toy.
I’m not sure where they learned this brilliant solution and I was relieved the loser accepted the results without complaint. Conventional negotiations would have sapped all my energy and everyone would have been miserable. Something about a raffle helps all ages appreciate even the most absurd outcome – just because.
In this week’s parsha we learn of G-d’s instructions to the Israelites how to divide the Land of Israel.
“A tribe with a larger population will receive a larger portion and a tribe with fewer members will receive a smaller portion.”
Sounds fair.
Then the Torah continues, “The Land should be allocated according to the “Goral” – the raffle.”
The Talmud explains that Moshe gathered representatives from the tribes and apportioned the regions based on the diverse topography of the land and the results of the most recent census. Once it was all figured out, a formal lottery was conducted. Cubes inscribed with the tribes’ names were in one box and cubes inscribed with the regions in another.
The representatives were honored to pick out a cube from each box and miraculously the two cubes randomly chosen matched perfectly! They each picked out their tribe and the region they had already negotiated.
What was the purpose of this miraculous formality and, most importantly, how is this relevant to us today?
Our connection to Eretz Yisrael is deeper than a national homeland. It is the “Holy Land” because it embodies the perfection of Mitzvah observance as prescribed in the Torah. In a broader sense it represents the entirety of our collective mission in life; to imbue every aspect of reality with divine purpose and inspiration.
Everyone is given a mission based on their talents, strengths and circumstances. But when faced with certain challenges, regular negotiations stop working and that’s where the lottery comes in.
This region is mine just because; this mitzvah will happen just because.
I recently saw a clip of Anthony Bourdain’s visit to the Kotel for CNN’s “Parts Unknown”. He admits that he was never in a synagogue and is not a believer. “But that doesn’t make me any less Jewish… Apparently the guys at the Wall don’t think so either.” He was approached by a Chabad Chossid and offered to wrap Tefillin for the first time in his life.
“I am instinctively hostile to devotion… but when they grabbed hold of me and, in such a non-judgmental way [projected that] G-d’s happy to have you – hear you go… man, my treachery is complete.”
The Chossid did not negotiate with Bourdain, he tapped into his Jewishness by lottery – just because.