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Why does God tell the Jews to take their own revenge against Midian, while Moshe changes this to taking God's revenge? The shiur develops a yesod that true love means putting the other person first - God puts us first even knowing we'll abuse Him, while we must put Him first even if it means refusing His gifts.
The shiur begins with an apparent contradiction in Parshas Matos regarding the war against Midian. God tells Moshe to have the Jews take their own revenge against Midian, but when Moshe relays the command, he tells them to take God's revenge. Rabbi Zweig explores why God would phrase the command in a way that allows the Jews to potentially refuse, since telling someone to do something for their own sake gives them the right to decline. The analysis reveals a fundamental principle about love relationships: true love requires that each party put the other first. God demonstrates His love by telling the Jews to act for their own benefit, even though this might result in His own hurt going unaddressed. This parallels the broader theological question discussed in the Gemara (גמרא) about whether it would have been better never to have been created, given that we inevitably abuse God despite His goodness to us.
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Parshas Matos - war against Midian
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Why does the Torah separate Avrohom's eulogy for Sarah from his crying for her? The shiur shows that Sarah required a public eulogy focused on the communal loss of a leader, not Avrohom's private grief. This teaches that we must view Jewish tragedies through a national lens first, seeing attacks on Am Yisrael as collective losses that dwarf personal concerns.
