Mida Tova Meruba

Sotah (1:9) | Yisrael Bankier | 11 days ago

Towards the end of the first perek of masechet Sotah the Mishnah discusses how Hashem deals with people measure for measure. The Mishnah first brings examples of people whose punishments aligned with their transgression. The final Mishnah (1:9) then teaches that this is also true when it comes to rewards.

The Gemara notes that from the cases brought in the Mishnah, that when it comes to reward, it is not proportional, but rather increased -- mida tova meruba. We find that when Moshe was placed in the Nile as baby, Miryam stationed at distance to see what would happen to her brother. She was reward years later, when Bnei Yisrael was in the desert and Miryam had tzaraat. Bnei Yisrael waited the week for her to recover before continuing to travel. Her kindness was returned to her at greater scale.

The Tosfot however ask that we find cases where the punishment also appear to be disproportional. The first example they bring is that the spies spent forty days touring Eretz Yisrael, and for each day, Bnei Yisrael were punished with a year of wandering in the desert. It seems that the punishment was proportionally greater than the reward Miryam received.

The Tosfot Yom Tov explains that extending the punishment to a forty-year period was a kindness. He cites Rashi who explains that they were punished in this way so that no one died under the age of sixty.

Indeed, we will learn (3:5) that when it comes to the Sotah, there is a debate whether zechut tolah la. In other words, if she had particular merit, whether the divine punishment would be delayed and not have an immediate effect. According to Rebbi, if she had a merit, then her health would gradually decline over an extended period until she would eventually die the same way as a Sotah who was punished immediately. The Tosfot Yom Tov notes that this is despite the fact that she would suffer over that period. Nonetheless it was the merit that kept her alive. Surely then the same can then be said regarding the generation the lived in the desert who lived comfortably.

The Mishnat Chachamim however finds this answer difficult. He cites Rashi (Bamidbar 13:25) who explains that despite the size of Eretz Yisrael, Hashem miraculously enabled the spies to complete their tour in only forty days. This was because Hashem knew that the punishment was going to be a year for day, so He enabled them to complete it faster. The implication is that the increased time was a bad thing.

The Chiddushai Mahariach however cites R' Zalman from Vilna who explains that when they were punished, the pasuk does not say it was a "year for a day". Were that the case, the entirety of the year would be a punishment for one of their days. Instead, it says "a day for year". He notes it was only on Tisha B'Av each year that those in the midbar died. In other words, we find that they were indeed punished for forty days proportional to the number of days the spies were in Eretz Yisrael. Had those people over the age of twenty all been killed over a forty-day period, they would not have been able to have children and they would have died young. The kindness was that these forty days of punishment were distributed across a forty-year period.^1^

Yisrael Bankier

^1^ Based on this we might be able to answer the question of the Mishnat Chachamim. The kindness of Hashem was that they would live till the age of sixty. Since they travelled for forty days, there was only one day each year where they were punished over the forty-year period till they all died out. Had the journey taken longer perhaps the distribution of the punishment would have been more concentrated than just one day a year.

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