35:20 (וַיַּצֵּב
יַעֲקֹב מַצֵּבָה, עַל-קְבֻרָתָהּ--הִוא מַצֶּבֶת קְבֻרַת-רָחֵל, עַד-הַיּוֹם) We have in this week’s Parsha Rochel’s
death, her being buried at a place that Jews will come to visit and pray at the
side of the road, and we have here that a Matzeiva is built on the final
resting place of Rochel. There is a single stone that is put as a resting
place. (וַיַּצֵּב יַעֲקֹב מַצֵּבָה, עַל-קְבֻרָתָהּ) Yaakov put up a
Matzeivah.
We find the word
Matzeivah used in a different context. In Parshas Shoftim 16:22 ( וְלֹא-תָקִים לְךָ,
מַצֵּבָה, אֲשֶׁר שָׂנֵא, יְרוָר אֱלֹקֶיךָ) We find that as a place from which to serve Hakadosh Baruch
Hu, a Mizbaiach made of many stones in desired. A Matzeivah made of one stone
is hated by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Rashi in Shoftim says (אשר שנא: מזבח אבנים ומזבח אדמה צוה לעשות, ואת זו שנא כי חק היתה לכנענים. ואף על פי שהיתה אהובה לו בימי האבות עכשיו שנאה, מאחר שעשאוה אלו חק לעבודה זרה).
Even though in the times of the Avos a Matzeivah was a suitable place from
where to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu, for generations it is changed. For
generations it is a Mizbaiach. It is a little strange that we use the name
Matzeivah which the Torah says Hakadosh Baruch Hu hates for the stone that we
put on the Kevorim of the people that we love. Why use the word Matzeivah?
In the Darash
Moshe in the first volume on Parshas Shoftim he has a very nice Kavanah in the
Remez of Matzeivah and Mizbaiach, he is not talking about a Matzeivah at a
cemetery, he is talking about a Matzeivah as a place from which to serve
Hashem. If we learn this Rav Moshe we will have a tremendous insight into a
Matzeivah in a Bais Hakvares.
Rav Moshe writes
that a Matzeivah is a single stone and a Mizbaiach consists of many stones as a
symbol. Something built of many stones symbolizes continued building. When
something is made of many bricks one can continue to build it higher and
higher. It’s something that has the ability to be extended and still retain its
identity. It will be a Mizbaiach no matter how many additional stones are added
to it.
A Matzeivah is
made out of a single stone, it can’t be enlarged and still be a Matzeivah of a
single stone. If you add stones it will become a Mizbaiach. Therefore,
Matzeivah symbolizes an accomplishment while Mizbaiach symbolizes continuous
accomplishments.
Before Matan
Torah says Rav Moshe, if someone kept Mitzvos and kept the Torah, he had an
accomplishment. Let’s say somebody (as the Avos did) keeps Shabbos for awhile,
or keeps the Mitzvah of Kashrus, he has an accomplishment. If he does it for 10
years and then stops for the rest of his life, before Matan Torah whatever he
did was a set accomplishment that he had symbolized by a Matzeivah.
After Matan
Torah it is not that way. If somebody keeps the Mitzvah of Kashrus for 10
years, he hasn’t accomplished anything yet. If for the rest of his life he
abandons it, then he does not have an accomplishment. When we keep the Mitzvos
of Kashrus, Taharas Hamishpacha, Shabbos, Learning, Davening, any Mitzvah, we
are adding stones to a building which we all ultimately hope will grow to great
heights. All of our accomplishments can only be symbolized by a Mizbaiach. If
it was before Matan Torah and there was no Chiyuv, where a person keeping
Mitzvas had so to speak a Matzeivah, a set accomplishment which could not later
be changed.
Says Rav Moshe,
that is the reason why before Matan Torah it was (אהובה
לו בימי האבות) it was
something which was beloved, it was a set finished accomplishment. However,
after Matan Torah, whatever we accomplish we have to see as a means to keep on
building and keep on accomplishing. Ad Kan Divrei Rav Moshe, a tremendous
insight into the symbolism of Matzeiva and Mizbaiach.
Let us take it
to our discussion. Isn’t it strange that a Matzeivah would be put on a resting
place of someone who passed away when the Torah says (וְלֹא-תָקִים לְךָ, מַצֵּבָה, אֲשֶׁר שָׂנֵא, יְרוָר אֱלֹקֶיךָ)? We can say no, it is not strange at all.
During a person’s lifetime his accomplishments have to keep on growing and
therefore the idea of a Matzeivah of being finished is inappropriate. When
someone passes away, his lifetime is done and he has finished his
accomplishments and we put up a Matzeivah as if to say, Leich B’shalom, go with
what you have already accomplished.
As a matter of
fact this is why there is a custom to place onto the Matzeivah etchings or
writings which tell us about the person’s accomplishments, because that is a Matzeiva,
a symbol of his accomplishments which indeed are finished once a person passes
from this world he has no further ability to accomplish. That is the purpose of
the Matzeivah.
Perhaps we can
add one more Nikuda which someone suggested so beautifully. There is a Minhag
by Yidden that when you go visit a Kever, you place stones on the Matzeivah.
Perhaps we can now understand it. The Matzeivah says that a person’s
accomplishments are finished. We say no. If a person passed away and we learned
from his actions, even after when he is the Olam Ha’emes, he can continue to
accrue benefits, because the things he did in Olam Hazeh have now accomplished
more and more good. So that we are putting stones on a Matzeivah as if to say
the accomplishments are not finished. There are additional accomplishments
(Zechusim) that can be added. When we go to a Kever of someone we love, we say
we are going to learn from your Maasim and add Zechusim and perhaps that is
symbolized by the adding of the stones to the Matzeivah. This is a thought
regarding the Matzeivah which Yaakov put on the Kever of Rochel.
