Acharei Mot: A Reinterpreted Seforno on the Role of Lots

In the sidra of Acharei Mot, the goat to Hashem and the goat sent to Azazel are determined by lots. Vayikra 16:8:

וְנָתַ֧ן אַהֲרֹ֛ן עַל־שְׁנֵ֥י הַשְּׂעִירִ֖ם גֹּרָל֑וֹת גּוֹרָ֤ל אֶחָד֙ לַה’ וְגוֹרָ֥ל אֶחָ֖ד לַעֲזָאזֵֽל׃

and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for יהוה and the other marked for Azazel.

Why should these identical goats be selected by absolute chance? I could imagine a deep lesson embedded in this, but that is not how Seforno takes it. He writes:

גורלות. כי הגורל בפרט על ידי איש חסידו הוא כאשר ישאל איש בדבר האלהים כאמרו בחיק יוטל את הגורל, ומה' כל משפטו:

If it were up to me, I would translate it thusly:

Lots: for the goral, specifically when performed by his loyal follower (see Mishlei 20:6 for the phrase), is like an oracle sought from Hashem (see II Shmuel 16:23 about Achitofel in this role), as it stated (Mishlei 16:33) “lots cast in the lap, and from Hashem is the decision.”

I wonder if בחיק / in the lap is meant to specifically convey a devoted follower, such as Aharon or another Kohen Gadol.

Regardless, the idea is that this is a mild form of prophecy. One is consulting, in just this moment, a message from Hashem, which is conveyed just in this moment via the lots. This might be a reinterpretation of Mishlei 16, but that is the idea, that the lots are the conduit for Hashem’s message.

We see a similar conception of lots as prophetic message in Seforno’s commentary on Bemidar 34:2, when talking about the apportionment of the land of Israel. Seforno writes, but I won’t translate it all:

זאת הארץ אשר תפול לכם בנחלה. תפול לכם בגורל קודם שתכבשו כולה כי בגורל יאות לשון נפילה כמו ועל לבושי יפילו גורל וכן הפיל פור הוא הגורל ואמר זאת כי מה שכבשו חוץ לארץ לא הוצרך לחלק בגורל ובכן חלק משה את ארץ סיחון ועוג בלתי גורל כפי הנראה בספר יהושע וזה כי ארץ סיחון ועוג אין בה קדושת ארץ ישראל כאמרו ואך אם טמאה ארץ אחזתכם ולא היתה ראויה לגורל אשר ענינו ברוח הקדש:

It ends:

and that is why Moshe allotted the land of Sichon and Og without a goral, as is apparent in sefer Yehoshua, and this is because the land of Sichon and Og do not have the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael, as is stated (Yehoshua 22:19) “If it is because the land of your holding is impure…” and not fit for the goral, which works (inyano be-) via ruach hakodesh.

Thus, it is a matter of a low level of prophecy.

As you might expect from my past Seforno posts, this is not how Eliyahu Munk translates / interprets our local Seforno in Acharei Mot. He writes:

גורלות. כי הגורל בפרט על ידי איש חסידו הוא כאשר ישאל איש בדבר האלהים כאמרו בחיק יוטל את הגורל, ומה' כל משפטו:

גורלות, use of a lot, especially when handled by one of G’d’s intimates, in this case by Aaron, serves to confirm something G’d wants as we know from Solomon in Proverbs 16,33 בחיק יוטל את הגורל, ומה' כל משפטו, “the lot is cast in the lap, but one’s judgment depends on G.d.” [the gullible person imagining that as long as the lot has not revealed what it was meant to reveal the fate of the individual has not been determined, is in gross error. The fate had long ago been determined in heaven. (Alshich). Ed.]

First, I would not translate בפרט as “especially” but “exclusively”. Munk does not render the other Biblical allusions, which perhaps would have made clearer that we are dealing with a lower type of prophecy, in Seforno’s view. Nor is he, at the time of this writing, perhaps, aware of the later Seforno in a later sefer, though we’ll see how Munk approaches that Seforno in a bit.

Instead, Eliyahu Munk makes a broader point about chance vs. fate. There is Divine predestination, because everything in an individual’s life has already been determined in heaven. Therefore, if something will occur in the world to an individual based on a cast lot, it was really Divine Will based on Hashgacha Pratit.

Munk elaborates on that idea in the square brackets, in what I think is his interpretation of the pasuk in Mishlei. That is, his crediting of Alshich matches roughly with Alshich’s interpretation of the verse in Mishlei — see here — though I didn’t take the time to confirm that each fine detail matches and don’t really trust his interpretations of Rabbinic sources. Regardless, the Alshich’s interpretation of a pasuk in Mishlei does not bind Seforno’s interpretation of the same verse. These were different rabbis, with different world views.

That is also why he writes “especially” for בפרט. If a random dice roll which will determine a course of action in the real world thereby impacts an individual, and that’s the whole point, why should it matter whether the dice roller is a righteous, middling, or wicked person?

What about the other Seforno I mentioned, about division of the land being based on Ruach HaKodesh? I’ll repeat it here with Eliyahu Munk’s translation:

זאת הארץ אשר תפול לכם בנחלה. תפול לכם בגורל קודם שתכבשו כולה כי בגורל יאות לשון נפילה כמו ועל לבושי יפילו גורל וכן הפיל פור הוא הגורל ואמר זאת כי מה שכבשו חוץ לארץ לא הוצרך לחלק בגורל ובכן חלק משה את ארץ סיחון ועוג בלתי גורל כפי הנראה בספר יהושע וזה כי ארץ סיחון ועוג אין בה קדושת ארץ ישראל כאמרו ואף אם טמאה ארץ אחזתכם ולא היתה ראויה לגורל אשר ענינו ברוח הקדש:

זאת הארץ אשר תפול לכם בנחלה; the word תפול is used to describe the manner in which lots are drawn, i.e. a die is cast, falls. You will each be assigned your ancestral heritage even before the end of the military campaign resulting in the land’s conquest. The expression נפל in connection with lots is found in Psalms 22,18 as well as in Esther 3,7.
The reason why the Torah the word זאת, which at first glance appears to be superfluous, is to tell us that anything conquered outside the boundaries which will now be described is not subject to division by lottery. We find this confirmed by the fact that Moses distributed the lands of Sichon and Og without resorting to any lottery. The reason for this is that those lands do not have the degree of sanctity which is integral to the “Holy Land.” Joshua confirmed this when (Joshua 22,19) he spoke of ואך אם טמאה ארץ אחוזתכם, “even if the land of your inheritance is unclean,” [Joshua denied the right of the two and a half tribes on the east bank to build an altar even if thereby they had meant to add sanctity to the soil they lived on, which was not holy or sacred by definition. Ed.] The major reason why this land could not be distributed by lottery was that the lottery reflected Divine decisions, and G’d would not mix in unless the land concerned was holy by itself.

This is a lot of extra words for ענינו ברוח הקדש. He seems to want to avoid saying that this was functioning in some form of ruach hakodesh. It merely reflects the Divine decisions. And those could have been determined / fated long ago.

I think that his translation of our local Seforno is incorrect. Still, I’d guess that it is not deliberate censorship. Yes, tt reflects a frummy perspective on hashgacha pratit, but it is grounded in the Alshich’s commentary on a cited verse. Rather, it is a common thread I’ve found in Eliyahu Munk’s translation, where IMHO he mishandles Biblical quotations. He’ll go to the quoted text and overread it’s meaning, then project that meaning back to the commentator who quoted it.

Anyway, dear reader, it is up to you to judge which is the better rendition of Seforno’s thought.