PARASHAT HASHAVUA: WHERE IS TOFEL?

The word Tofel is found in our sefer’s opening pasuk as a place where Bnei Yisrael spent time during their sojourns, but it is not mentioned anywhere else in Tanach. The root appears in a handful of places in Tanach, with the meaning of lacking taste or positive content.

Commentators saw the “place” as a reference to unreasonable complaints, negative events, or bad times. Some examples are: 1. Complaints about the manna (Avot D’Rabbi Natan I:34). 2. Foolish complaints against Hashem (Midrash Aggada here, referring to Bamidbar 11:1). 3. The episode with Korach (Pitron Torah p. 229). 4. The events of Taveira, the place they cried about the prohibition on incest (Aderet Eliyahu of the Gra). 5. It reminds us of the Three Weeks, as the previously mentioned Paran, was the place of the spies (on Tisha B’av) and Tofel refers to the idol worship (the Golden Calf) that occurred on 17 Tammuz. The Ramban and Abarbanel both say that these were places where Bnei Yisrael acted in a manner that warrants rebuke, without being specific about Tofel. These ideas do not focus on direct hints from the text of Tanach, which we will try our hand at.

David’s friend and later his nemesis, who assisted Avshalom’s rebellion, was Achitofel. Achitofel’s father is not mentioned in Tanach, which prompted some to surmise that Achitofel was a convert, which would cause him to not have a halachic father. If so, his name could mean our brother who came from the world of tofel, i.e., idol worship. This would explain why his father was referred to indirectly in the following manner: “Achitofel saw that his advice was not followed, and he saddled his donkey, and got up and went to his house in his city, and he gave instructions to his household and hanged himself and died, and he was buried in his father’s grave” (Shmuel II, 17:23). Only after Achitofel gave the horrible advice to Avshalom to kill his father and cause such a terrible breach between father and son did he realize his mistake. Chazal explain that he had an unclear vision from which he concluded that he would become the next king, which convinced him to take blatant steps to arrange this. He was not aware that the king was supposed to come from him, not be him. Shlomo’s mother, Batsheva, was Achitofel’s granddaughter (Sanhedrin 101b). When he realized how low he had gone, he decided to commit suicide, and in the process lost the right to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Therefore, he was buried in his father’s, the idol worshipper’s, plot.

Tofel then is a reference to idol worship, and a look through Tanach fleshes this out. There is also support for Achitofel being a convert from the name of his son, Eliam, which is reminiscent of Ruth’s declaration of conversion: “Your am is my am, and your El is my El” (Ruth 1:16). Achitofels’ granddaughter Batsheva was also married to a convert, Uriya Hachiti. So, the whole family came from a background of tofel¸ idol worship. This strengthens some of the explanations above.

Let us pray that these days of national mourning will turn into days of national rejoicing, as Zecharia prophesied would happen (8:19) as a result of “truth and peace may you love” (ibid.)

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