The Mishna (Avot 5:6) talks about ten things that were created on day six of Creation, in the twilight hours on erev Shabbat. One of these is the “Mateh,” the staff.
The Midrashim (Pirkei d’Rebi Eliezer, Yalkut Shimoni, Tanchuma) go into great detail about this staff. It was made of sapphire, the very same material that the Luchot were made from. Its weight was 40 se’ah (the weight of all the water in a mikvah, approximately 734 lbs), and engraved on it was the Shem HaMeforash, the 42-lettered name of Hashem and the acronym “Detzach Adash Be’achav,” the first letters of the Ten Plagues, as we recite on the Pesach seder.
This staff was given by G-d to Adam HaRishon. It was then passed down from generation to generation, to Shet, Chanoch, Metushelach, Noach, Shem, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov and then to Yosef.
After Yosef died, his estate was turned into a national monument, a kind of museum. Yitro, who was one of Pharaoh’s advisors, took this staff back home to Midyan where he placed it in a place of pride in his garden, as a kind of ornament/statue. The staff became embedded in the rock and nobody could lift it. Yitro offered a prize to anyone who could lift this staff out of the rock, his daughter Tzipporah’s hand in marriage. No one succeeded in extricating this staff from the rock.
Along comes Moshe Rabbeinu and rescues Yitro’s daughters at the well from the abusive shepherds. When he is invited to Yitro’s house, Moshe sees this staff in the garden and immediately recognizes the engravings on it. He effortlessly lifts the staff out of the rock and marries Tzipporah.
One day, Moshe was tending his flocks when he saw an amazing sight, a burning bush that, although enveloped by flames, was not consumed. G-d appears to Moshe and commands him to return to Egypt and redeem Am Yisrael. Moshe is reluctant. “What if Bnei Yisrael will not believe me?” he asks. G-d replies “What is that in your hands?” (Shemot 4:2). Moshe replies “A staff.” G-d then instructs Moshe to throw the staff to the ground. Moshe does and it turns into a snake. Moshe flees from it. Why is Moshe afraid of a snake? He killed the Egyptian with the Shem HaMeforash, so why doesn’t he simply do the same thing here? The snake fills Moshe with such dread that he feels the need to flee. Hashem says, “Stretch out your hand and grab its tail.” Moshe holds it and it again becomes a staff in his hand.
What is this all about?
Moshe is holding Adam HaRishon’s staff, created on day six of Creation, on erev Shabbat, one of ten elements created specifically to repair the sin of Adam HaRishon.
G-d instructs Moshe to throw the staff to the ground and in doing so reveals to Moshe the essence of the serpent and the enormity of the disaster he wreaked on humanity, all the suffering, all the sins, all the exiles! This terrifies Moshe and he flees.
G-d comforts Moshe – “Grab hold of the tail, the remedy is in the tail.” At the end of days, the “tail” end of history, G-d will forgive our sins and send Mashiach to redeem us. Moshe grabs hold of the tail of the snake and it turns back into a staff.
It is this staff that accompanies Moshe on every visit to Pharaoh, before informing him of each and every plague that G-d is about to unleash on Egypt. The names of these plagues are engraved in an acronym on the staff.
It is with this staff that G-d later commands Moshe to bring forth water from the rock, the Well of Miriam in Refidim.
According to the Machzor Vitri, when Korach caused dissention amongst Am Yisrael, Moshe took this staff and divided it into twelve portions, one for each tribe. The Nasi of each tribe wrote their name of their portion of the staff, and Aharon wrote his name on the portion of Levi. These twelve portions of the staff were placed in the Ohel Moed in front of the Aron HaBrit. Levi’s portion of the staff flowered and bore fruit. It was this sign that finally quelled the dissention and restored unity to Am Yisrael.
All the tribes took their portions of the staff and they remained with the tribes for safekeeping. Aharon’s portion of the staff was permanently placed alongside the Aron HaBrit as an eternal testament to prevent friction and dissention in Am Yisrael.
What became of the eleven portions of the staff belonging to the tribes is unknown. According to the Gemara (Yoma 52b), Aharon’s portion of the staff was hidden together with the Aron HaBrit a few decades before the first Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, by King Josiah. There are many theories as to the precise location of these remnants of the Mikdash, including the staff, but nobody really knows for sure.
Nice as it would be to actually see with our own eyes a relic of the original staff of Adam HaRishon, the fact that we cannot is inconsequential, irrelevant and in truth – unnecessary. We simply need to look around us, right this minute and we will see living proof of the Creation, that G-d is constantly renewing, exactly the way it was in the first week. All we need is to open our eyes and rejoice!
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: Why did Hashem command Aharon to throw the staff on the ground and turn it into a snake in front of Pharaoh? The Egyptians were experts in black magic and “tricks” like these were trivial for them and unimpressive.
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: What was Pharaoh’s daughter’s name? Bitya (1 Chronicles, 4:18).
