Parashat Beha'alotcha

Parashat Beha'alotcha
Sivan 9, 5771 ~ June 11, 2011
by John Sutton

The setting for this parsha is in the Sinai desert. A lot of familiar ground is covered, including the receiving of manna to eat, quickly followed by the complaint for this vegetarian diet, and the “quail fest”. There is much unrest in the camp.

We are reminded that Moshe’s father-in-law, Yitro and his family are among the camp and Moshe invites Yitro (here called Hobab ben Reuel) to join them and travel to Israel “…and we shall treat you well”. But Yitro had already decided to return to his own people.

Miriam and Aaron became embroiled in the bickering. They spoke against Moshe regarding “the Cushite woman he had married.” I wondered who this Cushite woman was as it didn’t fit the narrative of Moshe’s previously documented life.

It had already been stated that Joshua would succeed Moshe. So if none of Moshe’s children would succeed him, were they inferior ? (Yalkut Me’am Loez, Book 13). Some commentators have said that this (Cushite) woman was not (Yitro’s daughter) Zipporah. Cushite is variously described as black skinned, and also Abyssinian. The land of Cush was Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Cushite women were said to have striking beauty... taller, with chiseled features, quite unlike the descendents of Avraham. Rabbi H.J. Hertz says that Cushite and Midianite were synonymous (Hertz Chumash). So was Yitro a Cushite? He was stated to be a prince of Midian, and we assign Midian to the Sinai Peninsula. So did Moshe previously travel to Abyssinia/Ethiopia, and was Zipporah from Abyssinia or was she from the Sinai? Ibn Ezra identifies the Cushite woman as Zippora, a native of Midian. So was there another wife? There is much conjecture on this but in those times this was obviously possible. Moshe fled Egypt and would have travelled far to escape Pharaoh’s search. Did he stay on the west side of the Red Sea? Abyssinia was more than a thousand miles from Goshen but a very possible destination.

Joseph Kaspi, a medieval commentator questions the Rambam’s assertion (in his Guide for the Perplexed) of Onkelos’ interpretation that the Hebrew adjective Kushit (black or Ethiopian), “beautiful”, is the very opposite of what was stated, black opposite to white. Kaspi criticizes the Rambam for supporting Onkelos’ explanation and draws many parallels. He suggests that Moshe took another wife, an Ethiopian, after Zipporah. He justifies this by saying there are many events not recorded in the Torah. It was not our business to pry into his motives. But the repetitious statement “for he had taken (married) an Ethiopian woman” is as if to say “It is true that he had married an Ethiopian woman.” Unfortunately, the Torah leaves the thought incomplete.

The Stone Chumash commentators say that Moshe’s wife confided in Miriam that she no longer had a family relationship with Moshe. He was too preoccupied with his relationship with Hashem, always having to be pure, i.e. celibate, in case Hashem chose to speak with him. (Interestingly, this is right on the heels of the rules for the Nazarite.) Some commentators place this (celibacy) as the reason that Yitro left with his family. We don’t hear of Yitro, or of any of Moshe’s direct family again. Yitro took them all back to Midian, or Cush. In fact, the next time we hear of the Midianites is in Parshat Pinchas, when B’nei Yisroel are ordered to harass and smite them (Bemidbar 25:17).

What interested me in the Cush-related statements is the reference to Cushites being black skinned. The Torah speaks, by name, of many tribes of which we must beware. Hashem commanded that we annihilate some of them, and some of those we did destroy in battle. Others we never did defeat, contrary to what Hashem had commanded, and we rue that day. We say that Haman was an Amalekite… about the worst appellation that a Jew can lay on someone... but it doesn’t, in any way, physically describe the Amalekites. History, especially recent history, has divided and segregated people, first by the color of their skin. But nowhere else does the Torah refer to a people by their skin color. We wonder how can this be?

Many of us vividly recall that the United States was segregated by skin color until only forty years ago. Many of us would recall growing up in a shul with only light-skinned members. We look around in our synagogue and we see fellow congregants with about every possible skin coloration. But here, in the 21^st century, I know of no instance of a person at Beth Jacob being categorized by skin color.

Hashem heard the words of anger between Miriam and Aaron. Miriam was obviously the instigator and her spiritual tzaras was changed to physical tzaras, i.e. leprosy. Her skin was turned white. Did Hashem whiten her skin as a punishment for criticizing Moshe or was it for referencing his wife’s skin color, black versus white? Is this the Torah’s admonishment to B’nei Yisroel to not classify a person by color of skin?