Parashat Beha'alotcha

Parashat Beha'alotcha

Sivan 19, 5772 ~ June 9, 2012

by Irwin Kaplan

Beha'alotcha provides a great deal of information about the people, circumstances and organization of the children of Israel as they traverse the desert. This is the Parsha that includes in 10:35, Vay’hi binsoa Ha’Aron, vayomer Moshe….(familiar to all of us as the Torah is being removed from the ark.) As the ark travels, Moshe calls upon the Lord to clear Your enemies out of Your way (not, our enemies out of our way, which I suspect has been the subject of many interpretations).

But strewn throughout are compelling stories, made even more powerful by the almost casual way they are woven into the narrative. What follows is a personal (and obviously subjective) view of those that are most meaningful and the thread that weaves them together.

8:14 The matter-of-fact clarity with which the Lord speaks of “taking the Levites to Myself” to be in service to the Children of Israel, in lieu of the first-born. The Lord states very clearly that the first-born of man and beast of the Children of Israel were sanctified to Him, as of the day He smote the first-born of the Egyptians. The juxtaposition makes it clear that the “taking of the Levites” was the quid pro quo, conveying the impression that although the Egyptians were our oppressors, we are all the Lord’s creation and our first-borns are no more precious to us than their first-borns were to them.

9: The rules of conduct for Passover.

In sentences 9:6, 9:7, two related issues are voiced by men who approach Moshe, concerned that they would be precluded from making the “sacrifice to the Lord at its appointed time” and that they would not be able to make the sacrifice “among the children of Israel.” The cause for their concern is translated as their defilement by virtue of being with a corpse (nefesh adam) which would preclude them from making the Passover sacrifice. Moshe asks them to stand by so he can hear what the Lord will command them. 

In 9:10 The Lord’s response is that if a man is unclean in spirit (using the same word “nefesh,” but in a context that would appear to mean spirit or soul) and on a distant road (an issue that had not been raised by the men who approached Moshe), they and their subsequent generations (an issue also not raised) shall also make Passover for the Lord. (Note: The word “spirit” and “soul” are used interchangeably in this Drash to allow the narrative to flow more smoothly, but they are intended to mean one and the same.)

And the Lord goes even further in 9:14, stating that if a stranger who dwells among you makes Pesach according to the laws and the statutes, the same statutes will apply to the stranger as to those who are born in the land.

In addition, the Lord says in 9:13, that a person who is pure in spirit (using the same word, “nefesh,” but there is little ambiguity in the meaning of the word as it is used here) and who has not been on the road does not make the Pesach, that soul (not person) will be cut off from its nation and that person (not soul) shall bear the sin. In this passage, the Lord speaks to the issue of community, but not in the context of the question as was originally raised.

The Lord’s response encompasses several substantive issues, but raises the question, what is the relevance of the Lord’s response to the issues raised by the men who approached Moshe? The question put before the Lord is narrow, translated as defilement by virtue of being with a corpse. But there are ways to become defiled (tomay), other than by being with a corpse. And why would the Lord raise the issue of the ability of future generations to participate in the making of the Passover sacrifice, if we are dealing only with defilement by virtue of being with a corpse? What is the relevance of being on the road? Being on the road, by itself, would not seem to restrict one’s ability to make the Passover sacrifice. (After all, aren’t we all on the road?) Why introduce the issue of a stranger who may dwell among you?

In the context of the setting of Mt. Sinai to deliver a commandment to make the Passover sacrifice to commemorate the significance of going from slavery to freedom, it would seem that the case brought to Moshe is only one of many issues that could be raised about who is or is not permitted to make the Passover among the children of Israel.

It would appear that any question of the relevance of the Lord’s response to the issues raised to Moshe could be resolved by translating “nefesh” as soul throughout these passages and “on a distant road” as metaphor. A first impression would be that the Lord’s response goes beyond the question posed by the men who approached Moshe, introducing such concepts as “a distant road” and “future generations,” but if “nefesh” is translated as soul or spirit throughout, the question posed to Moshe would then become, “We are mortals impure in spirit, why should we be denied the ability to make the sacrifice to the Lord at the appointed time within the midst of the children of Israel?” Everything would then fall into place. It would change the meaning from the narrow and the specific to the general and universal and in so doing, would become relevant to all of us. The larger question would acknowledge our humanity, in that our souls may stray and our actions may take us on a distant road. (Who among us, at one time or another in our lives, would be exempt?) The response addresses this human condition by saying that if we find our way back, or even if we are strangers who are pure in spirit, we are welcome. It is an all-embracing message that welcomes the pure in spirit, regardless of how they arrived, but makes it equally clear that purity of spirit without the actions to support it, is not enough.

12:1-12:15 And then there is the episode where Miriam’s and Aaron’s racial prejudice against Moshe’s wife and apparent indignation with the Lord for not having consulted with them as well, comes to the Lord’s attention. What follows again makes it clear that the Lord values ones spirit, emphasizing the importance of looking at people and situations in depth and not to make judgments based on the superficial, by referring initially to Moshe’s complete dedication as the frame of reference. (Sentence 12-3 stands alone, stating, almost parenthetically, that there is no more humble person than Moshe “on the face of the earth.”) The Lord then states angrily that they should have been afraid to speak against the Lord’s trusted servant Moshe, to whom the Lord speaks face-to-face and not in riddles, conveying the inappropriateness of their expectation that the Lord should have consulted with them on this matter. The issue is important enough for the Lord to speak directly to Aaron and Miriam, underscoring His message by striking Miriam with leprosy, “white as snow,” requiring her to be outcast for seven days before she could return to the encampment, as if to say, “How does it feel to be judged by the color of your skin?”

11:1 – 11:35 And as the complaining continues, Moshe intervenes on the nation’s behalf. As they travel through the desert on their way to the land that was promised to them, their necessities were met with the manna that was given to them, but they cried for the luxuries of meat, as well as the fish that were free in Egypt and the vegetables that were available to them in slavery.  Once again, it is a story of human behavior, the victim of circumstance who accepts the comfort of the familiar, even though it does not serve him well, preferring it to the unknown and unsettling prospects of change. Although they are on their way to the land that was promised to them, venturing into the unknown is a test of ones faith. What is faith, but the ability to go forward, not knowing? (Remember Avram in Lech Lecha? Where he leaves the comfort of the familiar and goes unquestioningly “to the land that I will show you.” And the Akedah, the ultimate act of faith?)  And as the responsibility for what appears to be a “nation of complainers” becomes too burdensome for Moshe, he turns to the Lord and says that “I cannot carry all this nation by myself,” stating simply that if this is the way it is to be and “if I have found favor in your eyes, then kill me.” In response, the Lord tells Moshe to assemble seventy elders of Moshe’s choosing who will share the burden of responsibility with Moshe, so that he does not have to carry it alone. And by the way, the Lord says to Moshe, tell the people they will have a month’s worth of meat, until it is coming out of their nostrils and is hateful to them, because they have become angry with the Lord who is among them, crying, why did you take us out of Egypt? (Moshe asked if it is possible to deliver enough fresh meat, fowl and fish to feed 600,000 people for a month and the Lord, in the Jewish tradition of answering a question with a question, asks Moshe if he doubts the Lord, which, of course, ends the conversation.) The quail were blown in from the sea (to a depth of about two cubits, so no one had less than ten chomers, conveying that there was much more than enough for everyone) and the people spent a couple of days (and a night) gathering them up and proceeded to gorge themselves, at which time the Lord hit them with a serious plague from which those who lusted after the meat died. (The poetic justice might have been even more evident and universal if the deaths had simply been attributed to indigestion from gluttony, rather than a plague from above.)

For the brief period they were assembled, the seventy elders were imbued with the spirit, but two, Eldad and Medad, continued to be imbued with the spirit and prophesied in the camp. When Joshua, who was serving Moshe heard about this, he told Moshe and said they should be locked up. Moshe suggested that Joshua might be jealous on Moshe’s behalf and that it could be an entire nation of prophets, if the Lord would spread His spirit among them. Once again, Moshe’s humility and wisdom are evident, protecting Joshua’s dignity by saying that he might be jealous on Moses’ behalf, while conveying the importance of rising above the superficial that enslaves us.

What weaves all these pieces together for me, is the “wandering” in the desert. It is a story of wandering through trial and error, of taking two steps forward and one step backward, of making choices and mistakes. The dramatic events of the Exodus captures the imagination, but is the introduction to a very human story of making the laborious and difficult transition from the victim mentality of slaves to the freedom of individuals responsible for their own actions (forty years is not a long time to effect such dramatic cultural change). It is a story of leaving behind enslavement to the transitory and superficial, a prerequisite toward the liberation of spirit as we come to understand and accept ourselves as we really are. It is a story of the humility that life thrusts upon us, not the humility to which we aspire. It is a story of the building of community based on shared beliefs, bound together by core values that endure (the issuance of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the event that changed the world forever). It is a universal story of the personal Exodus that transforms each of us, as we move from childhood to adulthood, finding the way through the desert of our own experience.