Parashat Beha'alotchah

Sivan 16, 5773 ~ May 25, 2013
by Diane Whitten-Vile

Beha’Alosecha 8:1-12:16

There is a joke I’ve heard many times about a group of Jewish ladies having lunch in a restaurant.   The waiter comes up to the table and says “Is anything all right?”  Implying of course, that nothing is ever ok.  Jews complain.  A lot.  There are many jokes of this nature.  Is this anti-Semitism; a bad stereotype?  I’ll leave that to you to answer.

But complaining plays a big role in this week’s parsha.  It seems that this parsha contains maybe one of  (if not THE)  worst crisis of Moshes life.  Incited by the “mixed multitude”, the Israelites complain about…what else, the food.  Remember the joke told by Woody Allen in Annie Hall?  A group of Jews are having lunch at a restaurant and one person says to the other one, “the food here is terrible” and the other person says, “yes, and such small portions”

The Israelites say “If only we had meat to eat.  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, etc.  But now we have lost our appetite: we never see anything but this manna”.  It was quite an appalling show of ingratitude, but certainly not the first time the Israelites had complained.  In Marah, they complained that the water was too bitter.  They protested the lack of food. Later, at Refidim, they grumbled at the absence of water, prompting Moshe to say to Hashem, “What am I to do with these people? They are ready to stone me”

The episode in this week’s Torah portion-at the place now known as Kivrot Hataavah-was not the first challenge Moshe faced.  However, Moshes reaction this time is filled with much more despair.  He tells Hashem he cannot carry all these people by himself, the burden is too heavy.  He actually tells Hashem, if this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death.    He prays to die.  Moshe had faced and overcome many difficulties before.  Why the nervous breakdown now? 

Equally interesting is Hashems reaction.  He tells Moshe to bring him 70 elders who are known as leaders and officials.   Hashem says “I will come down and speak with you, and I will take of the spirit that is on you and put the spirit on them.  They will help you carry the burden”   In what way would the appointment of elders address the crisis? I believe Moshe already had a group of men, representatives, officals-who would help Moshe.  This idea of “assistants” was suggested to him by his father in law.   A suggestion Moshe followed.

Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein, in his book about Moshe’s leadership, suggest that the reason Moshe was in deeper despair has to do with the timing of the complaints.  Due to the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle, the Israelites are turned from an undisciplined mass of fugitive slaves into a nation whose constitution is the Torah.  They are no longer what they were before.  So, looking back, maybe one could forgive their earlier complaints.   But now, they had gone through such a transformative experience that shaped them as a nation.   So, for Moshe it must have seemed that not miracles, deliverances, nor revelations at Sinai could change these people.  It’s possible this explains the depth of his despair.

With the 70 elders, Hashem took “the spirit that is on you and put it on them” so that Moshe could see the difference he hade made to one group, the elders.  He was able to see that the 70 elders had internalized his spirit and made his message their own. Moshe needed nothing more.  He didn’t really need their help.  What he got was a transparent glimpse of how his spirit had communicated itself to them.  For a brief moment, Hashem let Moshe see how his “spirit” had entered this group of elders, and lifted them to the level of prophetic vision.  Then, Moshe knew he had a made a difference.  He could see that others would continue his work after he was gone.

In speaking to a dear friend who lost her husband last week end in a tragic car accident, we spoke of his positive effect on my life and the lives of everyone he touched while he was alive.  How tragic also that I kept that sense of gratitude and love to myself, instead of sharing it with my great friend Steve who is now gone.

Moshe’s experience reminds me of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”.   Jimmy Stewart gets to glimpse how he had changed the world and how his life had made such a difference in others lives.  Hopefully, in dark moments of wondering if we are doing anything to make a difference, we can understand that the good we do will live on after us, perhaps in ways we can’t even imagine now.