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.
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