B’ha-ah-lo-te-cha
This week’s Torah portion comes from the Book of Numbers, chapters 8
thru 12. It contains more plot lines,
twists and turns than an HBO series. It
is the ultimate “cliff hanger.”
Now, if we perceive parts of the Torah as overly dramatic, yet strangely
familiar, there is a logical reason: having been read by Shakespeare and every
western playwright, poet, author, and literature major for over 5,000 years, its
stories, structure, cadences and narrative-form gave shape to Western thought,
writing and literature. And, perhaps even
more relevant to our lives today, the Torah is where Hollywood gets its blockbuster
material, and has, since before Cecil B. DeMille parted the Red Sea.
In this week’s portion, or episode, B’ha-ah-lo-t’cha,
Moses literally gets his marching orders... from God. Moses explains to the
people that during the day, the Tabernacle will be covered with a cloud, and at
night, by a pillar of fire. Whenever the
cloud lifts, it is a sign to get underway. On a sign from the Lord they make
camp, and on a sign from the Lord they break camp.
To bring you up to speed on the story, it is the second year after the
Exodus from Egypt. Moses has received the 2 Tablets from God at Mt. Sinai and
brought them to the Israelites where they are now housed in the Ark of the
Covenant. The portable Tabernacle has
been cleverly and artistically designed to be assembled and then disassembled
for the journey to the Promised Land, using only one Allen wrench. Two silver
trumpets are hammered out and, using a system of blasts, they can summon the entire
community, or just its chieftains, or signal the multitude to march or stop.
The multitude marches out tribe by tribe in formation around the Ark of
the Covenant; please visualize this very Cecil B. DeMille moment;
six-hundred-thousand men and their families and livestock; each tribe under its
own flag... the tribe of Judah is the first to step out; along with the tribes
of Issachar, and Zebulun. The next division to set out consists of Ruben,
Simeon and Gad. The next division to
head out was led by Ephraim, along with the forces of Manasseh and Benjamin and
behind the Ark, the rear guard was composed of the tribes of Dan, Asher and Naphtali.
Each time the Tabernacle was underway, Moses would utter these words
“Advance, O Lord!
May Your enemies be scattered,
And may Your foes flee before You!”
And when it halted, he would say:
Return, O Lord,
You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!
WOW, you can almost hear the SOUNDTRACK!
And these very words are spoken during every Torah service, till this
day!
Well, it isn’t too long into the journey that God hears grumbling from
the people... again. The Israelites and
the mixed multitude have been complaining ever since Moses showed up to free
them by God’s hand.
Just like children who don’t get into trouble as long as they have
something to do...the Israelites didn’t complain as long as they were occupied
by manufacturing the structure and utensils and decorative materials of the
Tabernacle, Tent of Meeting, and the Priestly Garments.
Now we can’t proceed in the
story until we truly take a moment to understand an important Jewish word. KVETCHING.... can everyone try that? KVETCHING.
KVETCHING, a uniquely Jewish word, is defined as the noise made by Jews
when they whine and complain simultaneously
in a very aggrieved manner, to anyone who will listen. God hears the KVETCHING of the people and is
incensed by their behavior and failure to appreciate all He has done for them so
far. God’s anger blazes up, literally, and he sends fire to burn up the people
on the periphery of the camp. The people cry out to Moses who intercedes with
God, once again, and…in an act of compassion, God extinguishes the fire.
But the Kvetching doesn’t stop. Next we are introduced to HUNGRY JEWS
with ATTITUDE.
When the Jews left Egypt, they worried that there wouldn’t be enough to eat
on their journey… so God ensured a steady flow of manna fresh daily with a
double delivery on Friday morning in time for Shabbos… Manna, we STILL don’t
know what it was, but I’m thinking freeze-dried tofu from the sky. The Torah
says it was like coriander seed and it was the color of FAT. They’ve been eating it for two years now…
grinding it, boiling it, baking it…and it tasted like rich cream. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the
manna would fall upon it.
Even after providing for them, the kvetching doesn’t stop.... it continues,
as certain more gluttonous Israelites complain to Moses. “OH that we had meat
to eat! Then, with twisted nostalgia for the “good old days of slavery they
say, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers,
the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are
shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!” Why did you take us out of Egypt… sure we had
to eat in haste… but at LEAST there was a little VARIETY. WE WANT MEAT!!!!!
By this point, Moses has run out of Patience and VALIUM. The Israelites have been kvetching since
leaving Egypt. Over and over again they are referred to by God and Moses as “A
STIFF NECKED PEOPLE.” They are a difficult people to lead. Moses has tended to their needs, interceded
on their behalf with God, grown from the reluctant, soft spoken leader chosen
by God to lead them to promised land ....to THIS!!!!!! An aggrieved and totally
FED UP LEADER who never wanted the job in the first place! He shakes a verbal
fist at the Lord!
“Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I
not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon
me? Did I conceive all this people, did
I bear them, that You should say to me, “Carry them in your bosom as a nurse
carries and infant,” to the land that You have promised on oath to their
fathers? Where am I to get meat to give
to all this people when they whine before me and say, “Give us meat to eat,” I cannot carry all this people by myself, for
it is too much for me. If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!” Just
for the record, Moses isn’t the only leader of the Jews who asked for death… So
did Elijah, Jeremiah and Jonah! As I’ve
said, Jews are not so easy to lead!
God peels Moses off the ceiling for a little counseling... tells
him to chose 70 of Israel’s elders who are experienced as elders and officers
of the people. They are to go to the
Tent of Meeting with Moses... at which time God hovers over them and draws upon
the spirit that is on Moses, and puts it upon them; saying to Moses, “They
shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone.” And, as the song says, We ALL NEED somebody
to lean on.
As for those who kvetched and whined about not having
meat! God instructs Moses to say to
them: “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have
kept whining before the Lord and saying “If only we had meat to eat! Indeed, we were better off in Egypt! The Lord will give you meat and you shall
eat. You shall eat not one day, not two,
not even five days or ten or twenty, but a whole month, until it comes out of
your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you.
For you have rejected the Lord who is among you, by whining before Him
and saying, ‘oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!”
Moses is incredulous...and questions God’s plan for feeding 600,000 plus
people for a month. The Lord answers Moses, “Is there a limit to the Lord’s
power? You shall soon see whether what I
have said happens to you or not!”
By now you would have thought Moses would believe anything
God said!
A wind whips up, sweeps quail from the sea, strews them over the camp
and for a distance of a day’s journey in each direction. They were two cubits
deep in quail carcasses. A cubit is 18 inches.. so we’ve got 36 inches of DEAD
POULTRY. People gathered them day and
night for two days. YUM.. or so they
thought. The meat was still between
their teeth when God’s anger blazed once again... and the people were struck by
a very sever plague. As an aside, quail
can be poisonous to humans. On their
migratory route they can ingest seeds that are NOT poisonous to them, but ARE
poisonous to humans, causing them to develop vertigo, seizures and/or death.
Isn’t this a little harsh? Come
on… the, the Israelites are only a THREE DAY WALK from the Promised Land. All this kvetching and moaning over the small
stuff convinces God that this generation of former slaves is way too weak to
fight the battles ahead necessary to conquer and settle the new land. It is
euphemistic to say God GAVE them the land.... they were going to have to take
it from the current inhabitants. No. To prepare for the fight, It will take a
full forty years from the departure from Egypt for that generation to die out,
and bring a new, strong generation of Israelites unencumbered by the mental
yoke that slavery had put on their parents.
The Drama Continues with a sub-plot
Moses has a little trouble from his siblings, Aaron and Miriam. They say to Moses, HEY… you aren’t the ONLY
ONE God talks to around here. God talks
to US TOO! Moses sets them
straight…letting them know that, whatever their claims toward prophet-ness… God
spoke FACE TO FACE with HIM, Moses… God chose HIM to be prophet. Got it? God talks to ME directly…I am the MAIN MAN. (This from a guy who could only stutter at
the beginning of the story, and who needed Aaron as his mouth piece!) And then the sibling tension gets even uglier
involving an episode of l’shon Hara, speaking ill of someone, and its
consequences.
You see Moses has chosen a new wife. Miriam and Aaron chide him on his
choice of an Ethiopian. Moses’ new wife
is not an Israelite. For SURE God didn’t
like Miriam’s attitude about her sister-in-law… and as you may know from our
readings in Leviticus, God’s number one punishment for speaking ill of someone
is… LEPROSY! After voicing her
criticism, Miriam literally turns white. White and scaly, and is sent out of the camp for a seven day
cleansing. Both her brothers, Aaron and
Moses were extremely worried that God would strike her dead, but God was
compassionate once again. Why? Well, it seems one good turn deserves another. I
am referring to Miriam’s role in placing the baby basket with Moses in it into
the Nil. Miriam didn’t just launch her brother in the basket, she stood by until
Moses was drawn from the water by the princess.
Miriam WAITED. She didn’t just send him down the river. After a week in rehabilitation, both
spiritual and physical, the leprosy goes away and Miriam is permitted back into
the camp.
So there you have it. Moses continues
to gain insight, develop leadership skills, and gets even tighter with
God. Now, as they undertake the journey,
he has to work harder and harder to keep the reins of leadership, not for
his own aggrandizement but because he is growing into his leadership position.
Moses is the archetype of the Public Servant.
Unlike kings, pharaohs and potentates who are served BY the people, for their own aggrandizement, the anachronistic
term Public Servant harkens back to a day and age when men of great character
worked on behalf of the people. Moses is NOT served by the people. He is a servant OF the people. He has taken
on the responsibility of carrying out God’s primary mission. Returning the Israelites to the land of
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob, Rachel and Leah. In addition to the Ark of the Covenant, they
are carrying Joseph’s bones, bones that have waited 400 years to return.
In case you are wondering, no, you can’t download the next episodes
ahead of time, but I hope you will read ahead in the book of Numbers, when, in
two weeks Moses is challenged again in his leadership role, but this
time God opens the earth and swallows all the kvetchers!
Shabbat Shalom!
