Bringing (Part of) The Book Of Numbers To Life

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!