Friday, June 6, 2014

Dan's Interpretation of Parsha Beha'alotecha (Numbers 8-12)

Shalom Chaverim! I am writing this from a hotel in the Italian city of Sorento with the little free time that I made for myself this vacation. Sorry if these thoughts are a little scattered, because I’m pretty scattered right now. I have read this week’s parsha, Beha’alotecha, many times in my life, the first time being for my Bar Mitzvah many years ago. Until I read it again this week, though, I had not grasped the importance or the context of the parsha. It could be that is because I am reading the Torah in order, or maybe because of the teaching that a specific parsha is meant to be read and interpreted during it’s assigned week. Either way, trying to read along in the Torah each week has been a very meaningful experience for me this year.

When I was reading Beha’alotecha this week, I saw two ideas come up again and again: trust and responsibility. This parsha is where the Israelites start their long journey in the wilderness, from Sinai to the land of Israel. After seeing the miracles of G-d, accepting the Covenant, and learning all the rules that that entails, the Israelites set off into the unknown. They are led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When the cloud/fire moves, the people move, and when the cloud/fire stays still, the people set up camp. The Israelites had to trust that G-d was leading them in the right direction, that G-d would give them enough time to rest when it was needed, and that the cloud/fire would stop at places that could meet their essential needs. And with the blast of the shofar and the gathering of the community, the trust continued and the journey began.

In the beginning of their travels, Moses speaks to Hobab, who is the son of Moses’ father-in-law and a Midianite. Moses tells him that he is needed because he has experience traveling and camping out in the wilderness. Hobab responds saying that he does not want to go on traveling with the Israelites and that he would rather go back to his birthplace. Moses responds by telling Hobab that the Israelites need him and that Moses will make sure that the people will “do good for you in proportion to the good that YHWH will do for us” (Num. 10:32). This shows the trust that Moses has for the community of Israel that they could bring about the same good for Hobab that G-d could give to them. In addition, Hobab’s decision to continue traveling with the Israelites shows both his trust in the Hebrew G-d and trust in Moses and the community that they would truly accept a stranger in their midst and share their blessing with him. 

Along the journey, their are many who start to grumble and complain. The first instance of this occurs in Numbers 11:1-3 where it says that G-d got angry at the grumblers and consumed them in fire. The next verses go into detail about a second instance of grueling amongst the Israelites. This time, the Israelites complain that they only have G-d’s manna to eat and not any meat. They remember the fish they “would eat in Egypt for free,” and say that their “soul is dried up,” because they miss the food that they left after trusting in G-d (Num. 11:5-6). In the end, G-d sends a huge flock of quail to where they were traveling and when the grumblers sunk their teeth into the quail, G-d struck them and killed them. The Israelites didn’t trust G-d or Moses after all that they had done up to that point. Even though these people committed themselves to the Covenant, they still envied their past life in Egypt, as slaves. It is hard to trust and go along with something when you perceive the short-term as harder and less comfortable as your past. I think what the Torah is trying to say here is that if you should never give up on trying to work for long-term goals to make the world better or achieve fulfillment, and if you do, there are going to be consequences. They probably won’t be as bad as the one’s depicted here, but I think the outcome will be the same, you won’t get to where you are headed and you won’t be able to shape your future or the future of your people.

In the story of the grumblers, there is also a lot to say about responsibility. When the grumblers complain to Moses, he gets angry at G-d. Moses tells G-d that he feels that he is alone in his task of leading the Israelites and that it is too much of a burden for him. He feels as if both G-d and the people are leaving him with sole responsibility of the community and aren’t helping with the heavy load. Moses goes so far as to command G-d to kill him if things don’t change. After hearing this, G-d tells Moses that he should gather seventy of Israel’s elders and that G-d will share Moses’ spirit and responsibility over the people with them. Later on, Moses gathered the seventy elders outside of the camp and G-d did as he promised and Moses and the elders prophesied and shared the burden. It turns out that two people (Eldad and Medad) that were in the camp also prophesied. When Joshua heard this, he told Moses to restrain them because they were taking on responsibility that wasn’t designated to them. Moses responded saying that he wished that “all of YHWH’s people were prophets, that YHWH would put his spirit on them” (Num. 11:29). In Joshua’s view, there is a clear hierarchy and leadership is restricted to those who are chosen. On the other hand, Moses believes that everybody should be a leader and that stepping up and people taking responsibility, even if they weren’t told to take it, is the way an ideal world would look. 

Going a step further, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch says, in his commentary on Numbers, that “Moses' answer to Joshua remains for all teachers and leaders as the brilliant example they should keep before their eyes as the highest ideal aim of their work… to make themselves superfluous, that the people of all classes and ranks reach such a spiritual level that they no longer require teachers and leaders.” This relates to Habonim’s goal of engaging in revolutionary service and our endgoal for the the social order we are trying to create. The reality is that if the world was a anarcho-socialist world that believed in youth and identity empowerment, we wouldn’t really need Habonim. And that isn’t something to be sad about. I really hope that I see the day where we don’t need Habonim, but for now we must take responsibility to educate and build the society we want to live in. And we must do this both through Habonim and other avenues, and always realize that in whatever work we do, the goal should be making what we do irrelevant. Because if that is not the goal, you won’t be able to make any significant changes in the world around you. 


Machane will be starting soon for us all, and it is a very exciting time. We are all embarking together on a journey into the unknown. Throughout the summer we need to remember the importance of trust. We need to trust that everyone is trying to make the summer great for everyone. We need to trust that mazkirut is going to help and engage the tzevet throughout the summer. We need to trust that our tzvatim ktanim will be looking out for each other and sharing responsibilities. We also need to make sure that everybody is welcome on tzevet and at Machane, no matter how long they’ve been in the movement or what beliefs they hold (within reason haha). We must encourage people to look within themselves and help them on the path towards hagshama atzmit and hagshama tnuatit. We must realize that the present is not enough and the past only looks golden. That the future we envision and are building together is worthwhile and not something to give up on. The mission of educating youth is essential to this process and not worth giving up either. The essential thing is that everyone is a leader and everyone should be afforded responsibility: from Amelim to mazkirut. Because in the end, we are all filled with a divine spirit and an urge to change the world. Shabbat Shalom.