To begin, Numbers
9:15–23 describes the Israelites' journey through the desert on their way from
Egypt to Israel. God guided the Israelites by a cloud during the day and a fire
in the evening. The Torah relates, "whenever the cloud lifted from the
Tent, the Israelites would set out accordingly; and at the spot where the cloud
settled, there the Israelites would make camp" (Numbers 9:17). Although
the Torah states that it was at the 'command of the Lord' that the Israelites
journeyed, God's will is not expressed verbally. Instead, as in Egypt, God's
method of communication was through signs and wonders. More specifically, the
wonder the Israelites experienced was one born of nature. A cloud and fire were
the means by which God communicated that the Divine Glory was present over the
Tabernacle and in the midst of the people. Nature communicated God's greatness
and Presence to the Israelites, who would dwell wherever they sensed the Divine
Presence. For many of us today, nature continues to be our path to a
relationship with God. Indeed, as Heschel writes, "The whole earth is full
of His Glory. The outwardness of the world communicates something of the
indwelling greatness of God, which is radiant and conveys itself without
words."
A second means
through which God leads us is suggested by Numbers 10:33. There we read,
"They marched from the mountain of the Lord a distance of three days. The
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord traveled in front of them on that three days'
journey to seek out a resting place for them." A rabbinic teaching elaborates
further: "Rabbi Judah Bar Ilai taught: Two arks journeyed with Israel in
the wilderness — one in which the Torah was placed, and the other in which the
Tablets broken by Moses were placed." Numbers 10:35 and 36the upsie down nuns
indicate that these two sentences are a book unto themselves. These passages complement each other
magnificently — communicating to us that the text (i.e., the Torah) served as a
guide to the Israelites in the desert. Just as the Torah was the blueprint by
which God created the world, so too was it a map by which the Israelites were
led to the Land of Israel. Learning and living words of Torah is yet another
way that God guides us today. Simply by opening our sacred scripture, we are
blessed with a direct link to God. We raise our consciousness and become more
attuned to God's words and world. They in turn become the signposts by which we
may live and enrich our lives.
Torah suggests yet
a third way by which God leads us. In Exodus 23:20, God declares, "Here, I
am sending an angel before you to care for you on the way, to bring you to the
place that I have prepared." An angel leads the way for the Israelites in
the desert. A heavenly intercessor is sent by the word of God to protect and
lead the people. This means by which the Israelites were led speaks to us in a
profound way today. Not only do we find God through nature and Torah, but we
also find God through spiritual means. Whether it be through participating in a
spirited service, humming a Carlebach niggun (melody), or engaging in
kabbalistic meditation, the spiritual realm is a compelling way of approaching
God and feeling God's Presence.
The Torah deigns
to tell us almost nothing about Moses off–stage. How we yearn to catch a
glimpse of him as a child of privilege growing up in Pharaoh's court. Only the
bare facts of his own domestic life are shared with us. In flight from
Pharaoh's wrath, Moses marries Zipporah, the daughter of a Midianite priest,
who bears him two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Exodus 2:21–22, 18:2–4).
It is a striking
fact that we never hear of Moses's sons again. Unlike the sons of Aaron, who
inherit his priestly leadership, the sons of Moses do not figure as the natural
heirs to the office of their father. Nor are we given a clue as to why. In
truth, we know as little about the fate of his sons as we do about the location
of his grave. Political leadership in Moses' Israel was to be a function of
charisma and not birth.
Part of the reason
for this self–denial may have been the utter unworthiness of Gershom and
Eliezer to succeed their father. A tantalizing detail points to a tragic
pattern not uncommon in the household of biblical leaders. The book of Judges
records a campaign by the tribe of Dan for territory in Israel. The time, not
long after the death of Samson when "there was no king in Israel; every
man did as he pleased (Judges 17:6)." The Danites conquered the peaceful
Phoenician town of Laish in the Upper Galilee, renamed it Dan and installed a
cult with a sculptured image to be run by one "Jonathan son of Gershom son
of Menasseh and his descendants (Judges 18:30)." Page 560 in JPS
In Hebrew but one
letter, a nun, separates the name of Menasseh (Menasheh) from
that of Moses (Mosheh), and in our text the nun is elevated,
as if it doesn't belong, suggesting an older reading of Moses. The Rabbis
acknowledge as much: the grandson of Moses presided over a sanctuary that
violated the faith of his grandfather. Out of respect for Moses they tried to
obscure the identity slightly by inserting a suspended nun, a letter
that hangs there with all the ambivalence of a child of a prominent parent.
While the Bible fails to reveal the domestic price of Moses's leadership, it is
not quite so sparing with the offspring of other public figures like Aaron,
Eli, Samuel or David.
The Rabbis tend to identify Zipporah as
the dark–skinned Cushite women (despite the fact that the word means
Ethiopian), turning an apparent ethnic slur into an issue of celibacy.
Interestingly, they take the term black to mean beautiful in body and deeds.
Nevertheless, Moses's marriage was marked by separation, even when husband and
wife lived together. At some point in his struggle with Pharaoh, Moses must
have sent his family back to Midian, to be reunited only shortly before the
appearance of God at Sinai, when they were returned to Moses by Jethro, his
father–in–law. Yet on his own, after the experience of revelation, Moses
decided to forgo any further intimacy with his wife, believing he could not be
intimate with both God and Zipporah. He reasoned as follows: if Israelite
spouses were to be separated for a period of three days prior to revelation
(Exodus 19:10–11, 15) in order to meet God in a state of purity, then he who
speaks with God constantly, and often on a moment's notice, should surely
remain in a perpetual state of readiness. According to the Talmud, God
acquiesced to Moses's logic.
The remark by Miriam and Aaron could
well be an ethnic slur, prompted by the previous rebellious episode in which
the discontent against Moses was fomented by "the riffraff (Numbers
11:4)," that is the foreigners in Israel's midst. Yet Moses himself is
married to a non–Israelite!
The Torah may appear to be replete with
double standards and contradictions however, one needs to read deeper to
understand that many of the stories are constructed more for a guide for social
decorum rather than taking the scenes and putting a “Reality TV” association to
them.
Cantor Eichaker
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