#Beha'alotecha

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Jonathan Sacks z"l: Two Types of Leadership BEHA'ALOTECHA

Jonathan Sacks z”l: Two Types of Leadership BEHA’ALOTECHA In this week’s parsha, Moses has a breakdown. It is the lowest emotional ebb of his entire career as a leader. Listen to his words to God: “Why have You treated Your servant so badly? Why have I found so little favour in Your sight that You lay all the burden of this people upon me? Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who gave…

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Behaalotecha: The High Priest of Midian

            Call me Chovav—or Jethro, or Reuel, who cares? I go by many names. I strive to be modest, but, truly, I am a vital part of the Israelite Saga. As Jethro, I was High Priest of Midian. One night, a dusty, travel-worn, exhausted refugee named Moses escaped from the slavery hellhole of Ramesses II, and found his way to my door, doubtless with the help of the Desert God about Whom he is constantly nattering. My own, dear Zipporah, eldest of my daughters, took pity on him and, after drawing water for his parched throat and belly, brought him to our home. After the ragamuffin washed himself, his manly beauty captured Zipporah’s heart. Myself, I thought him somewhat thin and nearly as old as I, but I kept silent.

           And so, Zipporah and Moses were married, by me, in my capacity as—ahem—High Priest of Midian. She swiftly gave birth to two sons. My son-in-law had a habit of gazing off to the distant mountains for—inspiration? (I have always thought Moses a bit demented, but said nothing to my daughter.) He named the elder Gershom, for, as he told me, “I am a stranger in a strange land,” and Elazar, for, “My Desert God has aided me.” No word of thanks to me for rescuing him from certain death, either at the hands of Pharaoh’s troops, or by his wasting away in the wilderness—oh, well. Moses is not the sort of fellow to acknowledge aid from mere mortals; his eyes are continually turned heavenward, where his Mysterious Deity dwells—or so he tells me. I have heard of sky-gods before; my Baal is one of them. At least, Old Baal can be trusted to bring thunder, lightning, and the healing rain for our crops.

           One day, the rapscallion departed: “I must free my people,” he announced to me, and, after Zipporah packed him a lunch of matzos and butter, he was gone. I was able to hear of his exploits from the caravaneers and merchant folk who passed through our territory. I was, finally, glad to hear of the Israelites’ miraculous deliverance by their Lord God. Immediately,  I bundled up Zipporah and the boys, and set out to find my arrant son-in-law: it was about time to re-unite their family, and the boys were eating up all of my winter stores.

            I found him seated before a veritable sea of Israelites—they called him “rabbi,” which means teacher, prophet, tribal leader, commander-in-chief, among other things—I cannot remember them all. Still, as a civil magistrate of much experience myself, I could see that he was wasting himself away with overwork, never taking a day off.. Day and night the people stood before him, for questions ranging from whether a chicken was kosher, to the highest cases of law, involving property, passion, or pelf.

           There he sat, beneath a jury-rigged sheet, meant to ward off the desert sun. It wasn’t working; his skin was nut-brown, and Old Sol was beating down on his baldy head. He looks old and unhealthy, I remember thinking. He precariously perched on a battered, tumbledown chair meant as a throne for the Prophet of the One True God, but, truly, he looked ludicrous. I remember that the chair had been decorated with gold and silver paint, which was cracked and crazed. There were cherubim on both sides, and a chipped bas-relief of Anubis gazed balefully over the Prophet’s left shoulder.

           “What is this you are doing, Son-in-Law?” I queried, after pushing my way to front of the line, elbowing aside a cobbler and a tinsmith who yammered loudly of problems relating to adultery.

           He sighed, and managed a careworn smile. “The people gather before me for legal, familial, and emotional advice,” he answered, “and I have no recourse but to sit here in judgment, night and day, and answer their questions. The arrangement seems to be working,” he said, but wavered somewhat, as if sunstruck.

           “It doesn’t seem effective—at least, not to me,” I retorted.

            My mooncalf son-in-law gazed upward to a nearby cloud where, I assumed, his Deity was seated, watching, listening, and judging. “If I cannot answer their questions, Father Jethro,” he replied, “I turn to the Lord God, and He supplies the answer. But it’s mostly me.”

            I took him by his skinny, sunburnt arm, lifted him from his Throne of Judgment, and led him away behind a terebinth. Well, what a chorus of cat music rose up from the crowd! But I ignored them.

            “Look here, Moses, my boy,” I said, striving to get him to turn away from his Vision-in-the-Sky, and down to more earthly matters,  “You know, faced with a similar situation in Midian, I found an easy solution—perhaps Baal the Thunderer supplied it to me: appoint judges of fifties, of twenties, and of tens—that way, you have a good chance of some sub-magistrate down the line finding the chicken kosher, while you can confine your efforts and wisdom to weightier matters.”

            I was happy to see him, in the coming days and weeks, apply my advice, and with good results.

            Now, he asks me if I would care to accompany him and his ragtag agglomeration of Semitic humanity deeper into the desert—no, thank you, Moses. Having seen what turmoil has arisen thus far from your people’s haphazard interactions with God, I long to return to my little town of Midian, where a man may worship, judge, and cogitate according to his conscience, not under the steady gaze and judgment of a demanding, Invisible Deity.

            Farewell, Moses and you lot! You will see me no more. Have a care to treat my Zipporah well—I have yet to see you take a day off; indeed, I worry about the stability of your marriage.. And your two boys, Baal pity them, fled long ago into the world; I pray for their safety and good health. Truly, it is not easy to be a judge of your people Israel; they are a headstrong, rebellious mob, indeed.

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Rabbi David Hartley Mark is from New York City’s Lower East Side. He attended Yeshiva University, the City University of NY Graduate Center for English Literature, and received semicha at the Academy for Jewish Religion. He currently teaches English at Everglades University in Boca Raton, FL, and has a Shabbat pulpit at Temple Sholom of Pompano Beach. His literary tastes run to Isaac Bashevis Singer, Stephen King, King David, Kohelet, Christopher Marlowe, and the Harlem Renaissance.

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flowisist replied to your post “Learn the Parsha:  Beha'alotecha”

I'd offer that it has something to do with the Midrash earlier in Mitzrayim, when Miriam spoke up against her parents about Amram causing so many divorces just to save children (even the unborn) from death by Pharoah. She spoke up to rectify two or more mitzvot that would be neglected (including the birth of Moshe). Yet it's as if she was cursing Moshe, the very person her earlier actions brought into existence, by challenging Moshe's intentions.   The first time was to bring Hashem, man, and woman together as partners (in creation). The second incriminated Moshe and showed a lack of understanding for the partnership between Moshe, Zipporah, and Hashem.                    

Very interesting!   Especially as in both cases the midrash portrays Miriam as a caring Jew who cares about the next generation of Am Israel. 

The midrash you’re talking about is from the Babylonian Talmud:

The verse states: “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took for a wife a daughter of Levi” (Exodus 2:1). The Gemara asks: To where did he go? Rav Yehuda bar Zevina says: He went according to the advice of his daughter Miriam, as the Gemara will proceed to explain.

A Sage teaches: Amram, the father of Moses, was the great man of his generation. Once he saw that the wicked Pharaoh said: “Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive” (Exodus 1:22), he said: We are laboring for nothing by bringing children into the world to be killed. Therefore, he arose and divorced his wife. All others who saw this followed his example and arose and divorced their wives.

His daughter, Miriam, said to him: Father, your decree is more harsh for the Jewish people than that of Pharaoh, as Pharaoh decreed only with regard to the males, but you decreed both on the males and on the females. And now no children will be born. Additionally, Pharaoh decreed to kill them only in this world, but you decreed in this world and in the World-to-Come, as those not born will not enter the World-to-Come.

Miriam continued: Additionally, concerning Pharaoh the wicked, it is uncertain whether his decree will be fulfilled, and it is uncertain if his decree will not be fulfilled. You are a righteous person, and as such, your decrees will certainly be fulfilled, as it is stated with regard to the righteous: “You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto you” (Job 22:28). Amram accepted his daughter’s words and arose and brought back, i.e., remarried, his wife, and all others who saw this followed his example and arose and brought back their wives.

The Sifrei midrash I brought also portrays Miriam as somebody who cares about having children.  I cut out that part, so here it is:

And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses": We are hereby apprised that both spoke against him, but that Miriam spoke first. This was not her practice, but the occasion demanded it.  ...

"and Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses": How did Miriam know that Moses had ceased from marital relations (with his wife Tzipporah)? Seeing that Tzipporah did not adorn herself as other (married) women did, she asked her for the cause and was told: "Your brother is not 'particular' about this thing" (intercourse, [being constantly "on call" for the word of G-d]).

Thus Miriam learned of the matter. She apprised Aaron of it and they both spoke of it (as being a troublesome precedent for others.)

Now does this not follow a fortiori, viz.: If Miriam, whose intent was not to berate her brother, but to praise him, and not to diminish propagation (in Israel), but to increase it, and who spoke thus privately — If she was thus punished, then one who intends to speak against his brother, in defamation and not in praise, and to diminish propagation and not to increase it, and in public — how much more so (is he to be punished!)

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Beha'alotecha: The Power of Hashem

Beha’alotecha: The Power of Hashem

As a caregiver, one of the most annoying things to hear is the sound of a child whining. Dr. Jessica Michaelson suggests that one of the reasons kids whine is to express, “I can’t act big anymore, please take care of me like I was a baby!”

In Parshat Beha’alotecha, Bnei Yisrael were acting like babies. The pasuk states, “Vayhi Ha’Am KeMitonenim Ra Be’Oznei Hashem,” “Bnei Yisrael were…

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Elli Schwarcz - Beha'alotecha - Lamps Towards the Middle

Elli Schwarcz – Beha’alotecha – Lamps Towards the Middle

The Talmud teaches us that the righteous will enjoy a special celebration in the World to Come:

God will make a [dancing] circle for the righteous, and He will ‘sit’… and each one of them will point with his finger and say, “This is God- we have yearned for Him!”

-Gemara Ta’anit

Commentaries explain that the details of this description contain great wisdom. Not only will this be a moment of…

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An Aliyah a Day: Beha'alotecha the 1st reading

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Double Vision: Beha'alotecha

Double Vision: Beha’alotecha

Image: Eyeglasses, a blurred page. (By Free-Photos /Pixabay)

Parashat Beha’alotecha(Numbers 8:1-12:16) is a study in pairs, a study in contrasts. God guides the people as a cloud by day, and as fire by night, yet within those two manifestations are another set of pairs. A cloud may guide, but it also obscures; fire may guide, but as the portion shows, it may also kill and terrorize. There are…

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Jonathan Sacks - Camp and Congregation - Beha'alotecha 5779

Jonathan Sacks – Camp and Congregation – Beha’alotecha 5779

Jonathan Sacks – Camp and Congregation – Beha’alotecha 5779

The parsha of Beha’alotecha speaks about the silver trumpets – clarions – Moses was commanded to make:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Make two trumpets of silver; make them of hammered work. They shall serve you to summon the congregation [edah] and cause the camps [machanot] to journey.” (Num. 10:1–2)

This apparently simple passage…

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Loneliness and Faith

Beha’alotecha 5780

"At times of loneliness, I have found great solace in these passages..."

Click here to read 'Loneliness and Faith?' by Rabbi Sacks on this week's parsha of Beha'alotecha.

I have long been intrigued by one passage in this week’s parsha. After a lengthy stay in the Sinai desert, the people are about to begin the second part of their journey. They are no longer travelling from but travelling to. They are no longer escaping from Egypt; they are journeying toward the Promised Land. The Torah inserts a long preface to this story: it takes the first ten chapters of Bamidbar. The people are counted. They are gathered, tribe by tribe, around the Tabernacle, in the order in which they are going to march. Preparations are made to purify the camp. Silver trumpets are made to assemble the people and to give them the signal to move on. Then finally the journey begins. What follows is a momentous anti-climax. First there is an unspecified complaint (Num. 11:1-3). Then we read: “The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Num. 11:4-6).

Read More: Here

Rabbi Sacks

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Jonathan Sacks z"l - From Despair to Hope BEHA'ALOTECHA

Jonathan Sacks z”l – From Despair to Hope BEHA’ALOTECHA There have been times when one passage in this week’s parsha was, for me, little less than lifesaving. No leadership position is easy. Leading Jews is harder still. And spiritual leadership can be hardest of them all. Leaders have a public face that is usually calm, upbeat, optimistic, and relaxed. But behind the façade we can all experience…

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Parshat Beha'alotecha: How Can I Be Vulnerable With God?

Aleph Beta

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Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks - Beha'alotecha 5780

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks – Beha’alotecha 5780