| Beha’alotekha 5762 Numbers 8:1 – 12:16
Shabbat Shalom-
I sit here with the book “Aravit le-Refuah” on my lap, and I am in
pain. It is a book I purchased while in Israel last year when considering
becoming a doctor, eventually an Israeli doctor, and that I’d need to learn to
deal with Arabic-speaking patients. The intifada had already begun by
then, of course, but it was only tonight that the significance of this book hit
me. I am holding a book of dialogue and healing. Someone at Hebrew
University put together a book to teach the Hebrew-speaking physician to help
the Arabic-speaking patient. We are all people in the end, this book says,
people that need healing. If only language were our only barrier with our
Arabic-speaking neighbors.
If I could break down this week’s portion, I would call it a random
collection of stories and laws interspersed with travelogues and
complaints. The first complaint is by the people that they are being
inadequately fed (10:1-3). The people are decimated in response (11:5-10),
are brought by wind an unreal amount of quail (11:18-22), and are smitten again
for their lust in eating it (11:31-35). The second complaint is by Moses
that he can no longer deal with the responsibility of caring for the Israelites
as a wetnurse does for a suckling child (10:11-15). In response God offers to
take some of his spirit off of Moses and place it on 70 elders (11:16-17), does
so (11:23-25), though some people received the prophesying spirit outside of the
Tent resulting in a worry that Moses might lose all authority (11:26-29).
The third complaint is by Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ siblings, that he is hoarding
power in God’s authority (12:1-3). God responds by affirming Moses’
specialness (12:4-8) and afflicting Miriam with ‘leprosy’, as confirmed by Aaron
(12:9-11). Moses then pleas for Miriam’s healing (12:13) and the people wait
seven days for her to heal while her disgrace wanes (12:14-15).
What I would like to focus on here is how this chain of evil complaints are
healed. At first, as God is wont to do, the rabble-rousers are
killed. This leaves Moses frustrated with the responsibility for the lives
of people, whose name is now tied up with his and God’s (Ex 32:9-12). As
Moses/God begins to delegate authority, to keep the people on a tighter leash,
some worry that giving too many people power will lead to a corruption even
worse than currently. Moses wishes everyone would be able to make their
own responsible decisions (11:29). But, after more crackdowns on the feral
instincts of the people, other leaders fear Moses has not really given up any
power, but still maintains a selfish relationship with God. For this, God
punishes them. What began as immature lack of restraint in the populace
infected the leadership with a jealousness that threatened to destroy the entire
‘government’. With the leadership now paralyzed by loss of a major leader,
only Moses can save the situation. He prays, “Mighty-God, quickly,
heal quickly her” (12:13). Moses has the presence to know that things
have gone too far, and that they can be repaired only by reaching out to the
other. With these five brief words of supplication, sanity returns to the
people. The disgrace is let to heal with time, and the people, reconciled,
return on their journeys together to the border of the promised land (12:14-16).
As Golda Meir sagely stated in 1972, “We
will have peace with the Arabs when they will love their children more than they
hate us.” Where is my dream of returning to my
homeland to live with my people, speaking my people’s language today? It
is still alive and vibrant, but still a dream. I am scared for my country.
I am scared for my people. I am scared for myself. I am not a hateful or
vengeful person, yet when I watch tapes of terror and victims such as at Israel’s Ministry
of Foreign Affairs I don’t know if I should cry or shout. I can
imagine myself before a mob, speaking angry, hate-filled words, calling for vengeance
on these heartless beasts. But then, I remember that each ‘beast’ is a
human being, no matter how misguided, and that not all of them are guilty of
these crimes. Should we punish the innocent along with the guilty?
Can we judge others by a different standard than ourselves? (Gen
18:23-25). No. There are good people out there. We just need to find them
and make their voices heard. I believe passionately and painfully that so
much is TV and media. The everyman wants peace. He doesn’t care where his
borders are or which politician rambles on the television. He wants peace,
justice, and security for his family. He wants a good job.
We are living in a world of manna and seeing nothing. The world around
us is so sweet should we just work together. There’s a man who worked in
the building I studied in last year who couldn’t come to work any longer due to
the violence– and his Arab identity. We loved him, were friends with him,
but the alienation of our communities kept us apart. Even during the
Middle Ages, which many Jews see as times of complete separation and hatred between Jews
and gentiles, people in towns still ate together and worked together most of the
time. Israelites even lived and worked in the houses of the Egyptians
under Pharaoh! (Ex 3:22).
Could someone please stand up and say the truth: We want peace; we want
peace with you. We want a country; we want a country with you. We need to
work together, discussing our goals and fears to make this work. There will be
extremists that we have to fight and destroy. A man determined to kill you
must be neutralized else he will in the end succeed. What principles are
worth dying for? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for every
person.
All it takes is a leader to utter the right words to the right people, and
the healing process can begin– our journey to the “promised land”.
Have a caring week!
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