Shabbat Bha’alotecha: Arguments
The Torah this week starts very optimistically with the events that come at the end of the first year when they are within sight of the Promised Land.
The candelabrum. Lighting the menorah completes the construction of the Tabernacle. Its light symbolises the Divine Presence and a bright future. A few loose procedural ends and then they are given their marching orders.
The final item of unfinished business is Moses’s attempts to persuade his father-in-law and his family to stay with them and join their invasion. Notice he is not excluding others from beyond the Twelve Tribes. Jethro declines and says he wants to go home. Why? Perhaps he felt he had not been taken seriously when he advised Moses how to manage the people. He had, after all, given Moses a lesson in the importance of delegation. Or did he sense trouble ahead, something was not quite right.
Led by the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, the trumpets serving as the means of communication, the marching orders are given and then the children of Israel start moving to go into the land of Canaan. And then everything begins to go wrong.
The people start complaining and the fires start breaking out. They blame Moses. HE prays to God and God stops the fire and we assume they have got over it. But then a much wider insurrection occurs whipped up trouble-makers, the Asafsuf ( sounds very much like the word Riffraff). The official cause is the food. This reminds me of all times pupils used to complain about school food. The manna was boring and unexciting. But then they claim that things were so much better back in Egypt where they claim to remember nostalgically the wonderful four-course meals they enjoyed. When we know they did not.
And they gather in their families in front of their tents to express their anger which is directed at Moses. Moses turns to God and he’s in despair. He can’t be a nursemaid to them all. He can see the complete collapse of the mission he’s devoted so much to. It is too much. If this is how it is going to be he’d rather die. God then tells him to gather seventy elders to help him manage the people and that God will provide meat for them ( they were not vegetarians). God says that if they want meat they’re going to get meat.
He calls the 70 elders together and gives them their instructions. Then and two men Eldad and Medad having been left out, are prophesying doom. Joshua urged Moses to let him kill them. But Moses refuses. On the contrary, he says, he’d be happy if everyone could prophesize, if everyone could be on a higher level. He is not troubled by different opinions. It’s the attitude that counts. The huge flocks of migrating quail envelope the camp and they had their flesh. But their greed led to a reaction and they suffered a plague.
And there’s more insurrection. This time from within Moses’s s own family, Miriam, and Aaron throw back at him his words that others can be prophets too and they demand to be heard. In all cases, the rebellion is either put down or peters out.
What are we supposed to learn from this? The obvious is how unstable mobs are. People are easily led, misled, and unpredictable. They can destroy and undermine the greatest of visions and intentions. Their interests are selfish and immediate. But different kinds of dissent are not necessarily destructive, although in their way they are still undermining the authority of Moses. Given time and patience things finally worked out.
The message for our times is pretty clear, wherever you look around. The mob whether the right or the left is dangerous, twisting facts to suit their agendas, imagining that it’s possible to achieve an ideal perfect state. People are messy, states are messy, and leadership often tries different angles and positions to maintain order. Leaving aside the very few who have the moral integrity of Moses.
Suppression of dissent is not the answer. Though it’s true in Moses’s day he had God to fall back on. God comes to the rescue each time when things look like getting out of hand. Yet eventually by the end of forty years, the people have learned to adjust to new circumstances. And this constant struggle between leadership and the populace amongst us is a feature of every generation in the Bible and every generation since. Yet somehow, we survive. Is it God? Our tradition? Both? It’s not without the attendant pain and casualties on the way.
Numbers 8:1-12:16
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
