Shabbat Table Talk

Parashat Bamidbar
Erev Shabbat, 30 May 2008
Week of 25 to 31 May 2008
Torah portion: Num. 1:1-4:20
Haftarah: Hos. 2:1-22
Sunday Readings, 01 June: Deut. 11:18, 26-28,32; Rom. 3:21-25,28; Mt. 7:21-27

We are about to begin ten weeks of Torah readings from the Book of Numbers. It would probably be useful to get a sense of what we will be experiencing in these 36 chapters. The events recorded in the first ten chapters all occur at the foot of Mount Sinai during the first 19 days of the second month of the second year after the Israelites emigrated from Egypt and entered into the wilderness. In fact, the Hebrew title of this book is Bamidbar, meaning ‘in the wilderness.’ So the Book of Numbers actually begins 14 months after their great exodus, following a history of over 600 years of enslaved labor. I suppose we should not expect to read too much about a civilized, well-organized community having been formed by Moses and the leaders in such a short period of time, especially when we read that there were throngs of more than 600,000 adult men, with no estimate at all of the number of young, or the elderly, or—not surprisingly in a very patriarchal telling—the women. The events of the final chapters, 21 to 36, all occur in the five months that conclude the 40th year of their wilderness wandering, bivouacked as the Israelites were when Bamidbar concludes on the Moab plains, on the eastern shores of the Jordan River, across from Jericho and the promised land of Canaan.

Whatever the events of the intervening 38 years, these are difficult to date (such as a violent rebellion staged by Korach and his allies as chronicled in chapters 16, 17,) or are entirely unrecorded, but all seem centered around an area designated as Kadesh, about 100 miles/160 kms southwest of present-day Jerusalem. You mean the Israelites were that close and it took them almost 40 years to find their way to their Promised Land! What kind of leadership is that? you might ask! Well, during these next ten parashot (Torah portions,) we will find out about the delays: uprisings against Moses, apostasy against the Lord, famines, drought, miraculous feedings and waterings, the fight for women’s rights, great military victories, the flash of Divine anger, the first time the Lord punished the people, the death-in-hamidbar of almost every adult male who crossed the Red Sea, continuing fire and cloud guidance, and, perhaps most devastatingly, the collapse of the Divinely ordained leadership of Moses as well as the deaths of Miriam and Aaron.

Bamidbar is the story of two generations in this wilderness transit. What were the problems of succession as these events unfolded, the challenges from the younger ones directed to their elders, the rebellious demands, the challenge hurled at the Lord when confidence failed utterly? Let’s go back; we were better off in Egyptian slavery than we are here! How tormented will be the story as this narrative progresses.

Return for a moment to the conclusions in the Book of Exodus. Following the giving of the Torah on Sinai and the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, the Israelites were ready to move to their new homeland. But there was a lengthy instruction recorded in the Book of Leviticus: instructions about sacrifices, about ritual purity, about festivals, and laws that would govern their community building. Only then, in Bamidbar, would the census be taken once again (that exercise had just been accomplished in Ex. 30 with the tally in 38) and a design for order in the line of march and the organization of the campsites established. Without a more militaristic alignment, the Israelites would again be liable to attacks, especially from the rear, as was their experience with Amalek earlier on (Ex. 17). But what would an enslaved people know about strategies for safe-keeping of children, elderly, food stuffs, possessions, animals...and women! How many men able to bear arms do we have? Let’s take a census. We count 603,550, Sir, the same as when we counted them last time (38:26). What? You mean nobody has died out here in this barren wilderness. How can that be? No idea, Sir, but that’s the count. This might be when Aaron and Miriam ask Moses, “Now what do we do?” And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: The Israelites shall camp each with his standard, under the banners of their ancestral house; they shall camp at a distance around the Tent of Meeting.

Now, dear Bat Kol reader—or, better yet, Bat Kol havrutah groups of twos or threes doing Talmud Torah together—you might understandably think that all these names and numbers in our Parashat HaShavuah are so boring, so repetitious. Can’t we just skip this part and get on with the story? Well, what can I say to you? You already know that repetition is the principal clue when studying the text, urging us to engage in archeology of the Word. If there’s repetition (and there surely is in these chapters!) then there must be treasures under the peshat, the plain simple reading of the text. We have to dig, to get sand in our sandals and under our nails, to find what is the Divine revelation being couched in this human language.

For example: why does the Lord prescribe the groupings of the tribes in the way that it is done? The sector leaders are Judah on the east, and followed then, in clockwise order, by Rueben, Ephraim and Dan. Why are these the commanders? They aren’t all ‘first-borns.’ One is even the son of a handmaid. And what might be the reason for the groupings of the tribes? Is it that there would be an equal number of warrior troops on each side of the Tabernacle, the Ark in the Tent of the meeting? Or is Dan the commander of his tribe and the tribes of Asher and Naphtali because they are sons of the maidservants of Leah and Rachel?

Now, please don’t just skip these chapters and rush to where the action is. There is excavation to be done here. And as the tribes camp, so also shall they be marching. There are reasons underlying the match-ups. Do you want to know why Judah’s 74,600 are marching with the legions of Issachar and Zebulun? And why Benjamin was assigned to camp alongside Ephraim? Hint: go back to Genesis and list the sons according to their birth mothers. There is no record of quarreling in the campsites. See if you can discern why there might be some ‘natural wisdom’ in the Divine battle plan. (Lord, let’s hope so!)

And speaking of Lord... That Divine Name is cited almost 400 times in the Book of Numbers, while the name God is mentioned only about 30 times. Interestingly, if you recall an earlier learning that the name Lord is most often associated with Divine mercy and compassion, and the name God is associated with the Divine attributes of justice and judgment making....well, in spite of their revolutions and eruptions and the people’s first experience of Divine punishment, still, it is the Lord, Adonai, Hashem who keeps faithful covenant with the Israelites, who guides and nourishes them, who is directly accessible to them, and who, in Divine exasperation, instructs Moses that he should not intercede for these miserable pilgrims, actually is signaling to Moses (and to us) the power of intercessory prayer!

OK, dear Bat Kol reader, we are launched into Bamidbar. Stick together. If you fall behind a bit and get separated, look for your tribal banners (like T-shirts and baseball caps!) and we will all get through this pilgrimage. (And later on can you just imagine Moses saying to the Lord: You mean it was only 100 miles! And it took us 40 years! If only I had known then what I know now!)

For Reflection and Discussion:[1] Counting is a major activity in our parashah, and in our society as well. There are some things to think about. Who counts: the wealthy, the powerful, the good-looking, the fashionably dressed, only those of our own tribe? Who does not: women, minors, elderly, singles, unborn children, people with physical/emotional/mental disabilities, those from other tribes? [2] The reason for the counting and the arrangement of the campsites was the centrality and the integrity of the Tabernacle, the portable Mount Sinai. When I do my counting and organize the membership of my community, my family, my ministry, who counts, and what place and role is reserved for the real presence of the Lord?

Bibliography: Cohn, Eshkenazi, Woman’s Torah Commentary (New York, 2007); Etz Hayim, Torah and Commentary (New York, 2001); Leibowitz, Studies in Bamidbar (Jerusalem, 1994); Milgrom, The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers (New York, 1990); Plaut, The Torah, A Modern Commentary (New York, 2006).

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This week’s teaching commentary was prepared by
Jack Driscoll, CFC Director, Bat Kol Institute, Jerusalem.