On striving for destiny – Christian Today

Hebrew scholar and Jewish academic Irene Lancaster reflects on Numbers, leadership and destiny. 

The upcoming Torah reading is filled with information and insights. Let’s have a look at one in all two of them which have, to say the least, caused some controversy.

Parshat Chukkat (Numbers 19:1-22:1) discusses the death of Miriam and Aaron. In Numbers 20:1, Miriam dies ‘in the primary month’, i.e. the spring month of Nissan. She dies and is buried in ‘the wilderness of Zin’ and the people settled in Kadesh (meaning ‘holiness’).’ 

Immediately on Miriam’s death ‘there was no water (v 2).’ What is the explanation for this juxtaposition of her death and ‘no water’? The great French commentator Rashi (1040-1105), basing himself on a comment in Talmud Taanit 9a, states that a miraculous well had followed the people throughout their wanderings, providing a plentiful supply of fresh water. As soon as ‘that righteous woman’ died, the water stopped, with the disastrous consequences found later in verses 9-13.

It needs to be added that Miriam’s name consists of the word for ‘water’ and the word for ‘bitter’, i.e. ‘contentious’. Thus, from birth, Miriam was destined to symbolise each a life-giving substance and strife. Her link to water is obvious from the Exodus episodes of saving baby brother Moses (Exodus 2: 4-10) and her Song of the Sea on the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 15:20-21). 

‘There was no water for the edah and so they gathered against Moses and Aaron (v 2).’ ‘The people quarrelled/strove with Moses and spoke up …'(v 3).’ 

What is an edah? The word is said to ‘witness’ or ‘testimony’. So it implies a unity of intent. The people were all thirsty and scared for the longer term and so they spoke with one voice.

Moses is instructed by G-d to go along with Aaron and ‘speak to the rock before their eyes after which it’ll give its waters (v 8).’  In verses 9-13, Moses and Aaron err and are punished for striking the rock as a substitute of chatting with it.

In v 12, G-d tells Moses and Aaron that ‘Because you probably did not consider in Me to sanctify Me within the eyes of the kids of Israel, subsequently you won’t bring this kahal to the land that I actually have given them.’

What is a kahal? Kahal is commonly used as a synonym for edah. However, the stress here is more on community than on unity. Earlier, the people were united of their need for water. Now, nonetheless, about to cross over into the Land, they behave as a community with some style of togetherness – perhaps – but with different needs and aspirations. G-d adds that these waters are ‘waters of strife’ – Meribah (v 13), thus alluding to Miriam’s two elements. 

On a positive, but perhaps contentious note, contention has all the time been a part of the Jewish makeup and is regarded positively when it’s channelled into learning (‘two Jews – three opinions’) or debate.  A pristine state of pure peace and equanimity doesn’t exist in Judaism. Mostly, this state of equilibrium is thought to be an excuse for sitting on the sidelines and never acting when motion is needed.  

In verses 14-21 it’s time for the kids of Israel to enter the Land, but their neighbour, Edom, refuses access. Thus, we see that Jacob’s twin brother Esau, still bears a grudge in spite of everything these years. Much of the traditional territory of Edom, home to the descendants of Esau, falls inside the border of the modern-day southern a part of Jordan and southern Israel.

On October 26, 1994, in Wadi Arabah, on the border of what was previously the territory of Edom, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty. Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen of Haifa, who had been wounded and imprisoned by the Jordanians within the 1947-48 War of Independence, was asked by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to offer the address before the King of Jordan and US President, Bill Clinton. He decided to recite Psalm 121: ‘ … my help comes from the Lord, maker of the heavens and the earth.’

Later, the Chief Rabbi explained that ‘the Jewish people’s trust just isn’t in peace treaties or in flesh-and-blood leaders, but only within the Holy One, Blessed be He.’ (See my English-language version: Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen: Between War and Peace, pg 269).

Verses 22-29 discuss the death of Aaron on the age of 123 on 1st Av (this yr Shabbat July 26) within the fortieth yr of Israel’s wanderings. Aaron dies on Mount Hor (‘the mountain of mountains’) and his son Elazar takes on his mantle as High Priest. In v 24 and v 26, G-d states that Aaron shall be ‘gathered in’. This just isn’t the identical verb because the one utilized in v 2, when ‘they gathered against Moses and Aaron’, because there was no water. 

This gathering in verb is asaph, which is used only five times within the Hebrew Bible to depict the aftermath of death. These are in relation to the deaths of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses (later) and Aaron here. These are the primary leaders of the Jewish people – the three Patriarchs, followed by Moses and Aaron.The great grammarian and Spanish Bible scholar and scientist, Rabbi Abraham in Ezra (1089-1164) states in his commentary on Genesis 25:8, referring to the death of Abraham: ‘Some say that this refers back to the kavod of the soul. As long because it [the soul] is functioning within the body, it’s as whether it is a divided and separate entity. When it [the soul] is separated from the body, the kavod is gathered to its people.’ The term ‘kavod’ has a special meaning in ibn Ezra, just like ‘the link to the divine’. 

Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann (1843-1921) comments further: ‘All these expressions indicate that among the many people of Israel there all the time existed a belief in life after death. Death was not perceived as annihilation, but reasonably as a reunion with one’s ancestors or with members of the nation who had already departed, all of whom became united within the World of Truth.’

The translation of asaph as ‘reunite’ might be probably the most accurate. Jewish individuals are often asked what Judaism has to say about life after death. We are likely to be reticent, very aware that other religions have a particularly intricate, if not violent, depiction of those matters. But actually, the precursors of the rabbis, i.e. the Pharisees, were the primary to introduce the thought of resurrection of the dead to the monotheistic world. Non-discussion of this issue in public doesn’t imply indifference, and even non-belief. 

For greater than 2,000 years the Jewish people have needed to contend with hostile peoples and religions each inside and out of doors their domiciles. Only today within the resurrected State of Israel are Jews really free to acknowledge what they themselves have initiated. Up until now, Jews needed to play down numerous notions integral to the faith, simply with a purpose to survive.

The lesson to attract from Shabbat’s upcoming reading is that the siblings Miriam, Aaron and Moses weren’t ‘perfect’. But their humanity shines through in the whole lot they did. Miriam saved the wedding of her parents. She saved the lifetime of her baby brother, Moses. She led the Jewish women. Aaron understood his people and subsequently occasionally erred on the side of indulgence when discipline was called for. Moses couldn’t communicate in addition to Aaron, and subsequently needed him to cope with the people.

We have been reminded this week that leadership may be very difficult indeed. Sometimes leaders break down, or turn into sick. The leadership in Israel has all the time to contend with internal and external divisions that may break lesser human beings. 

The most mature test of leadership is to know when to step down and leave the mantle to others. G-d told Moses and Aaron that that they had done their bit. Now the kids of Israel could be self-sufficient within the Promised Land, with a succession of leaders, starting with Joshua. But that may be a story for a later date.

As Alistair Heath, editor of the Sunday Telegraph, stated in a recent article: ‘Maybe the Jews will not be a people … but an affidavit … Israel’s survival is not just impressive, but divine … G-d keeps His guarantees and He’s keeping them still.’ 

And it began with the story here in Numbers 1:20 of the incipient recent nation of straggling Jews bearing witness to the proven fact that, within the midst of all their quarrels and disputations, sometimes they might come together and, with the assistance of G-d, proceed to put in writing their very own destiny.