Beha'alotecha

Beha'alotecha - Naamah Kelman

Naamah Kelman, Rabbi, is the Director of the Year in Israel Program and Educational Initiatives at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.

This is what we learned this week: stories of political in-fighting, emerging leadership, tribal struggles, democracy in the making, family dysfunction and illness and recovery... I am not talking about this week's headlines. I am talking about Parashat B'ha'alotcha. These are the stories of Moshe, Aaron, and Miriam as they begin they begin their long day's journey into the wilderness. These are the stories of an evolving people, former slaves slowly becoming a people. Truly this week's Parasha reads like so many of our newspaper headlines. Maybe we should find consolation in that fact that yes, as Kohelet has said, there is nothing new under the Sun. Jealousy, power plays, in-fighting is as old as the human race. What is new is the ways we cope with the human condition. The ways we strive to overcome the jealousies and power plays. I am constantly struck by the uniqueness of our story, the Jewish story, in overcoming life's trials.

The Ancient Israelite story and our story is one of the journey through the wilderness, the search for the basic human elements of survival and the constant push not just to survive but the endless search for justice, for repair, for hope. The Bible gives us not just the real life struggles but the symbols and the metaphors that ring true throughout the generations. Throughout this journey, spanning the Books of Exodus and Numbers, we follow the endless search for water...

Water: the life force in the wilderness.

Water, this will prove the beginning and the end of Moshe. His story begins with water, in the Nile, will be transformed by water, with the parting of the Red Sea, and ultimately the showdown with the rock and the water.

We are also in search for the light in the darkness. The forces of light and justice that will guide us. Really the first act of Creation through words was light ... And God said, let there be light!

This Parasha is framed with 2 seemingly unrelated and remarkable events. First a description of the lighting of the Menorah, the seven lamps of light burning constantly. But we end with a prayer for healing, the story of Miriam, whose words of criticism of Moshe find her stricken with leprosy. Aaron appeals to Moshe and then Moshe will cry out to God. So lets spend a little time with the light and with water.

While scholars argue if such a luminous lamp could have travelled with the Israelites, all agree of its centrality in the tabernacle. Of all the objects in the Mishkan the menorah is mentioned most often. In this parasha, the mounting of the lamps is described, indicating the fact that its light will illuminate out from the southern wall of the Mishkan casting her light on the altar of incense and the table of the bread of presence... Like the sacrificial altar, the menorah was tended to daily, so the fire could be burning continually.

This special light in the wilderness is a stunning idea. The majesty of it, the audacity of it. Yet the message is clear, this is another reminder of God's presence in our lives. We must tend to this presence, it must burn within us too. This rag tag people will be led by the 7 flames symbolizing the Covenant. And it must be lit and re-lit constantly. The Rabbis say that the Menorah is proof not that we need light in the wilderness, rather that it is God's presence leading us in the wilderness (Shabbat 22b). Miriam, is healed and she is the symbol of the healing powers of water. When she dies (later in the Book of Numbers) there is cry for water. Therefore the Rabbis claim that she travelled with a magical well that quenched the physical and spiritual thirst of the Israelites. Moses needed her leadership despite her misstep.

Water, the basic commodity of life and light, the source of all energy, mix and mingle in our journey in the wilderness. The Menorah is that symbol of the undying flame even in the hardest places, there is light, there is God. And water, is the reminder of the daily task of tending the world and healing it.