Behaalotecha

I’m going to be upfront with you…I had some trouble with this parsha. It could be the lack of sleep from Shavuot and/or all the attention paid to the story of Ruth rather than thinking about the parsha. Or those could all just be excuses. The parsha this week has a lot going on. Not only does it have a whole lot happening but there isn’t an easily connected thematic connection to all of them. For example, ordering Aaron to light the menorah followed by whiny Israelites that want meat to eat, and ending with Miriam getting leprosy is not the most logical of plot lines. But, it’s Torah not a storybook. I guess we all will just have to deal with it.

Like me, the Israelites in the desert complain. A lot. They just can’t be satisfied with anything. For the sake of poetic justice I will say the first paragraph of this post was done simply to make a point and to show you all what a complaining Israelite looks like.  Well, Moshe finally seems to break down and tells Hashem that he just can’t take it anymore. Luckily for us, Hashem tells him to snap out of it and a compromise involving 70 elders is made. For a minute my ego got the best of me and I felt some supremacy over Moshe Rabbeinu. “He’s showing weakness!” I thought. Well, I would never go so far as to ask for death. Come on, Moshe Rabbeinu. Get your act together.  To be fair, it is a trait unique to Judaism that our major figures all have distinctly human moments and weaknesses. They don’t come across as perfect God-like beings, not relatable, and untouchable.

However, there is a line between us and them all the same. Miriam makes the mistake of crossing that line (the same mistake I made as I read the dialogue between Moshe and Hashem). She tells Aaron about her concerns regarding Moshe’s marital life. She feels he spends too much time talking to Hashem instead of taking care of his wife. For such chutzpa she gets inflicted with leprosy for seven days. To be totally honest, I still don’t understand why Aaron doesn’t get punished. He also takes part… I’ll let that go for now. Chabad commentator, Chaya Sarah Silberberg offers up the following answer for why exactly Miriam got such a harsh punishment for voicing real concerns; Miriam should’ve known better than to question Moshe. Moshe was the people’s intermediary with Hashem…did she really not think that he knew what he was doing?

Having heroes that seem like us is important; but there are boundaries. There should be boundaries in all our relationships. Not everyone is exactly the same, not all our relationships are the same. My relationship with my mother is different than my relationship with my teacher. My relationship with my teacher is different than my relationship with my friend. Relationships between men and women are different. This was Miriam’s crime and I know it is something I need to be more mindful of. So thanks Miriam. While I don’t suffer from leprosy confusing the status of others has gotten me into other kinds of trouble.

I have plenty more to say but I want to go eat ice cream now. So..until next week.