Archive for June, 2023

Korach: People before Perks

June 23, 2023 at 3:13 pm · Filed under 4. Numbers, Korach

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה, אֶל-אַהֲרֹן, אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ וּבֵית-אָבִיךָ אִתָּךְ, תִּשְׂאוּ אֶת-עֲוֺן הַמִּקְדָּשׁ;

וְאַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ אִתָּךְ, תִּשְׂאוּ אֶת-עֲוֺן כְּהֻנַּתְכֶם

The Holy One said to Aaron: You and your sons and the ancestral house under your charge shall bear any guilt connected with the sanctuary; you and your sons alone shall bear any guilt connected with your priesthood. (Bamidbar 18:1)

Good afternoon! This week’s Torah portion, Korach, is all about strife, conflict, jealousy, power struggles and dramatic showdowns, and surprisingly, it’s not describing Congress or the Knesset. Korach, a relative of Moshe and Aharon, challenges their position of leadership, proposing that all of Israel is equally qualified for authority. Korach is probably not really interested in democracy, just getting the power for himself, but he’s soon enough put in his place (deep in the earth, unfortunately.)

After two chapters recounting Korach and the subsequent power struggle, the portion finishes with chapter 18, which details the tithes due to the priests and Levites, who are the tribe of religious service responsible for the portable sanctuary and its vessels. Yet before listing the privileges of the priests and Levites (such as eating from the tithes brought by the rest of the nation), the Torah sets out their responsibilities, as in the verse quoted above. Verse 18:1 begins a short section of warnings to Aharon, the High Priest, that he is responsible for keeping the Levites and the rest of the people away from the holy areas of the Sanctuary (Mishkan), lest they die like Korach and his gang.

One could read these verses of warning as simply delimiting the authority of Aharon and the priests- they and they alone are allowed in the Mishkan- but you can also read these verses in the context of the ones that follow, listing the benefits and privileges of the Kohanim (priests) and Levites. What’s notable is that the verses spelling out their responsibilities come clearly and explicitly before the section describing their privileges. I think the Torah is making clear that they are given a leadership role for the service of others and receive the tithes only to allow them to do that. 

Judaism sees leadership- really, any worthy role or profession- as responsibility, accountability, and service, not perks and profit. That’s what Korach never understood, or, for that matter, those who have acted like Korach in every age. The spirit of Korach is not just strife, but misplaced values: he put his personal desires before that of the people’s needs. That’s just not what we’re here on Earth to do. 

Shabbat Shalom!

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Beha’alotcha: Speaking to the Heart

June 9, 2023 at 3:29 pm · Filed under 4. Numbers, Beha'alotcha ·Tagged , , , ,

Copyright Neal Joseph Loevinger 2023

Torah Portion: Beha’alotcha

לֹֽא־אוּכַ֤ל אָנֹכִי֙ לְבַדִּ֔י לָשֵׂ֖את אֶת־כׇּל־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֑ה כִּ֥י כָבֵ֖ד מִמֶּֽנִּי׃

I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me. (Bamidbar/Numbers 11:14)

Good afternoon! There are many rich stories, themes, and texts in this week’s Torah portion, but one stands out as eternally relevant, because it involves kvetching. The Israelites are on their long sojourn from Sinai to the Promised Land, and being sustained by the miraculous manna that appears every morning in precisely sufficient quantities, plus wells of water that appear as needed.

Apparently, that’s not enough for some of the travelers, the so called “riffraff” or “rabble-rousers” (see here) who provoked the rest of the Israelites to complain about the nice food they had back in Egypt (you know, when they were slaves.) Moshe hears the people weeping and moaning and kvetching, and complains to God that he, Moshe, can’t possibly provide meat to the people and can’t carry the burden of leadership alone. In fact, he’d rather die than bear this heavy burden by himself!

Ramban, AKA Nachmanides, has a beautiful interpretation of the verse quoted above. He points out that even if there were many other leaders of the people, the complainers would still come to Moshe to pray for them and try to solve their problem. (Raise your hand if you’ve ever gone right to the top of an organization with your complaints. I want to speak to a manager!) What a team of other leaders could do is ”speak to the hearts” of the complainers to try to get their anger to abate or subside. He also offers a second theory: if there were many leaders who had some share of Moshe’s prophesy, then the complainers would go to those other folks too in order to ask for prayers.

I like Ramban’s first interpretation, because it speaks to another eternal human truth: you can offer compassionate presence to another even if you can’t solve their material (or medical, or financial, or logistical, or emotional) problem. Maybe the compassionate presence is even more important than the presentational problem because people generally feel less afraid and anxious when they know they don’t have to go through a challenge alone. This isn’t just true of the complaining Israelites: God tells Moshe to appoint 70 elders so he, Moshe, wouldn’t have to bear his burden by himself. Perhaps they comforted Moshe as much as they comforted the people: a listening ear and an open heart can be transformative for anyone, from the greatest leader to the humblest among us.


Shabbat Shalom!

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Naso: Jealousy and Remembrance

June 2, 2023 at 4:25 pm · Filed under 4. Numbers, Naso ·Tagged

Copyright 2023 Neal Joseph Loevinger

Torah Portion: Naso

וְהֵבִ֤יא אֶת־קׇרְבָּנָהּ֙ עָלֶ֔יהָ עֲשִׂירִ֥ת הָאֵיפָ֖ה קֶ֣מַח שְׂעֹרִ֑ים לֹֽא־יִצֹ֨ק

עָלָ֜יו שֶׁ֗מֶן וְלֹֽא־יִתֵּ֤ן עָלָיו֙ לְבֹנָ֔ה כִּֽי־מִנְחַ֤ת קְנָאֹת֙ ה֔וּא מִנְחַ֥ת זִכָּר֖וֹן מַזְכֶּ֥רֶת עָוֺֽן׃

And he shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. No oil shall be poured upon it and no frankincense shall be laid on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing. (Bamidbar 5:15)

Good afternoon! It’s been too long, I’ve been a bit busy the past 5 weeks or so, but the monkey is off my back and we’re back in business at rabbineal.net. This week’s Torah portion contains one of the most vexing set of laws in the Torah, that of the Sotah, a ritual of drinking bitter waters to demonstrate the guilt or innocence of a wife suspected of infidelity. There’s an entire tractate of Talmud dedicated to the laws of this ritual, as well as much commentary about its relationship to other Biblical and ancient laws, as well as trenchant observations about the unfairness of having a ritual that humiliates women suspected of infidelity but nothing comparable for men.

For today, however, I want to focus on one subtle aspect of the ritual, often overlooked in many other commentaries. The husband of the suspected wife brings an unusual meal-offering when he brings her to the priest, a meal-offering of rough barley flour, without oil or fragrance. Some commentaries suggest this meal-offering is rough barley flour because barley groats are more like animal feed than human food, and the woman being brought to the Sotah ritual is suspected of acting out of lust or passions like an animal might.

I would suggest it’s the other way around. Notice the relatively verbose description of this unique mincha-offering: a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing. The Hebrew root kuf-nun-aleph, translated as “jealousy,” can also mean zealous. The last phrase is especially interesting: literally, this offering is a “mincha of remembering, of the remembrance of sin,” with the word for “remembrance” being doubled in the phrase.

In other words, perhaps the mincha of the Sotah is plain barley, without oil or fragrance, because it’s the husband who is acting out of baser instincts like jealousy or possessiveness. Not only that, but look at how this offering is described ten verses later:

וְלָקַ֤ח הַכֹּהֵן֙ מִיַּ֣ד הָֽאִשָּׁ֔ה אֵ֖ת מִנְחַ֣ת הַקְּנָאֹ֑ת וְהֵנִ֤יף אֶת־הַמִּנְחָה֙ לִפְנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה וְהִקְרִ֥יב אֹתָ֖הּ אֶל־הַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ׃

Then the priest shall take from the woman’s hand the meal offering of jealousy, elevate the meal offering before יהוה, and present it on the altar. (5:25)

Now it’s merely the mincha of jealousy, without even being called a “zichron,” or remembrance. (See also verse 18.)

It seems to me that there’s a not very subtle hint here that a husband who remembers obsessively becomes someone who is consumed by his jealousy. The woman may or may not be innocent, but he’s the one acting out of baser emotions. We might further suggest that too much remembering can be just as bad as too much forgetting: if we kept account of every slight, injustice, or suspicion in our relationships, who would not ultimately become zealously enraged? The sources tell us the Sotah was discontinued in ancient times, but the task of moderating our emotions, and letting go of our suspicions, grudges, and wrath, is always our challenge, in every generation.

Shabbat Shalom.

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