- It's not Moses who sends the spies but God who directs Moses. Important distinction, since this means the One who initiates the reconnoiter already know the eventual outcome of the future campaign for Canaan. Therefore this mission is not to inform military strategy (because, grapes?*) but to inform God (and the Israelites?) the measure of the Israelites' faith.
- (Num. 14: 2): "Why is Adonai taking us to that land to fall by the sword?" "Our wives and children will be carried off!"
How does the spies' fear make any sense to the Israelites? You've seen a slew of plagues in Egypt, a whole sea split in half, dew-dropped manna left for you every morning, followed pillars of fire, the rage of God made manifest in a myriad of delightful ways (sarcasm alert) yet NOW you think you've been brought to this place to die? How does that even make sense?
Of course, it doesn't. The idea of the impossible should have been left on the far shore of the sea you crossed over - ahem, walked through - two years prior. If nothing else, Parasha Sh'lach L'Cha is a powerful sociological case study on the spread of fear as a poisonous contagion. (Note to Great Britain post-Brexit and the United States in this Election Year of 2016.)
- It occurs to me that the Israelites have a unique blessing in that God has shown them where and what their Promised Land looks like.
This is not always a given.
- Um, much like the whole Golden Calf "incident", the idea that an enslaved and traumatized people should (never) show no fear seems uniquely obtuse. ow different things might have been if someone had just sat them down and said, Look, it's okay to be afraid; courage isn't the absence of fear but to move forward with it and through it? I'm sorry, we're out of time for this week.
(Psychology FTW!)
(And yes, you could counter with how The Torah isn't concerned with human psychology, modern or otherwise, as much as it is concerned with a particular [masculinist/patriarchal] idea of faith for a particular [masculinist/patriarchal] people at least three thousand years gone.)
- Wow, can we talk about the resilience of the Israelites and their investment of future generations here for a moment?
Seriously.
God just condemned everyone (with the exception of Caleb and Joshua) to death in the desert. For doubting their eventual claiming of Canaan, they will all die. Now, what I find simply amazing is that, according to The Torah, no one calls God's bluff here. not a single Israelite says, "Oh really, God? Take away the one thing that has kept us alive and going all these miles and years? Fine. Then I quit. Ciao, bella."
No one, not a single one of these very flawed (very human) Israelites acts in a dysfunctional way, as understandable as that may be. Yes, they DO try to storm Canaan anyway, but being spurned so completely (Num. 14: 44) they must have collectively understood their shared fate. Which leaves me to wonder, what is their motive to keep moving forward now? They know they will never enter Canaan, they will never return to Egypt, they will die in the most foreign, strangest and hostile of lands. Why take one more single step?
The one answer - perhaps the only answer? - I can think of is the next generation. To keep going for the future of Israel as a people, as a nation.
That, I think, is amazing. In the face of divine condemnation, to keep moving forward, speaks to a communal resilience that leaves me breathless, stirred, inspired, and continually in love with my people. Am Yisrael Chai, indeed.
And finally, wow, God - you just condemned a whole people to death in their wilderness wandering, and then go on to instruct Moses to tell the Israelites"When you enter the land to which I am taking you..." (Num. 15: 18). So obviously this is a message for the next generation, which You are implicitly directing their parents to givethem.
In other words: I (God) have just condemned all of you to death - but before you die at my command, give this message to your children.
And still the Israelites move forward, step by step...
(* Toda Raba Rabbi Sharon Sobel for pointing out how the grapes are the current symbol for the Israel Ministry of Tourism. What fertile discussion could that lead to?)
(And, as always, an insightful d'var on Sh'Lach L'Cha from BimBam, formerly G-dcast.)
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Musing from Parsha Va-eira
1 - "But I did not make Myself known to them by My name Adonai..." Technically true, although many examples exist in which genesis' key players know/respond to God by this name. So what can be gleaned by this technicality? Maybe that this is the first time God makes this introduction, signaling the uniqueness, the importance, even the love behind appearing (va-eria) to Moses. (Mind blown not as much as heart moved.)
2 - I know this has been debated throughout the centuries by many a wiser mind than mine, but the only way I can comprehend God needing to remember (and the corollary, that God can be forgetful) is if I exchanged it with the word "acknowledge" (although the corollary here, that God can be ambivalent, is still disturbing.)
3 - So interesting how the word "redeem" is used here (6:6) - to free - as opposed to the Christian Bible, where it often (always?) means to forgive.
4 - "And I will take you to be My people and I will be your God" (6:7). Is it just me or does this line just crackle with passion? (Fanning self.)
5. - That the Israelites did not initially listen to Moses, (6:9) "their spirits crushed by cruel bondage", really speaks to their oppression. Good to remember as this informs their later actions (Golden Calf, constant complaints, fears and terrors).
6. - The Women's Commentary notes how the genealogy of Va-eira (used to reaffirm Aaron and moses' lineage?) is unique as it mentions women, which other Torah censuses do not. Toda raba, Women's Commentary!
7. - I personally love that God chooses a representative with a thick tongue and refuses to allow that be an impediment for Moses.
8. - Ugh, the whole I-will-harden-Pharaoh's-heart and the free-will-versus-destiny debate. The only way the Exodus works as the tension-ridden exercise in which God can wield power and work those "wonders" is if Pharaoh is stubborn. If Pharaoh submits early on, then there is no excuse to bring about plagues, there is no Angel of Death, indeed there is even no Pesach - indeed, could it have even been called an Exodus? Would the Israelites have ever become a people/nation?
What bothers me is twofold: 1) if God is constantly hardening Pharaoh's heart, how can we blame Pharaoh at all in what follows? Yes, I know, that God *can* control the actions of a nation's leader speaks to God's awesome power - but if God can control emotions and thoughts, why not just force Pharaoh to say, okey-dokey, y'all can go, don't let the door hit you on the way out? In fact, who is more to blame for the plagues - Pharaoh or God? Perhaps this was a bit of an overreach of The Torah's authors? 2) Why have God harden Pharaoh's heart at all? The beginning of Exodus sets up the ruler as a petty and paranoid tyrant who isn't above overt oppressions to keep a people down. That he would have refused Moses' requests and even challenged God's authority to the point of the last plague would actuallu seem justified by what we already know of his character.
(Question: when God says God will harden Pharaoh's heart, does that mean directly or indirectly through the contest of control which has been initiated through Moses/Aaron?)
9. - "And the Egyptians shall know that I am Adonai..." (7:5) Because the "wonders" are not just for the Israelites but the Eyptians, too. Because no one multi-tasks like God multi-tasks.
10.: Rods turning into snakes which swallow each other - was this the first phallic measuring contest?
11. I guess it speaks to Pharaoh's absolute tyranny that even when Moses/Adonai brings such suffering upon the Egyptians that they cannot force their ruler to acquiesce to Moses?
12. regarding water turning into blood: There is a lot of academic/Anthropological research/literature on how blood is seen and used - and feared - by ancient people. One theory - which I agree with - is that blood is only seen as purifying/contract binding when it is controlled by a man/men/Man. When we see it under the control of Moses/Aaron or Adonai (such as in 7:19-24) there is no accompanying horror of impurity. yet when blood is not controlled by Man - in other words, when it pertains to Women - it is always seen as impure.
Discuss.
13. Critical to remember, as Rabbi Sharon Sobel of Temple Isaiah of Stony Brook has reminded us, the Torah sees God as connected to the land; within the land there is God (8:18). Whether you believe that or not, or how much you believe that or not, how much this informs everything else is kinda stunning to appreciate.
14: I personally love how, even this early on, the idea of distinction-making is occurring (8:21-23).
(And for the record, I would have linked clips to "The Ten Commandments" or "Gods and Kings" here for kitschy-cool visuals but am still waiting for a telling of a Middle Eastern people that isn't so blindingly white[washed].)
2 - I know this has been debated throughout the centuries by many a wiser mind than mine, but the only way I can comprehend God needing to remember (and the corollary, that God can be forgetful) is if I exchanged it with the word "acknowledge" (although the corollary here, that God can be ambivalent, is still disturbing.)
3 - So interesting how the word "redeem" is used here (6:6) - to free - as opposed to the Christian Bible, where it often (always?) means to forgive.
4 - "And I will take you to be My people and I will be your God" (6:7). Is it just me or does this line just crackle with passion? (Fanning self.)
5. - That the Israelites did not initially listen to Moses, (6:9) "their spirits crushed by cruel bondage", really speaks to their oppression. Good to remember as this informs their later actions (Golden Calf, constant complaints, fears and terrors).
6. - The Women's Commentary notes how the genealogy of Va-eira (used to reaffirm Aaron and moses' lineage?) is unique as it mentions women, which other Torah censuses do not. Toda raba, Women's Commentary!
7. - I personally love that God chooses a representative with a thick tongue and refuses to allow that be an impediment for Moses.
8. - Ugh, the whole I-will-harden-Pharaoh's-heart and the free-will-versus-destiny debate. The only way the Exodus works as the tension-ridden exercise in which God can wield power and work those "wonders" is if Pharaoh is stubborn. If Pharaoh submits early on, then there is no excuse to bring about plagues, there is no Angel of Death, indeed there is even no Pesach - indeed, could it have even been called an Exodus? Would the Israelites have ever become a people/nation?
What bothers me is twofold: 1) if God is constantly hardening Pharaoh's heart, how can we blame Pharaoh at all in what follows? Yes, I know, that God *can* control the actions of a nation's leader speaks to God's awesome power - but if God can control emotions and thoughts, why not just force Pharaoh to say, okey-dokey, y'all can go, don't let the door hit you on the way out? In fact, who is more to blame for the plagues - Pharaoh or God? Perhaps this was a bit of an overreach of The Torah's authors? 2) Why have God harden Pharaoh's heart at all? The beginning of Exodus sets up the ruler as a petty and paranoid tyrant who isn't above overt oppressions to keep a people down. That he would have refused Moses' requests and even challenged God's authority to the point of the last plague would actuallu seem justified by what we already know of his character.
(Question: when God says God will harden Pharaoh's heart, does that mean directly or indirectly through the contest of control which has been initiated through Moses/Aaron?)
9. - "And the Egyptians shall know that I am Adonai..." (7:5) Because the "wonders" are not just for the Israelites but the Eyptians, too. Because no one multi-tasks like God multi-tasks.
10.: Rods turning into snakes which swallow each other - was this the first phallic measuring contest?
11. I guess it speaks to Pharaoh's absolute tyranny that even when Moses/Adonai brings such suffering upon the Egyptians that they cannot force their ruler to acquiesce to Moses?
12. regarding water turning into blood: There is a lot of academic/Anthropological research/literature on how blood is seen and used - and feared - by ancient people. One theory - which I agree with - is that blood is only seen as purifying/contract binding when it is controlled by a man/men/Man. When we see it under the control of Moses/Aaron or Adonai (such as in 7:19-24) there is no accompanying horror of impurity. yet when blood is not controlled by Man - in other words, when it pertains to Women - it is always seen as impure.
Discuss.
13. Critical to remember, as Rabbi Sharon Sobel of Temple Isaiah of Stony Brook has reminded us, the Torah sees God as connected to the land; within the land there is God (8:18). Whether you believe that or not, or how much you believe that or not, how much this informs everything else is kinda stunning to appreciate.
14: I personally love how, even this early on, the idea of distinction-making is occurring (8:21-23).
(And for the record, I would have linked clips to "The Ten Commandments" or "Gods and Kings" here for kitschy-cool visuals but am still waiting for a telling of a Middle Eastern people that isn't so blindingly white[washed].)
Friday, January 8, 2016
Y'hiyu L'ratzon! versions by Josh Nelson and Lucy Greenbaum
Shout out to Cantor Harris at Temple Isaiah of Stony Brook, NY for bringing this version to Shabbat Service tonight (1.18.15). So hard not to be dancing in my seat...
Shabbat Shalom!
1/13/15: Also, just found this beautiful version by Lucy Greenbaum
Shabbat Shalom!
1/13/15: Also, just found this beautiful version by Lucy Greenbaum
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Musings from Parsha Sh'mot
- Parsha Sh'mot always struck me as the exemplar passage of the power of memory/the danger of forgetting. Can we say here that to remember (as in "God remembers...") is the equivalent of to acknowledge? This would seem to make sense, especially as when God tells Moses that God is "mindful" of the Israelites' suffering (24:7)
- How does the Pharoah's daughter know from sight that Moses is Hebrew? is there some physical indication of this or is it a guess based on class (i.e. - only a Hebrew would have sent her child adrift in a basket down a stream?)
- So, like Joseph, Moses ends up in the Pharoah's court, therefore under the Pharoah's protection, and enjoying its benefits. As one rabbi once noted, this resonates with mythical undertones.
- Is Moses aware of his Hebrew identity (2:11, 4:18) or is he unaware of his ancestry (3:13)?
- Note: God does not directly answer Moses' question (as pointed out by Rabbi Friedman) [3:11]. What are the implications of that?
- So the Burning Bush event actually happens on Sinai? (3:12) (This realization always escaped me until now.)
- "Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh" - so God identifies as an entity which exists beyond human definition (and therefore the ability of humans to define, and then the power to control) and as an entity which is still evolving? (I find this latter aspect to be so interesting!)
- As a corollary, why even give this name at all? God was never identified by it before, so why give it now? Don't get me wrong, i think it is an incredible Torah moment, one ripe with wonder and mystery, but it doesn't exactly make a lot of sense. (Perhaps this is why God needs to be identified through the patriarchs?)
- How is the word "borrow" being understood here (3:22) since those goods will never be returned?
- And then the future contest of the phallic symbols was foretold *(4: 1-5)
- Why this need for visible evidence of the meeting with God? Were there others in the area also claiming to be the mouthpiece of the Hebrew God?
- Wonders for the Israelites = horror, fear, death for the Egyptians?
- ****So important to note that God does not offer to cure Moses of being "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (4:10) but only responds by noting God is the originator of these things and promises to be there with Moses. Discuss.***
- How many different names does Jethro have????
- Wait, so God tries to kill either Moses or his (presumably?) first-born son? Because neither were circumcised? Yo, kinda harsh - couldn't have mentioned this was important through the Burning Bush (especially since Moses' awareness of his ancestral heritage is not clear?) Also, are we assuming that Moses was *already* aware of this particular rite? If so, how so?
- Impossible to miss the connection between Pharoah's complaints about the Israelite's - a shadow nation living within an indigenous population, a workforce of "shirkers" (5:17) - and the anti-Semitic biases of today.
- How does the Pharoah's daughter know from sight that Moses is Hebrew? is there some physical indication of this or is it a guess based on class (i.e. - only a Hebrew would have sent her child adrift in a basket down a stream?)
- So, like Joseph, Moses ends up in the Pharoah's court, therefore under the Pharoah's protection, and enjoying its benefits. As one rabbi once noted, this resonates with mythical undertones.
- Is Moses aware of his Hebrew identity (2:11, 4:18) or is he unaware of his ancestry (3:13)?
- Note: God does not directly answer Moses' question (as pointed out by Rabbi Friedman) [3:11]. What are the implications of that?
- So the Burning Bush event actually happens on Sinai? (3:12) (This realization always escaped me until now.)
- "Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh" - so God identifies as an entity which exists beyond human definition (and therefore the ability of humans to define, and then the power to control) and as an entity which is still evolving? (I find this latter aspect to be so interesting!)
- As a corollary, why even give this name at all? God was never identified by it before, so why give it now? Don't get me wrong, i think it is an incredible Torah moment, one ripe with wonder and mystery, but it doesn't exactly make a lot of sense. (Perhaps this is why God needs to be identified through the patriarchs?)
- How is the word "borrow" being understood here (3:22) since those goods will never be returned?
- And then the future contest of the phallic symbols was foretold *(4: 1-5)
- Why this need for visible evidence of the meeting with God? Were there others in the area also claiming to be the mouthpiece of the Hebrew God?
- Wonders for the Israelites = horror, fear, death for the Egyptians?
- ****So important to note that God does not offer to cure Moses of being "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (4:10) but only responds by noting God is the originator of these things and promises to be there with Moses. Discuss.***
- How many different names does Jethro have????
- Wait, so God tries to kill either Moses or his (presumably?) first-born son? Because neither were circumcised? Yo, kinda harsh - couldn't have mentioned this was important through the Burning Bush (especially since Moses' awareness of his ancestral heritage is not clear?) Also, are we assuming that Moses was *already* aware of this particular rite? If so, how so?
- Impossible to miss the connection between Pharoah's complaints about the Israelite's - a shadow nation living within an indigenous population, a workforce of "shirkers" (5:17) - and the anti-Semitic biases of today.
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Quote of The Shabbat
"Don't let anyone take away the joy from your Shabbat."
Cantor Harris, Temple Isaiah, Stony Brook, NY
Cantor Harris, Temple Isaiah, Stony Brook, NY
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