Shlach: confidence

Shlach: confidence

Consider the word, confidence: con = with,  fide = faith.  Shlach is an exploration of various meanings of confidence. 

The spies destroy the confidence of the people. The faith (fide) that Gd would come through for them, bring them, into the Promised Lad, was attacked. Belief that Gd will help is a strong way to trust that you will succeed, It anticipates victory that is beyond your personal ability  

The spies  were confidence men, ,they conned the people. The words that they chose raised doubt even  while Sinai, the splitting of the sea and the Exodus  from Egypt were within relatively recent memory..  "The land devours its inhabitants," implies that the Promise will be fulfilled, but you won't like the outcome.  It anticipates the Korach story, it echoes the descent to Egypt - another Gd plan with some negative outcomes.

The frightening description of the Land is confided to the people, the spies share a secret. That makes the description more exciting and more credible. Sharing the intelligence about the danger of Land  is an act of rebellion against the Powerfuls: Moshe and Aaron. How can it not be believed?

Without confidence, both in the ordinary sense  and in the sense of believing  that Divine Assistance is forthcoming, the Land cannot be won. When the people undertake the battle in their own, without Moshe, without the ark, with  only the self(ish)-confidence, they are defeated.

Don't rely on miracle ....say Tehillim!

Behalothecha: The yoke of ascent

Behalothecha: The yoke of ascent

The name of the parsha is a long word with a two letter root,עַל, ayin lamed, to ascend.  Since Rashi interprets the word Behalothecha ( which Onkelos translates as "when you  kindle") as coming from the idea that the flame ascends  ( or that the Cohen ascended a step to light the menorah), the centrality of this root is established.in tradition. 

This parsha seems to form the core of the  S Agnon mood.  The difficulties with Aliyah are featured.  When Moshe offers his father-in -law to join the people, the word עַל,ayin lamed is used to signify what the people are doing.  They are ascending, making aliyah.

The first journey away from Sinai brings strife.  The demand for meat. The slav.  The most dramatic section of the Torah. Moshe sees the other side of ascent. Ayin lamed,עַל, is also the root of ol, the yoke, the traveling burden. Moshe reports that this burden is too heavy for him.  He expresses a (conditional) suicidal wish.  He would rather die than see the evil. 

יד  לֹא-אוּכַל אָנֹכִי לְבַדִּי, לָשֵׂאת אֶת-כָּל-הָעָם הַזֶּה:  כִּי כָבֵד, מִמֶּנִּי.	14 I am not able to bear all this people myself alone, because it is too heavy for me.
טו  וְאִם-כָּכָה אַתְּ-עֹשֶׂה לִּי, הָרְגֵנִי נָא הָרֹג--אִם-מָצָאתִי חֵן, בְּעֵינֶיךָ; וְאַל-אֶרְאֶה, בְּרָעָתִי.  {פ}	15 And if Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in Thy sight; and let me not look upon my wretchedness.' {P}

Even more dramatic: Moshe doubts Gd's capabilities!

כא  וַיֹּאמֶר, מֹשֶׁה, שֵׁשׁ-מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף רַגְלִי, הָעָם אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי בְּקִרְבּוֹ; וְאַתָּה אָמַרְתָּ, בָּשָׂר אֶתֵּן לָהֶם, וְאָכְלוּ, חֹדֶשׁ יָמִים.	21 And Moses said: 'The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and yet Thou hast said: I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month!
כב  הֲצֹאן וּבָקָר יִשָּׁחֵט לָהֶם, וּמָצָא לָהֶם; אִם אֶת-כָּל-דְּגֵי הַיָּם יֵאָסֵף לָהֶם, וּמָצָא לָהֶם.  {פ}	22 If flocks and herds be slain for them, will they suffice them? or if all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, will they suffice them?'

Travel and change generate doubt.  All assumptions are questioned. Maybe questioning is OK?

Ascent is burdensome. Don't get crushed.

Naso

The core of the parsha is the Sota and Nazir . The haftorah, the annunciation of the birth of Shimshon combines the Sota and nazir themes. The nazir element is explicit: The child is to be a nazir from the womb, even his mother must avoid grape products (and thalidomide). The warning label had not yet been invented. The sota element is a little more subtle. Manoach's wife is, in fact, alone with the ish. This is not a human, it is wonderous thing, an angel, but Manoach, at first does not recognize that. He could have dragged his wife to the Mis hkan for this accidental meeting ( that resulted in pregnancy), but he doesn't. He merely wants to ask the ish how to raise the child.

Marriage and Naziruth are sets of voluntary restrictions. These restrictions sanctify the people involved Staying inside the lines. Love will keep us together?

What do sota and nazir have to do with the priestly blessings? Trials that end in blessing. Graduation. The blessing that comes after the trial. Does blessing require a test? A proof of commitment and competence.

The first blessing: May hashem bless you and keep you. The keeping is equal to the blessing. Is there anything worse than losing  the blessing?  The  suspicious husband, the psota,  the nazir exposed to the dead; these are the frustrated failures.

Naso: graduation

Naso:restrictions

The core of the parsha is the Sota and Nazir .  The haftorah, the annunciation  of the birth of Shimshon combines the Sota and nazir themes.  The nazir element is explicit: The child is to be a nazir from the womb, even his mother must avoid grape products  (and thalidomide).  The warning label had not yet been invented.

The sota element is a little more subtle.  Manoach's wife is, in fact, alone with the ish. This is not a human, it is wonderous thing, an angel, but Manoach, at first does not recognize that. He could have dragged his wife to the Mis
hkan for this accidental meeting ( that resulted in pregnancy), but he doesn't.  He merely wants to ask the ish how to raise the child.

Marriage and Naziruth are sets of voluntary restrictions.  These restrictions sanctify the people involved  Staying inside the lines. Love will keep us together?



Bamidbar: Politics

The King James committee called this book  Numbers.  The Talmud calls it Sefer Pikudim: the book of assignments.  The theme of the parsha, and perhaps the whole book is politics. 

Moshe and Aaron and representatives of each tribe enumerate the tribes, they take a census.  This codifies the division of the people into tribes, parties which can be assumed to share distinct interests and ideas.  Even if their opinions were not different before the  separation into tribes, such differences would emerge by virtue of the separation. .A leader ( prince) of each tribe is named.  The tribes are grouped into   armies that surround the unifying tabernacle. 

The numbering is the beginning of democracy.  Notice that the most populous of each group of three tribes is always the leader of the group.  The other two tribes  in the group of three are named in order of status: birth order of the founder, but children of Leah before Billah and Zilpah.

Every male and his family is assigned a position in the camp, a place in the army or in the Holy service. The counting might be different now .(?)

 

Notice that subsequently ( in the time of David), counting the people ( without instructions)  became an offense to Gd.  It also had political  potential: to empower new groups ,who now realized their strength in numbers ( the Hebrew Hispanics?), to assert  themselves.

 

 It was hard to maintain  the people in the desert ( bamidbar), as we shall see as the book unfolds. 

 

 Everyone counts.

Behar-Bechulothai: Alternative universe

The greatest achievement of humankind is the denial of reason.  We can deflect the obvious in favor of what works. 

When my daughter , Esther, said that physics does not make sense to her, I said that is correct.  It doesn't make sense and why should it!  The way you do physics ( really,  any science) is that you translate the question into the mathematical language and then trust the math.  Untrained  Intuition  is counterproductive; trained intuition is no longer intuition.

 The parsha is fundamentally the same idea.  Do not believe that human effort produces  and protects.  It only Gd that provides.  Human effort is so easily cancelled by the greater forces: weather, chance, etc.  Therefore,  the parsha instructs that the field be left fallow as a demonstration of faith, an attestation that it is not the primarily the human effort, but divine grace, that provides sustenance. 

The battle is between Gd and Chronos. The temporal world is based upon the effects of time: decline death, change, etc.  The Eternal  world sees only cycles: shmitah, yovel, generations. Moshiach is the end of cycles, the end of time, the death of Chronos. 

It is appropriate humility to admit that we do not understand the plane upon which events take place. Cause and effect has obvious limitations.  Reliance upon divine providence alone  has a bad track record. Quantum mechanics or Relativity? Anatomy or physiology? Each plane has its own math, and every math is an act of faith. 

Let the good times roll.