Balak: Truth

When Moshe begged off  from being the spokesperson of GD at the burning  bush, Gd answers: 
 מִ֣י שָׂ֣ם פֶּה֮ לָֽאָדָם֒  Who gives man speech? Is it not I, the LORD? ( Moshe is absent form this parsha)

Balak, the king of  Moab senses the fear of the ascendant Israelites among the people he rules, the Moabites.  It is not clear that the fear is justified.  It seems that the tribes of relatives, Edom ( Esau) and Ammon ( Lot) were exempt from the battles visited upon aliens like the Emorites. But the fear is real so Balak attempts to hire an influencer, one famous for brilliance, a man with connections, Billam to make pronouncements that will cast the Israelites in a more vulnerable light. Propaganda is a key element in this war.  If the Moabite people are fearful, they are disadvantaged.  If they perceive the Israelites  as weak and vulnerable, they have a better chance in battle. 

Billam is offered the job of cursing the Israelites.  The word for curse אָֽרָה, arah, is closely related to ohr, light. Billam is hired to cast light upon, to reveal, the faults of Israel . ( Note that the antonymic baruch  can refer to burying a [revealed] branch in the ground so that new growth can appear). 

Billam's art is based upon accurately reporting communications that come from his heavenly sources. These sources tell him not to do this job.  Balak takes the rejection as a basis for negotiation.  He ups the ante so Billam asks again. Wow, even heaven is open to appeal... if the price is right.  Gd's plan can accommodate Billam's cooperation.  Billam will not curse the Israelites, he will repeat what he is told ... and bless them! 

Billam's subservience is reinforced by the armed angel  of antagonism (Satan) that blocks his way. The donkey, the symbol of the American Democratic Party, the party of the [downtrodden] workers speaks.  This speech is a fated act of Gd as revealed in Pirkei Avoth משנה אבות ה׳:ו׳

(ו) עֲשָׂרָה דְבָרִים נִבְרְאוּ בְעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת, וְאֵלּו הֵן, פִּי הָאָרֶץ, וּפִי הַבְּאֵר, וּפִי הָאָתוֹן

Ten things were created on the eve of the [first] Sabbath at twilight, And these are they: ... The mouth of the donkey [that spoke to Balaam in Numbers 22:28–30]

The miracle is as much  that the servant  musters the courage to criticize her wrong-headed master as the fact that the speech comes from an animal.  The statement of the now-visible angel, justifying the statements of the loyal oppressed , simplifies the story. 

Billam can only say what he is told, he can only speak the truth as it appears to Heaven, ... Gd's truth.  But he has been hired to do a job, to  diminish the Israelites in the eyes of Moab,  perhaps, to diminish the confidence of the newly victorious Hebrews and, maybe even turn their allied Gd against them.  The Balak-Bilam team try selecting potentially negative viewpoints, partial truths, as road to plausible  deprecating theories.  The final attempt leads to a gloss by Onkelos that clarifies this ploy: 

וַיָּ֥שֶׁת אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּ֖ר פָּנָֽיו׃  but turned his face toward the wilderness.

Onkelos (according to  Mikraoth Gadoloth and Artscroll; Targum Jerusalem according to Sefaria) translates

but went and set his face toward the wilderness to recall to memory their work of the calf, (still) being desirous to curse Israel.

Billam would tell the truth as revealed to him, but he wanted to adjust the truth to his advantage.  This is the work of the salesperson, the spokesperson, the lobbyist. 

Billam's statements of praise ultimately become the basis of millenia of persecution for the Jews.  His first statement: 

הֶן־עָם֙ לְבָדָ֣ד יִשְׁכֹּ֔ן וּבַגּוֹיִ֖ם לֹ֥א יִתְחַשָּֽׁב׃  There is a people that dwells apart, Not reckoned among the nations,

alienates and disenfranchises the Jews in their diaspora.  The subsequent  general (excessive?) praise of Hebrew achievements  are a paradigm for antisemitism to this day. The Chofetz Chaim  alludes to this problem:

אם רוצה לדבר עם אחד אודות מי, והוא משער שאין לבו שלם עם אותו פלוני, (ד) ויבוא על ידי זה לגנותו, דאסור לדבר עמו אודותיו.

Hilchos Lashon Hara chapter 9, section 2

Before many people, one may not even praise [a person] a little because there will generally be those who agree or disagree or are jealous of him, and will disparage him because of the praise.

I can talk about Jewish captains of industry and it is a source of national pride.  It is  a turn of a few degrees to "Jews control the media and have all the money. " 

Facts are not truth. Perspective is for sale. 

Chukath:  (lack of) Understanding 

This parsha has many  edicts that are not explained and, perhaps, cannot be understood.  Death is prominent: Miriam and Aaron die and Moses perpetrates his capital offense of hitting the water-giving rock.  Nations are approached for passage into the Promised Land.  All refuse.  Some are skirted, others engaged in battle and conquered.   The purifying and polluting ashes of the red heifer are a mere spice to these more immediate unfathomables. 

The red heifer is not an animal sacrifice.  It is the main  ingredient in a mixture that is required  to extirpate the contamination that devolves from contact with the dead; the concoction and its associated ritual of separation and sprinkling ,decontaminate the exposed so that they may enter the sanctum.  The sanctum is off limits to those who have not been disinfected. 

The first death reported after the instructions for the red heifer are given is that of Miriam מִרְיָ֔ם. Her name is derived from  the  word mar .  Mar means bitter,  or master, or rebellion.  I think all of these are related.  Having a master  is a bitter situation; the bitter taste recommends rejection - rebellion.  Miriam was born during the bitter times of slavery. 

The Israelites then run out of water.  They complain  There is always a question of whether Moses  felt the needs of the people.  Several times, he had gone without food and water for 40 days at a time, something ordinary humans cannot do.  It seems appropriate that the people report their feeble need to this superman.  It was the nature of the complaint - the blame, the misremembering of Egypt, the preference for dying in a previous rebellion - that incited the  anger of Moses.  That anger was misdirected at the rock which Gd had designated to provide water.  Moshe's anger can be seen in the few words he utters prior to hitting the rock.  He calls the people הַמֹּרִ֔ים   Morim, (bitter) rebels.  

 Soon after, Aaron is sent to die on הֹ֣ר הָהָ֑ר, the mountain ( of mountains).  This drama is a distortion of the binding of Isaac, the human sacrificed to the Divine. In our parsha,  the father is brought up to the mountain  and the son receives the  sacred garments.  Then the father dies through the Divine kiss. 

The sacred garments are the subject of today's daf yomi.  Today we retell part of  the story of Alexander of Macedonia's adventure in the land of Israel.  His first contact is with the Cuthites who convince him to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem because the Jews are rebellious יְהוּדִים שֶׁמָּרְדוּ בְּךָ .  Simon the Righteous, the high priest, decides to (possibly) violate the prohibition on wearing the Priestly robes outside of the temple.  He dresses in those robes. When Alexander sees him, he bows.  His erstwhile allies ask him  

מֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל כְּמוֹתְךָ יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לִיהוּדִי זֶה?! אָמַר לָהֶם: דְּמוּת דְּיוֹקְנוֹ שֶׁל זֶה מְנַצַּחַת לְפָנַי בְּבֵית מִלְחַמְתִּי.

Should an important king such as you bow to this Jew? He said to them: I do so because the image of this man’s face is victorious before me on my battlefields,

this is the [dream] image of (my) victory. 

The parsha ends with the victory over Sichon, the Amorite king  and Og, king of Bashan.  The haftarah hints at another twist on the theme of the binding of Isaac.  The previously shunned Jephthah is drafted as the general of Gilead when the territory is threatened by the Ammonites.  Jephthah approaches the Ammonites with the history of the region.  Sichon usurped the previous Ammonite dynasty  and the Israelites  defeated Sichon. Whose land is it now?  When diplomacy fails, the army of Gilead overpowers the Ammonites.  Before battle, Jephthah tries to invoke the help of Heaven: 

And Jephthah made the following vow to the LORD: “If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands,then whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me on my safe return from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s and shall be offered by me as a burnt offering.”

The haftarah ends before revealing that the  whatever comes out of the door    is his daughter. 

It is all a bitter story. 

Korach: Holy Protest (Good Trouble)

Korach: Holy Protest (Good Trouble) 

אֵ֡ת מַחְתּוֹת֩ הַֽחַטָּאִ֨ים הָאֵ֜לֶּה בְּנַפְשֹׁתָ֗ם וְעָשׂ֨וּ אֹתָ֜ם רִקֻּעֵ֤י פַחִים֙ צִפּ֣וּי לַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ כִּֽי־הִקְרִיבֻ֥ם לִפְנֵֽי־  יְוַיִּקְדָּ֑שׁוּ וְיִֽהְי֥וּ לְא֖וֹת לִבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

[Remove] the fire pans of those who have sinned at the cost of their lives, and let them be made into hammered sheets as plating for the altar—for once they have been used for offering to the LORD, they have become sacred—and let them serve as a warning to the people of Israel.

Two hundred fifty protesters had joined Korach's challenge of Moshe and Aaron.  They had demonstrated by bringing firepans with incense.  They were killed by fire through a Divine intervention that asserted the authority of Moshe and Aaron.  Now their firepans of protest were to be hammered into a plating for the altar.  Presumably this bronze covering protected the altar from the fires  or the blood placed upon it. 

Apparently, the original plans for the construction of the altar were subject to change.  The altar would accommodate alterations based upon the evolving story of the people who used  it to expiate the wrath of Heaven. 

Once this  bronze had been used for an offering, its sanctity needed preservation.  The protest had consecrated  the material.  It was a holy protest, even if it was misguided. 

The Haftarah for Korach involves the establishment of the monarchy under king Saul, despite the protests of the ruling prophet Samuel. The people had insisted that a monarchy replace the constitutional anarchy, the rule by prophecy, that had prevailed up until that time. Samuel, the prophet of the era, acceded to the popular demand that their political system move into their  modern era: monarchy. Samuel may have been  a descendent of Korach  (depending upon how you read Chronicles I 6: 7,8).  The great grandson of the most notorious usurper is now the nation's leader and rails against political change!

We should recall that  Samuel himself was an upstart and the circumstances of his ascent  echo the tension between Korach and Aaron. Samuel had been delivered in service to the Temple by his mother Hannah, in the fulfillment of her pledge  at the moment of his conception. Samuel was the servant of Eli, the high priest and prophet, the national leader.  Gd calls to Samuel in the night.  Samuel informs his sleeping  master Eli...three times.. until it becomes clear that Samuel, not Eli, is the intended recipient of the Divine direction to guide the people.  The descendent of Korach has been chosen to replace the descendent of Aaron to lead the people ( although the priesthood and the associated service and privileges remain in the Aaron lineage). 

The idea of democracy does not die easily.  Even after the earth swallows Korach; and the 250 Proud supporters are burned to death, the people continue their protest. This time, the wrath of Gd is quelled by ... incense.  Aaron stops the plague by running among the people with his censor, limiting the deaths to 14,700. The  action of rebellion, the burning of incense, now quells Divine retribution.  The instrument of protest has been incorporated into the instrument of atonement.  Can we understand this world?  Maybe political systems are strengthened by protests and declare their positions  by how they respond. 

 

Shelach: Reporting

How many truths can there be? 

Twelve princes are sent to scout the Promised land. Ten report on the strength of the inhabitants, their impenetrable  fortifications, their height advantages. The two that encourage proceeding with the planned invasion do not contradict the other 10, they just ignore the issues raised. 

The haftarah talks about another scouting mission.  This one precedes the actual  conquest of Jericho. These  scouts  come to  ramparts and are faced with an organized force, but they do not talk about them. Rather, they convey the news that the people of Jericho are terrified of the Israelites and their Gd who split the sea, information they obtain from a woman who lives in the fringes, in the ramparts. 

In our time, we have dramatic, live action, video enhanced selective information portrayed on television and media.  You can select your truth, which can guide your course of action.  You can be reminded of the time that Dr. Fauci  said that masks worn by everyone  are not effective and possibly harmful ( because they are directed away from front line personnel who need them)  or see   video of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by choosing which button you press on the remote. 

In the previous parsha, when Joshua reports (unauthorized) prophecy in the camp to Moses, Joshua suggest that the unlicensed newscasters be imprisoned. 

וַיָּ֣רׇץ הַנַּ֔עַר וַיַּגֵּ֥ד לְמֹשֶׁ֖ה וַיֹּאמַ֑ר אֶלְדָּ֣ד וּמֵידָ֔ד מִֽתְנַבְּאִ֖ים בַּֽמַּחֲנֶֽה׃ A youth ran out and told Moses, saying, “Eldad and Medad are acting the prophet in the camp!”

וַיַּ֜עַן יְהוֹשֻׁ֣עַ בִּן־נ֗וּן מְשָׁרֵ֥ת מֹשֶׁ֛ה מִבְּחֻרָ֖יו וַיֹּאמַ֑ר אֲדֹנִ֥י מֹשֶׁ֖ה כְּלָאֵֽם׃ And Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant from his youth, spoke up and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!”

Now I can understand the problem better.  These reporters of enlightened truth might not have an emphasis that is conducive to "the cause ."  Moses  becomes the free speech advocate here.  Perhaps it is this correction of Joshua that prompts his designation as Hoshea, when he is identified as one of the scouts. 

לְמַטֵּ֥ה אֶפְרָ֖יִם הוֹשֵׁ֥עַ בִּן־נֽוּן׃ From the tribe of Ephraim, Hosea son of Nun.

The subsequent, summary verse:

אֵ֚לֶּה שְׁמ֣וֹת הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַ֥ח מֹשֶׁ֖ה לָת֣וּר אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּקְרָ֥א מֹשֶׁ֛ה לְהוֹשֵׁ֥עַ בִּן־נ֖וּן יְהוֹשֻֽׁעַ׃ Those were the names of the men whom Moses sent to scout the land; but Moses changed the name of Hosea son of Nun to Joshua.

comes to tell us that Moses had re-instated him to his special rank. 

Many situations can be cast as overwhelming and hopeless. My parents emerged from the near hopelessness of the Holocaust.  I see patients every day who have been healed from their cancers because of hope.  Despair  is an arrogant position, pretending that all possible solutions have been considered. Hope comes from a different source, independent  of circumstance.