Balak

Numbers 22:2−25:9

What Are You Looking at But Not Seeing?

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Lisa Edwards for ReformJudaism.com

It’s June – the month famous for weddings and for gay pride parades all over the world. June was chosen for “pride” events to commemorate the June 1969 riot at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village – a significant milestone in the gay liberation movement.

Almost every year at Jerusalem’s Parade for Pride and Tolerance, counter-protesters bring live donkeys (or sometimes cardboard cutouts of donkeys) to symbolize what they label as the “bestial nature” of the pride parade. It’s sad that religious people protest against the advocates of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride and pleas for tolerance. The counter-protesters’ choice of “beasts” is ironic: of all the animals, why would Jews well-versed in Torah choose donkeys for this purpose?

It’s certainly ironic, given the intrepid donkey who plays a major role in the story told in this week’s Parashat Balak.

The extraordinary story of the prophet Balaam and his talking she-donkey is a narrative about humans who think they know best, and come to learn otherwise. Balaam is hired by King Balak to curse the people Israel, saying, “since they are too numerous for me; perhaps I can thus defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that he whom you bless is blessed indeed, and he whom you curse is cursed” (Numbers 22:6). Attempting to accommodate the King’s request, Balaam heads out on his donkey toward the Israelite camp, but along the way the donkey swerves three times in an attempt to protect Balaam from a threatening angel of God that only the donkey can see. More infuriated each time the donkey stops or swerves, Balaam beats her harshly three times. In a last attempt to protect herself and Balaam, the donkey actually talks to Balaam in his own language, saying “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?” (22:28). Unrepentant, Balaam replies, “You have made a mockery of me! If I had a sword with me, I’d kill you!” (22:29).

Here’s a good argument for gun (sword) control.

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Chukat

Numbers 19:1−22:1 - Rosh Chodesh Tammuz


D'var Torah By: Rabbi Lisa Edwards for ReformJudaism.com

The Gift of Grief

In an almost imperceptible yet seismic shift, this week’s Parshat Chukat jumps us a few decades ahead in the wilderness journey of the Israelites. Maybe we need a movie screen caption that reads, “thirty-eight years later.”

Perhaps the time shift is difficult to notice because not much else has changed. Early in the portion, seemingly from out of nowhere, we read: “Miriam died there and was buried there,” (Numbers 20:1). Although she was the sister of Moses and Aaron, and a leader herself in the Israelite community, no more detail is given of what happened when Miriam died. No cause of death is given, no age at death, no description of mourning. We don’t even know who buried her. “Died and buried” is all Miriam gets for her long years of service.

Or is it? The very next verse tells us “the community was without water” (20:2). This juxtaposition is to teach us, writes Rashi (France, eleventh century), that the Israelites “had water for the whole forty years from [Miriam’s] well on account of the merit of Miriam.” Abraham ibn Ezra (Spain, twelfth century) disagrees, noting an absence of water long before Miriam died (Exodus 17:1, for example).

Whatever the reason, it seems to be their thirst, rather than Miriam’s death, that brings the Israelites to whine and argue with Moses and Aaron. “Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place?” (Numbers 20:5). Poor Moses, Aaron, God, and us as well, we’ve heard all this before—almost forty years ago and from a different generation. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”1

Perhaps this is why Moses grows so angry, losing patience once more. And the same goes for God. When God tells Moses and his brother Aaron to take the rod and “order the rock to yield its water,” Moses does so in similar fashion to the way God instructed him decades before—he strikes the rock, but this time he does so twice, saying “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?” (Compare Numbers 20:6-12 to Exodus 17:5-6).

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Korach

Numbers 16:1−18:32

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Philip “Flip” Rice for ReformJudasim.org

All Men Are Not Created Equal

No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer. (George Orwell)

Please stop reading this. You rebel! No doubt you are someone who actually enjoys reading about Korah's revolt, which is found in our Torah portion, Korach, this week. The rebellion ends in failure, but it is fundamentally quite painful to most Jews who read it, largely because it is complex, timeless, and timely. Jewish tradition trained us to sympathize with Moses and his supporters. For the Rabbis of the Midrash, Korah represented all that was evil in the community and all that was wrong with human character. Still, it is difficult for anyone passionate about democracy not to be stirred by Korah's powerful message. It is almost as if our Jewish loyalties are pitted against our democratic allegiances. And for those of us who take both the Torah and the Declaration of Independence seriously, that conflict hurts.

Let's review: Moses and Aaron have successfully led the tribes out of slavery in Egypt, through the threats of the wilderness, and they are now relatively safe, secure, and comfortable. As the families of the Israelites are living out their lives, waiting to arrive in the Promised Land, God continues to speak through Moses to the people. In the midst of this idyllic serenity, in the hills outside of the Land of Israel, Korah rebels! Resenting having to follow Moses in all matters, Korah challenges him with these profound words:

You have gone too far! For all of the community are holy, all of them, and the Eternal is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Eternal's congregation? (Numbers 16:3)

Korah's defiant words strike at the heart of the democratic values so cherished by American sensibilities. If all people are created equal, then why would any one person have authority over another? Why should one person have access to power, wealth, or prestige in a way that another person does not? Korah's challenge echoes the words of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. But these sentiments also are found in the prophetic voices of the Torah. In fact, in every generation there are leaders who fight for the assertion that each person has intrinsic worth and that all people have equal value. And since few of us would challenge this claim, Korah's disobedience strikes a chord within us.

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Sh'lach L'cha

Numbers 13:1−15:41

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Laurie Rice for ReformJudasim.org

Lemmings Be Gone!

Recently, I sat with one of my congregants, a beautiful, smart, and funny 12-year-old girl who told me about the social challenges she is having in school. Likely because she is so beautiful, smart, and funny, some of the other "popular" girls in her class do not like her. They have taken to convincing the rest of the girls in her class to stop speaking to her. The Torah tells us that we have an obligation, a responsibility, to not stand by while others are threatened: "Lo ta-amod al dam rei-echa" (Leviticus 19:16). Interestingly, the word rei-echa means neighbor--not Jewish neighbor, but any neighbor. We have a responsibility to take care of any person we see in trouble. What strikes me as more disheartening than the two "mean girls" instigating this behavior (mean girls are everywhere) are the actions of the other girls who simply follow suit, like lemmings. It's a tall order to expect of ourselves and our children to speak out when we see injustice or to speak truth to power when the majority seems to feel otherwise. Yet, is this not our mandate as Jews, to be rodfei shalom, "pursuers of peace"?

I always ask my mother-in-law for suggestions on what book I should be reading. She is a prolific reader and, without realizing it, serves as a sifter between what's worthy of reading and what's not. I generally call her from the airport bookstore, suddenly aware that I am about to board a multi-hour flight without any children and panicked that I didn't think ahead to bring a book. Recently, she gave me The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. The Help is a story about black women serving as maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, just 50 years ago. It's a story about black women and the white women they served. As I read about the segregation, the attitudes of whites toward blacks, the depraved lines of distinction that were drawn, and the brutality and cruelty that was so very socially acceptable, I had to remind myself that I was not reading a fictional take on a time 200 years ago. This was just 50 years ago, down the road from where I live in Nashville, Tennessee.

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B'haalot'cha

Numbers 8:1−12:16

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Philip "Flip" Rice for ReformJudasim.org

Shout for joy . . . for on that day many nations will attach themselves to God . . . (Zechariah 2:14-15)

Why is it so difficult to journey from a place of self to a place of other? Why are we so afraid as a society and as individuals to lower our shields and swords, and pick up pruning hooks in order to plant a world that overflows with grapevines and fig trees? Would that not make us all shout for joy? And if peace eludes our world, will you also allow it to elude you?

The utopian vision for community, expressed by the Prophet Micah thousands of years ago, called for a day at some point in the future when all people would gaze with pleasure upon God's house and declare, "Hey, let's go up there, to the house of the God of Jacob, that the Holy One may instruct us to follow God's ways and we may walk in God's paths!" Nowadays even traffic can prevent folks from wanting to go up to the house of God. Any number of obstacles can deny us the time to vision a better world for ourselves, much less for others. It is not that we do not share in the dream of peace--a time when all of us together would find some grass in a park and sit down under some shady trees, and "none shall be made to feel afraid" (Micah 4:1). Is it just that we are all too busy?

There are obstacles. First and foremost is that, as Jews, we have enemies. Who and what are our adversaries? Rabbi Cathy L. Felix writes, "foes of Israel, of the Jewish people as a whole, but also individuals, situations, and even psychological conflicts that block our emotional and spiritual growth." 1

This week our Torah portion, B'haalot'cha, provides us with a peculiar scribal anomaly not found anywhere else in the Torah, which is meant to comfort and encourage us as we seek our goals. Set apart by two upside-down Hebrew-letter nuns are two verses that ask for God's help in overcoming obstacles as a community and as individuals. These nuns act like parentheses. What do these self-contained verses say?

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Naso

Numbers 4:21−7:89

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Laurie Rice for ReformJudasim.org

The Torah on Women: Think Again!

Our ancient sages were obsessed with organization. As such, they categorized most everything, which is best reflected in the Talmud’s 63 tractates, which address a variety of subjects including Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore, and much more. Nearly every topic has its place and order, with the exception of women. Women must have perplexed our dear Rabbis. We can imagine the discussion: Are they women or are they chattel? They bleed, but do not die, yet they must be impure, but they create new life, something we certainly cannot do. And while there is indeed a tractate attributed to women, Nashim, we find the ambiguity of women’s roles in the Bible and within ancient Israelite society reflected in this inability to “categorize” women as one might the Jubilee year or the subject of ketubot.

The ritual of the sotah, addressed in Parashat Naso, is an example of this ambiguity. Because of the linguistic difficulties that riddle this passage (Numbers 5:11-31), an accurate understanding of the details of the ritual and the motivation behind them may forever elude us (perhaps just like the nature of woman herself).

Adultery is considered a very grave offense in the Bible, much in the same way that incest is a sin punishable by death (see Leviticus 20:10-12). Unlike the laws of incest, which apply to both men and women (see Leviticus, chapter 18), in the case of adultery there is a fundamental difference between men and women. A married woman is forbidden to have sexual relations with all men except her husband, but a married man is free to have sexual relations with any other woman as long as she herself is single and available. Since biblical law allows men concubines as well as wives, there are no punitive measures against a married man who engages in extramarital sex. Even when the Babylonian Talmud attempts to prohibit a man from spending time in privacy with women outside his family (Kiddushin 80b-81b), such relations still remain outside the purview of sexual transgressions.

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B'midbar

Numbers 1:1−4:20

Dvar Torah by Rabbi Philip “Flip” Rice for ReformJudasim.org

Finding Your Soul in the Wilderness Scroll

"[I will] lead her to the wilderness . . ." (Hosea 2:16)

Few places lend themselves to personal growth as well as the wilderness. Whether you conceive of it as a desert or a forest, a mirage or an oasis, a wilderness is a place of nature and a refuge from the world. It is in the wilderness where our ancestors encountered God and where Torah, their stories, were revealed. As we count down these days toward the holiday of Shavuot, our Torah portion this week invites us to join Jews worldwide as we enter the backwoods. Called "Numbers" in English, the Hebrew title of this book of Torah, B'midbar, is translated as and takes place "In the Wilderness." Political scientist Robert Maclver writes, "The healthy being craves an occasional wilderness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life."1

As summer approaches and we ready ourselves for the outdoors, consider that the wilderness, like camp, is also a school. It affords us opportunities to learn and mature. Its unique environment and landscapes teach respect for the wonders of nature and invite growth of the spirit. It was in the wilderness of Sinai that our people learned the value of each person to the community. That is where our ancestors acquired the necessary skills for survival by recognizing their mutual dependence and loyalty to one another. No longer living by the will of others, the experiences recorded by those who came before us teach us the values of freedom in creating our own destinies, the conviction in our will to survive as a people, and the importance of experience to bolster education.

B'midbar reflects the uncertain and adventurous human journey of every generation, including ours! The trials facing the Israelites as they trek across the wilderness for forty years, maturing as a people, mirror the obstacles, successes, and failures that we encounter in life as a people and as individuals. During the course of our lives, we are certain to spend time in the rough country. Like Moses did personally, like the Israelites did long ago, we cannot help but gain perspective when times are tough, and afterwards we often find a new appreciation for life. The experience of disappointment can bring other rewards. While in the wilderness, for instance, the Children of Israel experience constant danger. A newly freed people, this allowed them to mature as a community and enabled them to receive the priceless gift of Torah; a gift given in "no man's land" and therefore belonging to no one and to everyone.2

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