Parshat Behaalotkha: Compassion, Rebellion, and Healing

This week’s parashah/portion is Beha'alotkha (Bamidbar/Numbers 8:1 - 12:16)  In the parashah Moses calls together 70 elders whom he has chosen to assist him in his duties to join him at the Tent of Meeting. Then the presence of the Divine descends in a cloud and mparts the divine spirit to Moses, which he then then passes to the 70 elders. In this way it was assured that they would rely on the spirit of God in making their decisions.

Not long after, it is reported that two men, Eldad and Medad, had remained in camp rather than going to meet Moses at the Tent of Meeting. Still, the Divine spirit had rested upon them and they too spoke prophecy (Numbers 11:26). A messenger comes to Moses and Joshua to inform them of this. Upon hearing of this, Joshua calls on Moses to “restrain them.” However, Moses responds instead ““Are you upset on my account? Would that all the Eternal’s people were prophets, that the Eternal put the divine spirit upon them!”

In his commentary on this incident, Rabbi Dr. David Frankel focuses on the fact that Eldad and Medad did not go out with the 70 elders to the Tent in order to meet Moses, yet they still received the spirit of prophecy from God. He proposes that Eldad and Medad chose to stay back in the camp in conscious defiance of Moses.

“There was no place in this arrangement for individual spiritual voices that might speak independently of the figure of Moses and bring a diversity of opinions into the public domain. Eldad and Medad challenged not only the centralized and exclusive authority of Moses, but also, at least implicitly, the attempt to wield political control over the divine spirit.” (www.thetorah.com/article/eldad-and-medad-prophesied)

In other words, Eldad and Medad were rewarded for challenging authority and acting independently. Their subversive actions were then rewarded with the gift of prophecy.

Therefore, challenging the establishment, speaking one’s truth and showing a diversity of opinions are to be admired. I would add the caveat that this is true if the goal is truly to serve the community. After all, if God’s presence was with them and allowed them to prophesy, they must have had the right intention. The story also shows us that Moses was secure enough in his own position that he was not afraid of others outshining him or sharing his power. Rather, he wished that everyone were able to do that. 

Of course, in the end, there was a hierarchy, just as there is today. However, this interpretation reminds us that even a hierarchy must exist for the good of all people and not just for those at “the top.” However, we see something different towards the end of the parashah. 

Not long after the incident with Eldad and Medad, Moses’s siblings “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: “He married a Cushite woman!” They then continue, “Has the Eternal spoken only through Moses? Has God not spoken through us as well?” (Numbers 12:1-2)

God is angered by their challenge to Moses, even though Moses seems not to be. Therefore, God speaks directly to Miriam and Aaron reminding them that it is that decides to whom prophecy is given. God may speak to them in order to chastise, but God never spoke to them “in a dream,” as God does to true prophets. That privilege belongs to Moses and not to them.  And so they are punished. For, as “the cloud withdrew from the Tent, there was Miriam stricken with snow-white scales! When Aaron turned toward Miriam, he saw that she was stricken with scales.” (Numbers 12:10)

What was Moses’s response to Miriam’s punishment? Did he rejoice? Did he tell her she deserved it? No, instead, he offers the first prayer of healing in our tradition, “Oh God, please heal her.”  Once again Moses shows humility and compassion in response to something which another more egotistical leader might have seen as a challenge to his authority deserving of punishment.

Just as Joshua had responded to the incident of Eldad and Medad with anger and indignance, so too God responded in a similar way to Miriam and Aaron. It is only Moses who acts with compassion and humility in both instances. Moses knew that he wasn’t a king. He wasn’t a Pharaoh. He wasn’t really even in charge. He was simply the chosen leader and God’s messenger.  His ultimate responsibility was to his people and to God, and not to his own power or ego. This is the sign of a true leader, and it is something we see too rarely today.

God did not only punish Miriam because she and Aaron questioned Moses’s authority. It was also because they complained about “that Cushite woman.” In the Torah a Cushite was someone from deeper in Africa. However, we must remember that this takes place in the desert between what is now Egypt and Israel. The Israelites originated what we now call the Middle east. They had lived enslaved for 400 years in Egypt. They clearly would have been dark skinned! They were people of color.

And so the criticism of Moses having married an African woman was not necessarily a criticism of her being dark skinned. They were all dark skinned. As my friend and colleague Rabbi Sandra Lawson reminded us when she spoke at a vigil the other day, "there are no white people in the Torah!" This is the "only time where whiteness shows up." There are different opinions as to exactly who this Cushite woman was and why Miriam and Aaron mentioned her when challenging Moses. But the important aspect to remember is the actual nature of the punishment.

As Rabbi Lawson phrased it, her punishment was that “she was struck with the disease of whiteness!” We know that in most stories, movies, books, etc throughout centuries, it is blackness or darkness which represents punishment or evil. How many children and adults, of color have cringed throughout the centuries that the color of their skin was used to represent evil or ugliness, rather than goodness and beauty.

Here it is whiteness which is the punishment! It is whiteness which is to be feared. This can serve as a reminder that the color of one’s skin or the place of one’s origin should never be a reason for criticism or ridicule. This is an area in which there should be no hierarchy nor prejudice.  However, there is an even greater significance to this punishment, for the punishment of whiteness represents the erasure of her identity.  She is no longer recognizable as the human being she is. It is the “Cushite woman” who retains her identity, her darkness. Her beauty.

In our world, being rooted in the narrative of 400 years of white supremacy, racism, and white privilege it is people of color and others who are seen as “marginalized” who often have their identities erased. This can be seen in our country’s history of slavery, racism, mass incarceration, anti-immigration, homophobia, transphobia...the list seems endless. These are the result of living in a society that erases or demeans anyone seen as “different” or “other” by those who view themselves as being at the top of an artificial hierarchy. 

Miriam’s punishment was having her identity erased. Her color, her unique attributes, her physical and spiritual beauty, her essence were taken from her. Without her true color it was as if she was a non-person. It was as if she were dead.

What returns her essence and allows her to recover is not the action of an authoritarian or capricious deity, but the prayer of Moses. Not Moses the leader or Moses the prophet, but Moses her brother. Moses who was God’s beloved. For true healing can only come when human beings act out of compassion and when there is a sense of connection. Without Moses’s love, caring, compassion, and mercy his prayer would not have been efficacious. He did not say. He did not appeal to God as ruler or judge, nor did he speak as leader. He spoke to God as God’s beloved and Miriam’s brother. Caring and connection between Moses and Miriam, and between Moses and God, are what brought about the healing. It is what returned Miriam’s color, her essence, to her.

In these difficult times, this narrative provides many teachings. First, it reminds us of the importance of righteous protest, maintaining individuality, and challenging the system when it’s for the greater good. Second, it reminds us that it is humility and compassion which makes for a good leader in any context, not fear, suspicion or ego. 

The parashah also teaches that we all have the potential to be prophets. We can all bring the word of God, the power of goodness and love, into the world. It’s not just up to one person, or even 70! It’s up to each of us to act and speak in a way to make this happen.

Finally, it reminds us that we must come from a place of compassion, even when anger, fear, or hatred might logically or understandably be our first response. Only through compassion and connection with all sentient beings can we bring true healing to the world. It is compassion and connection which can allow everyone’s true colors, their true self, to shine through. Then no one will be viewed as other, no one will be seen as less than another, no one is invisible, and no one’s existence will be erased. 

Compassion, connection, and being present to one another is the only true path to peace and healing. This journey is not easy, but is up to all of us, especially those who have been responsible for oppression, intentionally or not, to make the change can only imagine Moses, and God, would want for us.

I end with the prayer that Moses uttered for Miriam, el nah refah na lah. Divine Spirit, heal her. Heal our world. Heal the broken hearted. Help us to connect with each other, to stand up for what is right, to see and value each other’s uniqueness. May no one ever again be neglected nor their existence erased again. That is our wish for our future. Amen. 

Shabbat Shalom.