Be-midbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) and Haftarah (Hosea 2:1-22): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Be-midbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) and Haftarah (Hosea 2:1-22): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Overview
The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin’s book The JPS B’nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827616431 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 12/01/2018 |
| Series: | JPS Study Bible |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 24 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Torah
Be-midbar: Numbers 1:1–4:20
We start a new book of the Torah: Numbers, which in Hebrew is Be-midbar (In the wilderness). The book gets its English name from the various censuses that are central to this Torah portion. Each census has a different purpose: to determine the number of able-bodied men available to serve as soldiers in a time of war; the number of Levites; and then, the numbers in a Levite subclan, the family of Kohath.
As the Israelites prepare to march into the wilderness, it becomes necessary to determine the positions of the various tribes as they carry the ark and the sacred vessels of the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting (mishkan).
Summary
• God commands Moses to take a census of all men over the age of twenty who are able to bear arms. The text lists the head of each tribe who will assist with the census, and then lists the population of each tribe. The total number of Israelites (or, more accurately, males over the age of twenty) is 603,550. (1:1–54)
• God gives Moses and Aaron the details of how the Israelite camp is to be arranged around the Tabernacle — on which side each tribe is to stand — along with the chieftain of the tribe and the number of troops in each tribe. (2:1–14)
• God commands Moses to take a census of the Levites, who will be responsible for taking care of the Tabernacle's vessels. The age limit is all males from the age of one month and older. The Levites serve in the place of all Israelite firstborn sons, which is the origin of the traditional ceremony of pidyon haben (the redemption of the firstborn) when the child is thirty days old. The Torah then records the census of all the subclans of the Levites: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari — along with the specific duties of those clans. (3:5–39)
• The Kohath clan is assigned the most delicate, and perhaps the most dangerous, work of all. They are to carry the most sacred objects of the Tabernacle, and not by hand. Rather, they had to carry them on their shoulders. (4:1–20)
The Big Ideas
• Every Jew "counts." Wherever they have lived, Jews have always been a minority. That is one reason why it has been necessary for every Jew to do the best that he or she can to ensure the vitality of Jewish life. A Hasidic teacher, Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, taught that there was the same number of Israelites — 603,550 — as there are letters in the Torah scroll. Just as the Torah scroll would be invalid if a letter were missing, if any Jew slacks off, Judaism itself loses energy.
• The Tabernacle is at the center of the Israelite camp. The purpose of the Jewish people is to be a holy people, a people centered around its tradition. The Tabernacle was like a portable version of Mount Sinai. The arrangement of the tribes around the Tabernacle is hardly random. A midrash says that the tribes stood around it in exactly the same pattern as their ancestors stood around Jacob's coffin when they carried him back to Israel for burial. In this way, we learn that Jews always carry their memories with them.
• For a Levite, one month old is "old enough." Whereas the age for fighting was twenty, the age for levitical duty — taking care of the Tabernacle — is only one month. What can a one-month-old child do to take care of the Tabernacle? Nothing. But this teaches us that Jewish education must begin when a child is very young. Our earliest memories and experiences help shape the kinds of people we will become.
• Even the most "menial" tasks can be holy. The Kohath clan, a subclan of the Levites, was responsible for carrying the holiest objects of the Tabernacle. They were not supposed to carry them by hand; rather, they had to carry them on their shoulders. This is an act of physical exertion. Jewish life requires many kinds of exertions — intellectual, spiritual, and physical.
Divrei Torah
Do You Count?
If you find this Torah portion somewhat tedious, you're not alone. Generations of Jews would probably agree with you. All those names of obscure people, all those numbers — it is about as exciting as reading the telephone book.
Contemporary Jews like to wonder aloud about how many Jews there really are, and what those numbers mean. They love to argue about who is a Jew, and how many Jews there are in different countries, and where Jews live, and what Jews do. You really can't blame them. After all, for a people that lost six million during the Shoah (Holocaust), numbers matter.
But in biblical times, what good was a census, anyway? And why does God tell Moses to count the Israelites? After all, doesn't God know everything, especially how many Israelites there are?
A medieval sage, Rabbi Isaac Arama, teaches that this was so Moses would know that each Israelite was not just part of the entire people, but that each one had individual worth. "They were all equal in stature, and yet the stature of each one was different." Every Jew has something precious inside of him or her. And if we take seriously the idea that the 603,550 Israelites in the census represent the traditional number of 603,550 letters in the Torah, we can interpret that to mean that every Jew has some Torah not only to learn, but also to teach.
Take another look at that number — 603,550. Are those all the Israelites? No way. Think about who wasn't counted. Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker writes: "What about the woman who might have wished to fight? Or how about the 19-year-old man, just months short of his 20th birthday, eager to serve God and his people? How about the 23year-old male who doesn't have the right number of limbs since one of his was lost in a childhood accident?"
This is always the problem with counting people: often some get omitted. That not only means that the count or the census is inaccurate; it means that people are left out, and they know it. It hurts. That is why the term for "counting" is se'u rosh — literally, "lift up the head." The act of counting should lift people's heads, and help them feel that their lives and contributions have dignity and meaning.
That is why some people say that nowadays when we count Jews we should make sure that every Jew counts.
How are you making sure that your Jewish life counts?
Who's Your Daddy — Really?
Is there an omission in this Torah portion? Numbers 3 begins: "This is the line of Aaron and Moses at the time that the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai." And then, it goes on to list Aaron's sons — but not the sons of Moses. Why does it only list Aaron's sons? What ever happened to the sons of Moses?
Moses did have sons — Gershom and Eliezer. And they are famous for ... nothing. They disappear from the story. Why? Perhaps it wants to make a very big point: Moses was not a king. It was not his intention, nor was it the Torah's intention, to have him create a dynasty. His sons are, well, just "normal" people.
Why then does it list Aaron's sons? Precisely because Moses was their teacher — Moshe Rabbeinu, "Moses, our rabbi," the master teacher of Israel. Rashi, the great medieval commentator, teaches us: "It lists only the sons of Aaron, but calls them 'the line of Moses'— because he taught them Torah. Teaching Torah to someone is like being their parent."
This reminds us that teaching is so important — that it is like parenting, and that parenting is a form of teaching. Indeed, the Hebrew word for "teacher" (moreh) and "parent" (horeh) are from the same root. And so is the word Torah! They all mean "instruction" or "teaching" in one form or another.
When Jews remember a departed father, it is traditional to refer to him as avi mori, "my father, my teacher." That is the greatest sign of respect, the highest compliment one can utter. The job of a Jewish parent is to be a teacher of Torah. And when people cannot have children, one way that they can be involved in nurturing young people is, in fact, to teach them. If you ask teachers how they feel about what they do, they might just tell you that, at times, they do feel as if they are parenting their students.
Look at all the family names in this Torah portion. The Torah is pretty obsessed with who your father is (much less, sadly, with who your mother is). People are often described as being ben ... (the son of ...). For the first thousand years of Judaism, during the biblical era, Jewish identity was in fact passed down by the father. (It changed in the Rabbinic period to the mother ... that is another story.)
But, in later generations, Judaism became less concerned with "who's your daddy?" and more concerned with "who's your teacher?" That is why Rabbinic literature is filled with references to who taught what to whom, and the necessity of quoting your sources accurately (meaning, don't plagiarize! and give credit where credit is due). The ancient sages even said that if both your father and your teacher were taken captive (a sad reality in ancient times) and you only had enough money to ransom one of them the teacher gets priority.
The contemporary teacher Howard Eilberg-Schwartz teaches us: "Just as a son must perpetuate his father's lineage, a disciple must preserve his rabbi's teaching."
So, who are your teachers? What is their Torah? How are you furthering what they have taught you?
Connections
• Do you agree with the way that the census was carried out? Who was left out of the census?
• How do we make sure that every Jew counts? How does your Jewish life count?
• In what way will you make your "letter" of the Torah — your own piece of the Jewish heritage — come alive?
• In what ways are teachers and parents alike? How are they different?
• What are some of the most valuable life lessons that you have learned from your parents? From various teachers? Which lessons do you think you will remember in decades to come?
CHAPTER 2The Haftarah
Be-midbar: Hosea 2:1–22
The book of Numbers gets its English name from the fact that it begins with a census of the people. In Hebrew it is Be-midbar, "the book of the wilderness," because it's an account of the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites, as they make their way to the Land of Israel.
In the haftarah, the prophet Hosea relates to both themes (and this is the connection to the Torah portion). He tells the reader that there will come a time when the People of Israel will be as numerous as the "sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted." The prophet also refers to the midbar, the spiritual wilderness in which the Israelites will find themselves, due to their sinning.
God's Broken Heart
Let's admit it: this is tough stuff — perhaps the toughest haftarah in the entire cycle of the Jewish year. That's because Hosea uses such graphic language and is so critical of his people. But it's easier to understand if we can see just what is going on here. Hosea was a prophet who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BCE. The biggest issue there was that the people were constantly forsaking God and worshiping the Canaanite god, Baal.
According to Hosea, Israel's actions were a major disappointment, and even an insult, to God. It was as if God had a wife (the People of Israel) who had other lovers; the People of Israel was committing adultery! Remember that the Israelites and God have pledged themselves to each other in a covenant going all the way back to Sinai. Like a marriage, that covenant was based on faithfulness. The Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel writes: "Idolatry is adultery. More than stupidity, it is lewdness. Israel is like a wanton wife; the Lord is like a faithful, loving but forsaken husband."
God wanted Hosea to understand these feelings of betrayal. So, in a radical move, God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer, a prostitute. (Or maybe Hosea just thought he had to do something radical to dramatize his message.) Gomer ran around with other lovers, causing the prophet deep heartache. Then God said to Hosea: Perhaps you'll understand how I feel. Now perhaps you can convince the People of Israel to stop what they are doing and be loyal only to me.
That's where this haftarah comes in. God demands that the prophet send his wife away. According to the Talmud: "God said: 'I will order Hosea: "Go and marry a prostitute and have children with that prostitute." Then, I will order him: "Send her away!" If he will be able to send her away, I will send Israel away, too.'" This is amazing; God is depending on the prophet to help determine whether Israel will be sent away from divine favor: "let her put ... her adultery from between her breasts. Else I will strip her naked and leave her as on the day she was born" (Hosea 2: 4–5).
If you see something sexist in the way God is acting, you are not alone. In those days, marriages were far from the kind of equal relationships that contemporary couples want. To quote Rabbi Lia Bass: "God has the authority of possession and control over Israel in the same way that a husband has authority over a wife. The people, by definition, are subservient to God's will. Women, therefore, should be subservient to men." While the aim of God and the prophet is worthy — a faithful relationship — the means to achieving it, by exploiting Hosea and Gomer, is questionable.
This haftarah, like other parts of the Bible, has ideas about God that we may find difficult to understand. God is not just a distant God; the supreme ruler God is actually emotionally vulnerable. God had to put the prophet Hosea through this terrible experience just so that the prophet could empathize with God's feelings.
God promises that there will be a renewed, intimate connection with the Jewish people. "I will espouse you forever" (2:21). These are beautiful words and a noble ideal. In fact, traditional Jews say these words as, each day, they put on tefillin, the leather straps wrapped on the arm and head as commanded in the Torah. The relationship of the people with God endures, with its ups and downs, just like in a marriage. Ideally it will be based on mutual trust and affection, not simply on God's power over the relationship. The medieval commentator Rashi says: "You will worship me from love, and not from fear."
A broken marriage — and other broken relationships — can lead to a broken heart. But if we do everything we can, maybe our ties with those we care about, and our hearts, will heal.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Be-midbar (Numbers 1:1–4:20) Haftarah (Hosea 2:1–22): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
What Is Torah?,
And What Else? The Haftarah,
Your Mission — To Teach Torah to the Congregation,
How Do I Write a Devar Torah?,
How To Keep It from Being Boring (and You from Being Bored),
The Very Last Thing You Need to Know at This Point,
The Torah: Be-midbar: Numbers 1:1 — 4:20,
Summary,
The Big Ideas,
Divrei Torah,
Do You Count?,
Who's Your Daddy — Really?,
Connections,
The Haftarah: Be-midbar: Hosea 2:1-22,
God's Broken Heart,