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From:          Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash
To:            yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject:       Intparsha 32: Beha'alotcha

                   YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
      ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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            INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

                 Parashat Beha'alotekha

                    Flesh or Spirit?

                  by Rabbi Alex Israel


INTRODUCTION - The Book of Bemidbar.

     If asked to summarize the theme of the book of
Bemidbar (Numbers), I would say that it is essentially a
description of the Israelites' journey from Mount Sinai
to the border of the promised land. At first glance, it
would not seem to be a particularly tortuous or lengthy
voyage.   The route on which they embarked was known to
take only eleven days (see Devarim 1:2). But in reality,
it took the Israelites forty years.

     What happened? Why did an eleven day journey take
forty years? What stalled the process? A series of
explosive incidents, rebellions against man and God (the
episode of the spies, the revolt of Korach) transformed
and reversed the process. Rather than marching swiftly
and triumphantly from Sinai to Canaan, the journey to
Canaan became protracted, lengthy and at times painful.
The entry into the promised land was postponed. Only in
the final, fortieth year in the wilderness did God
finally command the Israelites to leave the desert and to
make their way, a second time, to the border of Eretz
Yisrael.

     So, let us redefine our definition. The Book of
Bemidbar is not just an account of the voyage to the
promised land. In truth it is a story about TWO journeys
to Eretz Yisrael - the land of Israel. The first journey
collapsed.   The second succeeded and resulted in the
Israelite conquest of Canaan.   It is against    this
historical perspective that we might be able to chart -
obviously in a rather simplistic way - the structure of
the Book of Bemidbar:

Ch. 1-10   The initial journey to the promised land (in
the 2nd year).[1]
Ch. 11-19 Crisis and rebellion in the camp. The failure
of the journey.
Ch. 20-36 The second voyage to Canaan (40th year) and
preparations for entering the land.

     Bemidbar describes the initial journey, its failure,
and the second - successful - journey which resulted in
the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. Between these two
journeys, are ten chapters which tell us of the failures,
the   scandalous episodes which sabotaged the    first
expedition leading it to failure and collapse.

     In our class this week, we shall look at the first
of these incidents. We shall study together the episode
of the "lusting" of the Israelites for meat, examining
the actions of the Israelites, Moses, and God, and of
course, the implications of those actions.

CRAVING MEAT

     In our parasha, Chapter 10 witnesses the events as
Israel leave Mt. Sinai and embark on their auspicious
expedition to the Land of Israel. We are given full
details of the signaling system - the trumpets and clouds
of fire - which would initiate travel or encampment (9:15
- 10:10). Moses extends an invitation to his father-in-
law to accompany them on their voyage "to the place of
which the Lord has said, 'I will give it to you.'"
(11:29).   We watch the camp set off towards Eretz
Yisrael:

          "In the second year, on the twentieth day of
     the   second month, the cloud lifted from   the
     Tabernacle... and the Israelites set out on their
     journey... They marched from the mountain of the
     Lord a distance of three days, the ark of the Lord
     travelling in front of them ... "(10:11,33)

     All   would   seem to be fine until,   suddenly,
unexpectedly, a cry erupts in the camp.   The simple
complaint spreads like wild-fire. As we shall see, one
trouble   generates another, until the   whole    thing
escalates into a full scale crisis and begins to spin out
of control.

     The   first installment in this episode is the
people's desire for meat:

          "The rabble in their midst felt a gluttonous
     craving, and the Israelites wept and said, "If only
     we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we
     used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the
     melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic.    Now
     our souls are dried out. There is nothing at all!
     Nothing but this manna to look to! Now the manna was
     like coriander seed... The people would go about
     and gather it, grind it... boil it in a pot or make
     it into cakes. It tasted like rich cream. When the
     dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall
     upon it.   Moses heard the people weeping, every
     family apart, each person at the entrance of his
     tent.   The Lord was very angry, and in Moses' eyes,
     it was evil." (11:4-10)

     Moses responds somewhat uncharacteristically with a
collapse of self confidence. He hands in his resignation
to God!

     "Moses said to the Lord, 'Why have you dealt ill
     with your servant ... that you have laid the burden
     of this people upon me? ... Where am I to give meat
     to all this people when they whine before me saying
     "Give us meat to eat!" I cannot carry this people by
     myself for it is too much for me. If you will deal
     thus with me, kill me rather, I beg you, and let me
     see no more of my wretchedness.'" (11:10-15)

     God has no plans to let Moses resign. Rather, he
comes up with an alternative:

     "Then the Lord said to Moses,"

     "Gather me seventy of Israel's elders... and bring
     them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their
     place there with you. I will come down and speak
     with you there, and I will draw upon the spirit that
     is on you and I shall put it upon them; they shall
     share the burden of the people with you, and you
     shall not bear it alone. And say to the people...
     tomorrow you shall eat meat... You shall eat meat
     not one day, not two, not even five days, or ten or
     twenty, but an entire month until it comes out of
     your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you
     have rejected the Lord who is among you crying and
     saying 'Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!'" (11:16-
     20)

And then this is how it all happens:

     "Moses went out and reported God's words to the
     people. He gathered seventy of the people's elders
     and stationed them around the Tent. Then the Lord
     came down in a cloud and spoke to him; He drew upon
     the spirit that was on him (Moses) and put it upon
     the seventy elders. And when the spirit rested upon
     them, they spoke in prophecy and did not cease...
     Moses then re-entered the camp together with the
     seventy elders of Israel.
     A wind from the Lord started up and swept quail from
     the sea and strewed them over the camp, an area
     covering about a day's journey in either direction,
     all around the camp and some two cubits deep on the
     ground. The people set to gathering quail all that
     day and night and all the next day - even he who
     gathered least had ten "omers" - and they spread
     them all around the camp.   The meat was still
     between their teeth... when the anger of the Lord
     blazed forth against the people and the Lord struck
     the people with a very severe plague. The place was
     called Kivrat Ha-ta'ava (the graves of the lusting)
     because the people who had a craving were buried
     there." (11:24-34)

SOME QUESTIONS

     Many questions shout to us from the text as we read
exasperated, this incredible story of desire for meat,
increased prophecy, Moses' desperation, God's anger.
Maybe the first thing that we should note is the unusual
joining of what might be considered to be two separate
stories.   On the one hand, we have a story about a mad
craving for meat.   The people are restless with only
manna to eat and they want an alternative. God gives a
solution by sending the quails and punishes them with a
plague.   This is the first "story." The next story,
related but still distinct, is the crisis of leadership
felt by Moses.   In a very uncharacteristic mood of
desperation, Moses, the great defender of Israel seems to
crumble under the pressures of the leadership role that
he has so ably held since before the great Exodus.   He
expresses a total rejection of his leadership position.
The solution is to involve another seventy elders in the
leadership. This is the second "story."

     Now, these stories are connected but they are hardly
a single narrative. One episode transpires in the heart
of the Israelite "camp" and around its periphery.   The
other   episode   happens in the   place    of   man-God
communication - the Tent of Meeting. One is about the
people. The other is an inleadership issue. There is no
good reason to mix the stories, but strangely the Torah
text chooses to intersperse the stories as if they were
one.   Why? Are these stories a single story, or are they
indeed two separate and distinct happenings?

     However, there are other questions which might
trouble us here. Why does Moses collapse at this point
in such an extreme manner? As we have noted, Moses is the
classic defender of his people, always deferring the
wrath of God against his people and standing up for them
[2]. What changed? Is there something about this sin in
particular that makes Moses lose heart? Why does Moses
act in such an uncharacteristic fashion? And for that
matter, what prompts such an unbounded desire for meat on
the part of the people. We see them collect huge mounds
of meat. Why now? Why does this craving arrive at this
particular juncture in the story of the journey to the
promised land?

     One final question.   How did seventy prohecising
elders assist Moses in his crisis of confidence? We do
not see them take up leadership roles.   They do not
become a parliament, or a public committee. We simply
see them bestowed with the gift of prophecy, or more
accurately, they are bestowed with prophecy by virtue of
Moses exceptional spiritual power. How did this change
Moses' feelings of leadership loneliness, desperation and
inability to cope?

MEAT AND MANNA

     Let us begin with an examination of the people's
complaint.

     "The   rabble in their midst felt a gluttonous
     craving, and the Israelites wept and said, 'If only
     we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we
     used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the
     melons, the leeks , the onions and the garlic.   Now
     our souls are dried out. There is nothing at all!
     Nothing but this manna to look to!'"

     The   complaint raises a contrast or comparison
between meat and manna. This is not simply a comparison
between two foods. It is really a historical comparison
too, for this episode reminds us of a similar story that
occurred a year earlier when the Israelites were a month
out of Egypt. There we read:

     "The whole community grumbled against Moses and
     Aaron...   'If only we had died by the hand of the
     Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the
     fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you
     have brought us out into this wilderness to starve
     this whole congregation to death!' And the Lord
     said, 'I will rain down bread for you from the sky,
     and the people shall go out each day to gather that
     day's portion...   The house of Israel named it
     manna." (Exodus 17:1-4,31)

     The stories are very similar. The story in Exodus
talks about hunger and God's miraculous solution for that
hunger.   It also talks about quails [3].    But the
differences are crucial.   In the Exodus story, God
doesn't get angry, and Moses doesn't lose his cool.   In
fact the entire episode is conducted in a calm manner, as
if God was just waiting for the people to ask, to
formally present them with their desert food, the manna.
Why then, in our case - in the lusting for meat of the
nation - does God get so furious? Why does Moses get so
distressed? [4]

     I think that it is precisely because we are now a
year later that the second incident is seen as so
serious.   A year earlier, the Israelites were a slave
nation fresh out of Egypt. They were used to being fed
by their masters. They found it difficult to fend for
themselves. Their plea for food was justified. But now,
a year later, after the revelation of Sinai, after the
miracles, after the Tabernacle, the people are very
different. They have matured and grown. They now have
national leaders and systems of government: princes of
tribes, judges, and other systems of government.   They
have formed themselves into a nation. They should have
more patience. They should have a more sophisticated way
of coping with a problem of this sort.

     Furthermore, the cries for food in Exodus are
justified.   A month out of Egypt, their food provisions
fully spent, the people simply had no food.   They were
justified in their complaint. But here, a year later,
they DO have food. They have the manna.   The verses
deliberately stress this. The verse tells us how the
manna was a wonderful food that could be "baked" or
"boiled." It tasted like "rich cream." Do the Israelites
have a right to complain so bitterly, to weep and cry for
meat? Are these the correct priorities? Is there no food
, or is the problem that "our souls are dried out" as the
verse indicates? Is the problem in their stomachs or
their souls?

     But, there is also the spiritual dimension.    The
people should be aware by now that God can provide for
them. He has done so in the past. Do they have to wail
and bemoan the fact that they left Egypt? Are they
willing,   after all this time, after Sinai,    after
receiving the Torah, to really return to Egypt for some
meat?

REVERSING THE PROCESS

     In the text, the comparison between manna and meat
becomes more acute, if we compare the way that the two
are gathered.

     "The people gathered quail all that day and night
     and all the next day - even he who gathered least
     had ten "omers" of quail." (11:32)

     In the text it is portrayed as an immensely powerful
urge,   compulsive   and   unstoppable.     This   extreme
impression of the behavior of the nation when they get
their meat - a landing of quails all around the camp
precinct [6] - is clear from the text. They collect the
meat in a crazed, obsessive manner, a frantic hysteria
gripping the Israelite camp.

     The food that they rejected however, was the manna.
This food is also gathered and it too is measured by the
"omer" measure.   When we read of the gathering of the
manna, it is described thus:

     "Gather as much of it as each of you requires to
     eat,   an 'omer'    measure per person....    The
     Israelites did so, some gathering much, some little,
     but when they measured it by the 'omer,' he who had
     gathered more had no excess and he who had gathered
     little had no deficiency: they had gathered as much
     as they needed to eat" (Ex. 16:16-18)

     The manna is the expression of a different mindset.
It is a mindset of control and limitation rather than
frenzied passion.   With the manna, somehow, everyone
received according to his need. They gathered more or
less and it always amounted to an "omer" measure.   With
the manna, everyone gathered only what they needed, not
what they desired. And it was always enough. With the
quails, nothing was enough, for they were propelled by an
insatiable lusting.

     The desire for meat is a symptom of a way of
thinking which is not Jewish. It is a pagan expression
of lust for physical gratification, a gratification which
will never reach its fulfillment. This is a mindset
alien to Judaism.

     Maybe, this is the reason why these bitter cries are
viewed so harshly by the Torah. The people are on their
way to Israel, marching to the promised land, and in the
midst of all of that, they desire to return to Egypt!
What are they requesting? They are requesting a reversal
of the historical process! How have they lost the vision
of the future? Through a simple desire. This lusting, en
route to Eretz Yisrael, was a serious thing indeed.
Maybe it is the timing which is the source of Moses'
great frustration, and God's anger.   If after    the
miracles of the Exodus, after Sinai, after Torah, after
the Tabernacle, the people can be so drawn by a mad rush
for sensual pleasure, halting the journey to the promised
land to cry for meat, then are these people ever going to
learn?

ONE STORY OR TWO?

     So far, we have examined the meat-manna connection.
We   have   also proposed an explanation for    Moses'
disillusionment and God's fury, but we still must explain
the role of the elders in all this.

     Maybe the key to understanding the central message
of the story is to solve the question that we raised
earlier.   Is this one story or is it two distinct
episodes? When comparing the language of the two stories
so neatly intertwined by the Biblical text, we note a
number of words which run through both stories linking
them together. A clear "connection" of this sort can be
found in the following parallel usage of the word
"sevivot" - around:

     "He gathered seventy of the people's elders and
     stationed them AROUND (sevivot) the Tent." (v.24)

With the quails, God,

       "strewed them over the camp, all AROUND (sevivot)
     the camp." (v.31)

     But this is just the beginning. One word seems to
appear as a central word throughout both stories. It is
the verb, "ASAF" - to gather. Let us see.

v.16 "God said to Moses, 'GATHER me seventy elders.'"
v.22 "Could all the fish in the sea be GATHERED for them
to suffice them?"
v.24 "He GATHERED seventy men of the elders of the
community..."
v.30       "Moses was GATHERED into the camp he and the
elders of Israel..."
v.32 "They GATHERED the quails... even he who GATHERED
least had ten 'omers...'"

     This word also appears in the opening line of the
parsha.   The "rabble" or "mixed multitude" who first
"felt a lusting" are called the "ASAFSUF," also from the
same Hebrew root, "ASAF." So here we have seven uses of
the same word which span both stories indiscriminately.
It would seem that the Torah, by choosing common words to
describe the gathering and placing of meat and the
gathering and placing of elders is trying to connect the
two stories and draw certain lines of comparison.

     But what comparison? How might the stories be
connected?

MEAT vs. SPIRIT

     If the two stories are one narrative, then we might
be able to explain the reason why they are intertwined
with the following suggestion. Two other words recur
throughout this narrative. They are the words "meat" and
"spirit" (together, 14 times in total).   The meat is
brought by "ruach," the wind, and the spirit of God is
also the "ruach." The meat craze stands in opposition to
God's desire for "spirit." On a superficial level, we
might suggest that the "expansion" of Moses' prophecy,
his divine "spirit," is an attempt to magnify the
"spirit" in the camp as a counterweight to the mad
attraction to "meat."

     In a way maybe this is not so superficial.   The
divine connection of Moses' prophecy is contrasted with
the   materialistic aspirations of the people.     The
question which is being asked in the Israelite camp is,
"What will prevail, the spirit of God or the human desire
for meat?" What are we "gathering" flesh or spirit? This
is the question that lies in the balance for the month
that the people eat their meat.

     God shows them the spiritual shallowness of their
desire for meat. Even a powerful desire will die down if
it is over-satisfied. They will eat "an entire month
until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome
to you." The people will reach a point at which they will
lose their desire.

     At the same time the prophecy of God is bestowed on
seventy choice individuals. God wants to show that His
spirit is not available to anyone no matter what level he
is on.   To connect with God, you must be a learned,
upstanding member of the community. But when you get the
prophecy, it never leaves you: "They spoke in prophecy
and did not cease." (v.25) Indeed, Moses exclaims: "Would
that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord
put His spirit upon them all!" (v.30)

TIMING

     Maybe the timing is not incidental either.   Is it
coincidence that this craving, this pagan lusting, this
desire for Egyptian materialism is aroused just now?
After all, the Israelites have just completed the first
leg   of   their journey to Canaan and to   national
fulfillment.    Maybe some people are having    second
thoughts? Maybe the people are still dithering between
meat and spirit, between Egypt and Israel. Now, when
they are on their way, they make a final attempt, a final
expression of their indecision. (It is of interest that
the next parasha talks of a delegation of spies to
investigate the promised land. Was this an expression of
the insecurities of the Israelites too?) God intercedes,
reinforcing spirit over flesh, but the journey is still
delayed. The Children of Israel stand between Egypt and
Israel both in their geographical location and in their
psychological-religious mindset.   Which is going    to
prevail?

Shabbat Shalom.

FOOTNOTES

[1] I see Chapters 1-8 which deal with the organizational
structure of the Israelite camp as preparations for a
camp and a society which is to be portable, moving to
Eretz Yisrael. The verses in these chapters set up the
exact locus of each group, its function in transit and in
encampment and the relationships between the various
elements of the Israelite camp. For more details see the
shiur of Rav Menachem Liebtag on Parashat Naso.
[2] See his passionate speech at the Golden Calf episode;
Exodus 32:7-14, 3:1-34. See also Numbers 13:11-20, 15:20-
22.
[3] The stories are so similar that certain commentators
have suggested that they are the selfsame event! See the
Bechor Shor. Other parshiot are also mirrored here, e.g.
the Yitro visit, the appointment of judges/elders.   Not
surprisingly, the Biblical critics see the stories as
sharing a common basis (e.g. The literary Guide to the
Bible. Ed. Alter and Kermode. pg.80), but their approach
has a very different theological basis to that of Rav
Yosef Bechor Shor.
[4] For more detail on this comparison, see the articles
of Nehama Leibowitz on our parasha in her "Studies in
Bemidbar," especially the article "The Murmurings: a
Repeat Performance."
[5] In the previous section Moses had invited Moses to
join them on their journey to Israel. His invitation is
characterized by the constant repetition of the word
"tov," "good."
     "We are travelling to the place of which the Lord
     has said, 'I will give it to you.'   Come with us
     and we will be GOOD for you for the Lord has
     promised GOOD for Israel. ...when you come with us
     the GOODness that good will bestow (YETIV) on us
     will be GOOD for you as well." (11:29-30)
Now, in our section, we see a multiple repetition of the
word "ra" or "evil."
     "The people complained, evil in the eyes of the
     Lord... and in the eyes of Moses it was evil... why
     have you dealt ill (HaREYota) with your servant.."
     (11, 10,11,15)
The good has turned to bad.
[6] It is interesting to note that the swarm of quails
has been substantiated by ornithologists:
"It is well known that the quail, known to ornithologists
as Coturnix coturnix, migrates in huge flocks from Europe
to Central Africa in the autumn and returns in the
spring. A short-tailed game bird of the pheasant family,
it flies rapidly at very low altitudes. Due to the long
distance involved, the migration is carried out in
stages.   The small quails twice each year land exhausted
on the Mediterranean shore, where they can easily be
captured by hand and by nets in great quantity.   Their
flesh and eggs are said to be delicious, and to this day
they are a prized food among the local population and are
exported as a delicacy to Europe. The season of the year
in which the Israelites encountered the quails fits in
precisely with the bird's migratory pattern." (Nahum
Sarna, Exploring Exodus pg. 119)

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