Standing Strong |
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Beha’alotcha— When You Set Up
Numbers 8:1– 12:16 Zecharia 2:14-47 Mark 11:20-26 1 Corinthians 13:13– 14:40 |
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Isaiah 11:6 2 Thessalonians 2:15 |
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While there are lessons in this week’s reading that show us the age of retirement to a less physical job in the priesthood, the method of sounding the trumpets, the example of complaining and the consequences thereof, and the lesson against slander, I am choosing to ponder the establishment of the Sanhedrin and the second Passover offering of each year.
Moses, when facing the complaints of the people about their life, has a difficult job at best. They are seeking things to complain about and mask their general dissatisfaction with a complaint about not having meat to eat. I wonder why they used this complaint when they had herds of cattle and flocks of sheep taken with them as they left Egypt. Had all these been eaten during the first year of travel or had something happened to them? The sages teach that there were still large herds and flocks and that the complaint was about the lifestyle in general, masked with a specific complaint.
Moses has already established a judicial system with appointed judges over the different tribes, but now he has a leadership problem that is not one of helping make the decisions on interpretation of the law, but one of general leadership of the people who are rebellious to the life they are being called to lead. G-d establishes a government system by telling Moses to select 70 men from the elders of the people. G-d increases the Spirit he has placed upon Moses and gives some of it to each of the elders so to provide for Moses not having to bear the weight of leading the people on his own. These people are established not for judicial review, which is already in place, but for the governance of the people. I believe G-d established the Sanhedrin at this point. I always had wondered where the establishment of the Sanhedrin came from and now I think I have found the answer. Nothing earth shattering, but neat.
The second area of interest to me this week is the establishment of an alternate day for the Passover offerings. Two men who were contaminated by a corpse come to Moses and complain that they can not partake of the Passover Mitzvah due to their contamination. What made the complaint of these two men special? There were lots of things that could render one unclean and unable to make the offering and people were expected to abstain from those things. So what made this complaint deserving of special attention? I think the answer lies in the statement that they were defiled by a human corpse. How could they have been defiled by such when they knew the Passover was coming?
There are rules on what to do if you come upon a human corpse that has not been buried. You are required to bury it. You do not have a choice to not bury it or wait a few days. This is a rule of G-d that had already been given to His people. So if these two men came upon a human corpse they would have been required to bury it. But why didn’t just one bury it while the other watched and then have only one defiled? There is another possibility of how they got defiled.
When the Israelites left Egypt they took the body of Joseph to bury with them. There had to be someone each day assigned to the task of moving this body when they traveled. I easily see this as at least a two person job. Could it be that these two men were the ones who were given the great honor of bringing Joseph back to the promised land? Were they performing the Mitzvah of doing this deed for that day when the Passover offering was to be made? If so, why would they be refused the Mitzvah of the Passover offering because they are doing a good work as ordained by the L-rd? Does the L-rd G-d make doing a good work and one of His commandments come into contradiction with another of His commandments, thus making a person trapped into dis-service to the L-rd?
We see a time of the continued revelation of G-d as Moses tells the men to wait and Moses will hear what G-d says on the matter. The L-rd speaks to Moses and establishes a second Passover offering day, one month after the first. This day allows for people who are contaminated by a human corpse or on a distant road to partake of the Mitzvah of the Passover at a later date. G-d foresaw an additional problem that was not even put forward at the time of being too far away to allow the Passover offerings to be made. He also knows man’s heart and the evil inclination to use excuses for our benefit to make life easy out of convenience, even on following the L-rd’s commands. He clearly states that a man who is pure and not on the road who refrains from following the L-rd’s commands will have their sin rest upon themselves.
G-d does not make His commands stand against each other and makes allowances for such situations. It gives me comfort knowing that we serve a G-d who looks out for us in such a way and knowing He will not put us in a double bind.
Selah |