for Parshat B'Haalotcha
i
On the anniversary of leaving Egypt,
God says:
Perform the Passover service
of families eating lamb.
*
But some men are impure
and cannot perform the service.
They say that they, too,
want to offer God’s sacrifice.
So God gives them
a second Passover.
ii
God sends the people from Mount Sinai,
toward the Land.
On the journey
the people repeatedly turn from God.
They want meat, not Manna.
Though God is with them,
they fear the strength of the people of the Land
that produces incredibly healthy fruit.
iii
Notice it is the men, not God
who introduce the word sacrifice
to describe the Passover meal.
They understand sacrifice
but not the joint feast
of God and man.
*
Notice that the people understand meat
but not Manna;
that they connect
strong crops with strong people,
but they do not see God
giving strength to both.
iv
Here is the failure:
they know God’s world
and their own world
but do not see
that both are arenas
for Godliness.
They do not see
that when God sends them
from His mountain
and into their lives,
it is all one journey.
___
Shabbat Shalom,
Abe
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