TorahParsha

Religious war

for Parshat Chukat

 

i

The snake tricks Man

into trading Eden for fruit.

For this,

God says,

the Snake will bruise man's akev

his heel.

*

Jacob,

Yakov

--our ancestor

born clutching the heel

of Esau

his brother

his rival--

talks Esau into trading the birthright

for a pot of stew.

*

Jacob follows the Snake:

he leads his rival to squander the spirit

for the sake of food.

ii

The people pass by

the land of Edom,

the land of Esau's children.

They do not enter

Edom's land.

*

Passing Edom,

the people crave food,

they curse God's manna.

God sends poisonous snakes.

*

The people repent.

God says:

Erect a statue of a serpent;

whoever has been bitten by a snake

will see the statue and live.

 

iii

Outside Edom

apart from Esau,

the people became like Esau:

craving food

over God's nourishment.

*

Perhaps they recall

how Jacob used the spirit

against Esau as a weapon.

They think:

like a weapon,

the spirit has no use

away from the enemy.

*

So they must look to the Snake:

the enemy who showed

that we are responsible

when another tempts us--

who showed

that spiritual battles

do not happen with another.

They happen

within us.

__

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

This email was sent before Shabbat

Dialogue is the opposite of sin

for Parshat Chukath

 

i

God speaks to the world

and watches its response:

God said

and there was

and God saw

—an interaction of words and vision,

mouth and eyes:

a kind of dialogue.

*

The Snake directs Eve to the Fruit.

Eve saw it and ate.

Again, interaction of mouth and eyes;

but this time not a dialogue,

a consumption.

 

ii

In the Desert

the people complain

of their life of God’s manna:

our souls are disgusted

by this accursed bread.

A worldview

of consumption,

like the Snake’s.

And God sends snakes

nachashim upon them.

 

iii

The people tell Moses:

We have sinned against God

and you.

Apologizing to Moses,

apologizing to God,

they leave consumption,

return to dialogue.

God tells Moses:

erect a copper snake

nachash nechoshet;

whoever is bitten

nashuch

will look at the nachash hanechoshet

and live.

 

iv

Apologizing,

the people  depart

from self- centeredness,

from consumption.

Now, they are ready to see

God heal them through wordplay

Nachash / nashuch  /  nechoshet.

They are ready to learn

how everything

—even the source of death—

is made up of words,

of the source of dialogue.

This knowledge undoes the Snake.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

What can we offer mourners?

 

for Parshat Chukat

 

i

God tells Moses:

Take a pure, red cow

that has never borne a yoke.

Slaughter it,

burn it to ash,

set the ash in water.

When a man touches a corpse

or a grave,

the priest should sprinkle the man with the ash-water,

making him pure again.

 

ii

This ceremony is unlike sacrifices,

Which are pleasing aromas to God,

smoke rising upward.

Here is a ceremony of ash,

char on the earth.

*

And what of the color red?

The color of blood,

that is the soul—

life coursing in the body;

the color of the hair

of Esau the hunter,

the man of strength.

*

Cattle are creatures of strength,

meant to bear the yoke.

A cow yet to bear the yoke

is strength- in- waiting.

Cows,

mothers of cattle,

are strength-in-waiting.

*

So this is a ceremony of the strength of life.

That is the ceremony we bring to death.

 

iii

A man who encounters death

could become consumed by it.

We touch him with this ash-water,

we tell him: come back to this world,

to the strength of the living earth,

to the strength of this red cow.

 

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

 

___

This Friday marks the 5^th anniversary (Hebrew date) of the taking of Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas against international law. Please keep Gilad ben Aviva in your prayers.

TorahParsha.com

 

The Nation is a Medium of Caring

i

Korach rebels against Moses and against Aaron and against the priesthood, saying: All the people are holy; saying: Why do you lord yourselves over the congregation of God?

Korach calls for a nation of all priests and no leadership. God punishes him.

*
But see what happens next. Miriam dies and Aaron dies and Moses is condemned to die in the desert. And Moses attempts to bring the people through the land of Edom, and Edom drives him away.

*

Then there is the war with Arad.

 

The kingdom of Arad fights with Israel, and Arad takes prisoners. Israel calls for God to help bring the prisoners back. Israel fights with Arad, and Israel is successful.

 

No leader of the people Israel is mentioned in the war with Arad.

*
And so it seems as if Korach has won.
 

ii
But look at Korach's question.

 

Korach asks: Why do you lord yourselves? Korach is concerned with leadership.

 

But Israel, facing Arad, is not concerned with leadership. Israel simply wants its prisoners to come home.

 

*

Korach has not won. Because Korach and Israel's new vision express entirely different world-views.

 

In Korach's vision, the nation is a medium for power.

 

In Israel's new vision, the nation is the medium by which we tend to each other, by which we care for each other.


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