TorahParsha

Important correction (from Abe)

Friends,

Last week, I wrote that Elazar ascends the mountain with Moses. That is not correct.

In Numbers 27:13-14, God commands Moses

ascend Mount Avarim...and you, too, shall be gathered unto your people, as was Aaron your brother... [for you both did not] sanctify me through Water... [at] the Waters of Strife

The plain reading is that Moses and Aaron both die on account of the Waters of Strife. I must have misremembered the text to say that Moses and Aaron are to die in the same way (Moses dies as did Aaron, his brother)—including being escorted by the same person (Elazar).

In a time-crunched week, I simply wasn’t careful with the text—and I apologize for that.

I’ve taken the week off from the Parsha so I’ll have ample time to prepare a well thought- out idea for Parshat Devarim.

A few additional thoughts on Joshua, Elazar, and the succession:

·         As high priest, Elazar becomes the first national leader of his generation (all other leaders of his generation are tribal). This might make him a good choice to take on Moses’ position.

·         Back in Num 24:7-14, Pinchas, Elazar’s son, saves the people from a plague. In return, God makes a pact with Pinchas and Pinchas’ descendants—who are, by extension, Elazar’s descendants as well. Thus, in addition to Elazar’s national role, his descendants are given a special place. Some degree of succession is built into Elazar’s family.

·         When God says be gathered unto your people... as did Aaron your brother, one might ask if, in addition to God saying the brothers both die on account of the same offense, there might be a hint to the death itself being similar in some way (and see Rashi on verse 13).

·         At Joshua’s inauguration, Joshua is to stand before Elazar the Priest and to inquire of him concerning the Judgment of the Urim v’Tumim (27:19-21). (The Urim v’Tumim are a part of Elazar’s priestly garments used to communicate with God—see Exodus 28:30.) Perhaps this scenario suggests  Joshua assuming control over the priestly role. Alternatively, this may indicate that Joshua needs Elazar to enable him to lead, denoting Joshua as a complementary or even secondary leader to Elazar.

 

I’ll leave it to you to consider these points. Regardless, the text does not say that Elazar ascended the mountain with Moses as he did, earlier, with Aaron (Numbers 20:23-29).

My apologies again.

Abe

 

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Some of my translation here based on JPS

Who should lead?

for Parshat Pinchas

 

 

i

God sends Aaron,

the high priest,

up on a mountain to die.

God sends Aaron’s son, Elazar,

to escort his father up

and to don Aaron’s priestly garments;

and he descends

as the new high priest.

*

Later, God tells Moses:

Ascend a mountain with Elazar

and die as your brother died.

One would have thought, too,

that Elazar will succeed Moses

as he succeeded Aaron

descending from that earlier mountain,

that earlier death.

 

ii

But Moses says:

let God name a leader

who will take the people out

and bring them in.

God names Joshua.

*

Joshua:

whom we meet,

early on,

leading the people in a battle

in which the people succeed

only when Moses’ arms are raised up.

 

iii

It seems Moses

changes the course of leadership

from Elazar to Joshua.

*

So that through Moses,

our leader is a holy man

who is not a priest

who knows battle

who knows struggle

who knows goings and comings

and who knows that all depends

on reaching skyward;

who knows life as people live it

and that this life

depends on God.

*

That is the leadership

Moses leaves as his legacy.

In this, he is a great leader.

 

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

Can we reach immortality in this world?

 

for Parshat Pinchas

 

i

Zelofhad  has no sons.

When Zelofhad  dies,

his daughters say:

Why should the name of our father be lessened?

Let us inherit

from his ancestral land.

*

God says:

Zelofhad’s daughters have spoken well.

If a man has no sons,

let his daughters inherit his ancestral land.

With no daughters,

let his brothers,

his uncles,

his nearest kin inherit his ancestral land.

Let his name survive

through his wide family.

 

ii

God tells Moses he will die.

Moses asks God for a successor.

And though Aaron’s son succeeds Aaron,

God chooses Joshua to finish Moses’ work:

Joshua, who is not of Moses’ family at all,

Joshua, who brings the people into the Land.

 

iii

Our lives have boundaries:

ourselves,

our small circle.

And so we are limited.

Our lives are so limited

that death can end us.

*

This is the only way

to stop death:

to reach to the people beyond us,

for the people beyond us to reach to us,

to end the boundaries.

Through this

we become endless.

 

 

With thanks to Kathi for help in working through this idea

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

 

Please pray for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, a one-year-old who needs a bone marrow transplant, and get your cheek swabbed today.

For further reading on Torah and the Parsha, consider: Hirhurim – Jewish Ideas Daily - Rabbi Jonathan Sack’s writings – Pardes  - The Virtual Beit Midrash – Yeshiva University Online

www.TorahParsha.com

 

Thought for Parshat Pinchas

How can we begin again?

 

i

The Torah works through this history of the generations:

Er and Onan were evil in the eyes of God, and God made them die.

The earth opened its mouth and swallowed Datan and Aviram; they rebelled against Moses and against Aaron.

Tzelofchad died in his sin; he had no sons.

Nadav and Avihu  offered a strange fire before HaShem, and they die before HaShem.

And God tells Moses: you may not enter the Land because you disobeyed Me, you did not sanctify Me at the Waters of Strife; you must die at Mount Eivarim, near the Land’s entrance.

*

Soon after, God gives the Laws of the sacrifices and the holidays that come each day, each week, each month, every year.

 

ii

History opens up with great promise.

As it unfolds there is sin, there is punishment.

There is disappointment.

*

But a cycle is different.

In a cycle, you always come back to the start. You start anew.

 

iii

Holidays and daily rituals come in cycles.

In them God says: you who live in history, who struggle in failure—come and start anew with Me.

 

 

 

 _______

 

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

 

 ___________

Largely in the interest of space, I have amalgamated some quotations here from Gen. chap 38 and Num. chap 27, rather than quoting verses verbatim from Num. chapter 26.

I am indebted to Rav Mosheh Lichtenstein for teaching me how to read the genealogy sections of the Chumash.

___________

If you enjoyed this thought, please share it with a friend.

Please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther

www.TorahParsha.com

Imperfect

i
Datan and Aviram strove…against the Lord. The earth…swallowed them.

Zimri, the son of Shalu, fornicates with a Moabite woman before the Tent of God.

*
Er and Onan, the sons of Yehudah, are wicked in the eyes of the Lord.

They died in the Land of Cana’an.

*
Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, brought a strange fire before God; they are smitten down.

*
Zlophchad, of the tribe of Menashe, died of his own sin.

ii
This is the ancestry of the people, on the verge of their settling the Land of God.

God is not shepherding a perfect people into His Land. God is shepherding a people who are not perfect.

*
And yet God and this people will still share a joined journey through history.

The people will enter the Land: they are willing to try again.

God will bring them into the Land: God will allow this people to try again, and again.

It is trying that makes this nation possible.