Are You an Elder?
Depression, the Chassidic masters say, is not technically a sin, but it can lead the person down a slippery slope which can ultimately lead to the transgressing of all sins. LIGHT FROM THE FUTURE ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Non-Kosher Jewish Whining
At the end of this week’s parsha, the Torah relates several tragic episodes involving the Jewish people in the desert.
First, the Torah reports that there were people who complained and were punished for it. These people are described by the Torah as Misonenim, which is simply translated as “complainers.”
The Torah follows this unfortunate incident with an account of a group of Jews who were overcome by an intense craving for meat.
Moses then complains to G-d, asking why He placed the burden of those people upon him. Moses pleads with G-d: “Did I conceive the entire people? Did I give birth to them?” Moses concludes his passionate plea to G-d: “If this is the way You treat me, please kill me— if I have found favor in Your eyes.”
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
The Enigma
Several questions have been raised that point to the enigmatic nature of this entire narrative.
First, why does the Torah not mention what the first group was complaining about? Rashi explains that they were upset about the tedium of their non-stop journey toward the Promised Land. But the fact that the Torah does not identify the nature of their complaint suggests the possibility that it may be hinted at by the very word for complaint that the Torah uses here: Misonenim.
Second, how could Moses—the ultimate Jewish leader, who liberated a nation of slaves from Egypt and contended with so many of their complaints and their rebellious nature—not be able to deal with a few more “kvetching” Jews?
Third, why would Moses ask G-d to kill him? Isn’t that an extreme overreaction to the request by some dissatisfied Jews for meat?
Fourth, what purpose was served by the appointment of seventy elders whom G-d would imbue with Moses’ spirit to stand with him and share the burden of the troublesome people? If Moses couldn’t provide meat for the complainers how would the seventy elders be able to do it? In the end it was G-d who brought the birds that ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA supplied the people with ample meat to satisfy their craving. If G-d caused these things, what difference would it make whether Moses had seventy deputies or acted by himself?
In short, this entire story is hard to comprehend when taken at face value.
The Root Cause of Depression
The early Chassidic work Ma’or V’shemesh shed new light on this story.
Its refreshing approach provides us with important lessons concerning the challenges of our generation, standing here on the very threshold between exile and Geulah/Redemption; as we are poised to enter the Promised Land, with Moshiach at our head.
The Hebrew word for complaint used in our text, as noted above, is Misonenim. This word is a cognate of the word onein. The latter term describes the sadness experienced by a person suffering bereavement.
Thus Ma’or V’shemesh explains that the Jewish people were suffering in that moment from an acute case of depression.
Depression, the Chassidic masters say, is not technically a sin, but it can lead the person down a slippery slope which can ultimately lead to the transgressing of all sins.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
But the first symptom of depression, Ma’or V’shemesh states, is a marked increase in the appetite for food, which ultimately degenerates into a compelling need to satisfy other unwarranted desires as well.
In our day and age, we can see this dynamic playing out. As a case in point, many of our youth have degenerated into drug use or other equally self-destructive behavior. The source of this negative state of depression which so many of our youth feel, is that they perceive their lives as without meaning.
(This discussion obviously excludes clinical depression caused by chemical imbalances for which one must seek professional medical assistance in the spirit of the Torah’s “license” granted to physicians to heal. However, as part of the treatment and therapy, it behooves medical professionals to realize that they need to augment their medical intervention by enabling the person to develop a sense of purpose in life. This is accomplished, first and foremost, by commitment to the observance of the Mitzvos. This Mitzvos-based approach can be an indispensable tool in the depressed person’s recovery. Moreover, while medication deals with the symptoms that are important to treat, improvement of a person’s sense of worth and purpose in life can often address the root cause of the problem directly.)
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Thus, the Torah follows the discussion of the Misonenim (for which we now read: “the depressed”) by recounting the story of those Jews who developed a strong craving and temptation for meat, and, as our Sages point out, for other forms of undesirable gratification. This follow-on effect is very often a consequence of the fundamental cause— depression.
The Cure - The Tzadik
How does one relate to this phenomenon?
Ma’or V’shemesh recommends that those who have allowed their depression to render them hostage to their passions should seek healing through finding the right mentor—the tzadik.
The mentor obviously cannot be someone who has himself succumbed to the pressures of life and degenerated into the world of temptation.
But, by the same token, the mentors cannot be one of those who are so refined that all their physical activities have been sublimated into spiritual exercises. Their exalted spiritual state makes them ineligible for the role of a mentor to one who is still struggling with his or her base desires and impulses.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Moses’ Dilemma
When Moses realized how far depression had led these unhappy Jews, beset by their uncontrollable cravings for meat— and despite the availability of the heaven-sent Manna and other ample sources of food—he was convinced that he could not be their leader and spiritual mentor. Moses, indeed, was justified in his assessment. After all, he was the perfect tzadik. As Maimonides explains, no barrier existed between Moses and G–d. Moses had achieved the pinnacle of spiritual refinement. He was, therefore, baffled. How could he be the one to help these people out of their lowly state?
Moses thus states: “Did I conceive the entire people? Did I give birth to them?” Moses suggests that had he conceived the nation and given birth to them, he would have shared at least some of their base characteristics, just as a mother shares genetic material with her offspring. Since he was totally removed from their lowly state, Moses was incredulous: how could he, of all people, help them?
In Moses’ mind there was but one way he could help them out of their compromised state. Only if G-d were to “kill him” could he help them.
In Kabbalisitc tradition, killing is a metaphor for someone who falls from his exalted spiritual plane. If G-d would “demote” Moses, he would then be able to find some common ground with such morally ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA depraved people. Moses, in his spirit of self-sacrifice and love for his people, was pleading with G-d to diminish his unique spiritual level so that he could be the mentor to even the lowliest class and most morally compromised of his people.
Moses was not shirking his role as leader, or trying to escape responsibility; he just wanted to come down “closer” to their level so he could help raise them up.
The Divine Compromise
G-d provided the Divine “compromise.” Moses would still remain as exalted a G-dly leader as he had been previously. Notwithstanding that, he would be able to help those who were prisoners of their moral turpitude and raise them up from the morass and state of depression they were in. He would be able to delegate some of his spiritual energy to the seventy elders, and they would be enabled to become the mentors who could bridge the gap between Moses and the people.
However, it would not be their personal energy that would accomplish this objective. They received their energy from Moses, who vicariously uplifted the people by delegating authority to these seventy elders.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
The Parallel to Our Generation
We are living in a generation that is parallel to the generation that left Egypt. We, too, are getting tired and restless as we still journey along the seemingly endless road toward the Messianic Age. Many are in danger of slipping into depression. Indeed, symptoms of depression are evident in the growing trends among our youth to focus all their efforts on seeking ways of satisfying their physical cravings and desires.
Over twenty-five years ago, the Rebbe told us that he had done everything possible to bring about the Redemption. More specifically, the Rebbe stated that he had tried to get us to move out of our own internal spiritual exile. From that point onward, he was delegating the responsibility for bringing the Redemption to us.
These historic words mirrored the delegation of Moses’ spirit to the seventy elders. Our role is to serve as the elders and mentors, to bring the Rebbe’s message of the imminence of the Redemption to all our people and, equally, to get out of our own exile by raising our moral standards.
Indeed, one of the Rebbe’s recurrent instructions to us was both to seek out a mentor and to also serve as mentors for others. To get out of our own rut, we must help someone else get out of theirs.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
By accepting the role of “elder” we bring the world one step closer to the time when the spirit of evil and impurity will be removed.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behalosecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
