Celibacy and Judaism
Marriage is the most powerful institution in Judaism, and making it holy, not shunning it, is the ideal. The Zohar teaches that marriage is the reunion of two half souls that were separated at birth. Marriage makes the soul complete and fully capable of taking on the challenge of changing the world. LIGHT FROM THE FUTURE ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
The Moses Enigma
One of the most enigmatic narratives of the Torah can be found at the end of this week’s parsha.
Miriam and Aaron said something disparaging about Moses that concerned his “Ethiopian wife.” They added the fact that G-d had spoken to them as well. G-d then defends Moses as one who possessed a unique quality of prophecy and humility.
What was this all about?
Rashi, citing earlier rabbinic traditions, refers to the fact that Moses’
wife Tziporah (who was nicknamed “Ethiopian” for reasons we will not go into here), upon hearing of the introduction of two new prophets into the Jewish community, exclaimed: “Woe is to their wives, who will ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA have to be separated from their husbands, now that they are prophets, in the same manner that Moses separated from me.”
When Miriam heard—for the first time—that Moses separated from his wife, presumably because he was a prophet, she was indignant. Why would Moses have to separate from his wife? After all, she and Aaron were also prophets, yet it never occurred to them that they could not resume normal married life. Thus, Miriam concluded, Moses must think of himself as being superior to his brother and sister. This, Miriam and Aaron thought, was presumptuous on Moses’ part.
G-d’s response was that:
(a) Moses, in fact, was the most humble person on the face of the earth, and he certainly did not leave his wife because he thought he was superior to anyone else.
(b) Moses was indeed commanded by G-d, after Sinai—when he was
80 years old—to separate from his wife, because he had to be “on call”
with G-d twenty-four hours a day. Unlike other prophets who received their prophecies at designated times—so they could “have time” for their spouses as well as for G-d—Moses had to be prepared to receive a prophetic message, at any time.
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Why All the Mystery?
Why, we may ask, does the Torah discuss this issue so cryptically?
Without the Oral Tradition’s “reading between the lines,” there is absolutely no way we can make heads or tails of this story. Why couldn’t the Torah explicitly say what Miram’s and Aaron’s complaint was against Moses, and how G-d defended him? Nowhere in the text does it mention anything about Moses’ wife being separated from him.
And if that is what their quarrel with Moses was all about, why does the Torah leave out the main point of the story?
To be sure, this and other similar cryptic Biblical texts are examples that compel us to recognize that the Written Torah was given together with the Oral Tradition. And in many places, the written text makes absolutely no sense without the commentary of the Oral Tradition. And as such, the enigmatic story highlights the inseparable nature of the Written and Oral Traditions.
But a question still remains. Granted, the Torah deliberately leaves out crucial details from this and many other sections of the Torah so that we are compelled to consult and delve into the Oral interpretations.
However, everything related to G-d’s Torah is precise. Why is this salient fact that Moses was celibate (after many years of marriage)
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
omitted from the narrative? What lesson can we derive from this lacuna?
Not an Ideal
One simple answer is that the Torah did not want us to look at celibacy as an ideal. If we were exposed to the notion that Moses separated from his wife because of his role as a prophet, some might have taken this as a sign that the ideal situation is celibacy and that marriage is a necessary evil, as some religious philosophies believe.
To discredit this notion, the Torah omits references to Moses’
separation explicitly, as if to say, Moses’ situation was not intended to be paradigmatic. On the contrary, Moses’ behavior was the sole exception to the general rule. And if we want to learn something about and from Moses, it should not be about his celibacy, but rather his humility and closeness to G-d. If we want to aspire to attaining greater heights, we should not even consider a life of celibacy.
Judaism is about Marriage
The reason Judaism does not regard celibacy as an ideal is twofold:
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
First, the objective of the Torah is not to negate the physical world and its natural forces, but to elevate it by harnessing the forces for the good and G-dly. Marriage is the most powerful institution, and making it holy, not shunning it, is the ideal.
Second, if the reason for our existence in the physical world is for the soul to interact with a body and transform the physical into something G-dly, the ultimate worldly experience is that of marriage. That is when the soul truly enters the physical world.
Moreover, the Zohar teaches that marriage is the reunion of two half souls that were separated at birth. This implies that when we get married, the soul is complete and fully capable of taking on the challenge of changing the world.
Third, marriage is not just a vehicle to carry out our G-d-given mission;
it is the mission. The institution of marriage exists in our physical realm because it exists primarily in the spiritual realm. Indeed, the entire Sinai experience has been likened by our Sages to a wedding; a wedding between G-d and the Jewish people. When we wed, in accordance with G-d’s laws, we, thus, emulate G-d and introduce G-dly energy into this world.
Marriage is, thus, not a one-time event that occurs at the wedding; it continues throughout life. Every day is a reenactment of the original ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA marriage because every day we are challenged to bring heaven and earth together.
Thus, in the ultimate Messianic Age, when the union of heaven and earth will be complete, marriage will remain the most holy of institutions.
Moreover, if Sinai was the beginning of the marriage between G-d and
Israel, then the ultimate age of Redemption can and has been likened to the consummation of the marriage. In the future, when we will be at our peak of spiritual achievement, marriage will be placed on a pedestal as never before.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behalosecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
