Complain, but Don’t Run Away
A Jew can never run away from his or her connection to Mount Sinai. When we try to escape, our soul picks up a heavenly voice from Sinai that beckons us to return. LIGHT FROM THE FUTURE ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Upside Down
There is a phenomenon that occurs only twice in the entire Torah, both times in this week’s Torah portion entitled Beha’alosecha.
In the middle of the narrative describing the Jewish peoples’ journey further into the desert and away from Sinai, two verses are set off from the surrounding material by the upside-down Hebrew letter nun.
The Talmud explains the reason for this interruption by noting that the segments of the story, preceding and following the upside down letters, both involve catastrophes. Not wishing a second tragic story to follow immediately on the heels of the first one, the Torah separated ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA them with two verses that discuss another matter, setting them even further apart with the unusual upended letters.
But why is it important to separate one disaster from another? If the Torah needs to tell us of two unhappy events, does it make a great deal of difference if we are told of them together or separately?
There is another question for resolution here. We can easily see what the second catastrophe is: the Torah shows us how the Jews started to complain against G-d. But what is the first catastrophe? In the first of the separated segments, the Torah tells us how the Jews journeyed from Sinai. Were they expected to never leave Sinai?
A Jew Can Never Leave
Upon deeper reflection, we begin to realize that the catastrophe in their journeying from Sinai — the place where they received the Torah — was that they not only left the place in a geographic sense, but also in a spiritual sense. To be sure, they were not rebelling against their experience at Sinai. Without a doubt, they cherished the events there as the high-point of their lives.
But, precisely because they considered Sinai to be a singular high-point or peak phenomenon, they felt that its spiritual lessons were intended ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA for only unique occasions and special places. Perhaps once a year, on the anniversary of Sinai itself, they would try to capture the excitement and holiness of the Sinai experience. It did not yet occur to them that, wherever and whenever they should travel, they would have to take the spirit of Sinai with them.
The lesson is as profound as it is obvious: A Jew must never truly take leave of the Sinai experience. Moreover, in truth, a Jew is fundamentally unable to leave Sinai because our experience there is etched into the soul and psyche of every Jew. Indeed, all the souls of all Jews, including converts, stood together at the foot of the mountain and heard G-d speaking to them directly. The Divine words uttered then and there were seared into our consciousness forever.
In addition, our Sages tell us that every day a heavenly voice emerges from Mount Sinai and beckons us to return to G-d. There are times, however, when we don’t feel the experience of Sinai or hear the heavenly voice and we attempt to put some distance between ourselves and Sinai.
The upside down “nuns” are a reminder that our existence is turned on its head if we think we can turn away from Sinai.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
The Second Catastrophe
The second catastrophe — the complaining of the Jews — on its own was not so harmful. There were many other occasions when the Jews complained to Moses and they were not treated so harshly for it. It is perhaps intrinsic to Jewish nature or the Jewish mindset to complain and “kvetch.” In some instances, the Jews were actually commended and rewarded for their griping, because it expressed their desire to get closer to G-d and live by the commandments they were given at Sinai.
A perfect example of this can be found in this week’s Parsha. There we are told that a few Jews were denied the opportunity to bring the Paschal offering through no fault of their own. When they complained to Moses: “Why should we be deprived?” G-d agreed with them and gave them the Holiday called Pesach Sheni-The Second Passover.
When does complaining pass beyond obnoxious and objectionable to become a catastrophe? When it is linked with our journeying away from Sinai.
Thus, by separating the narratives of their journeying away from Sinai and their complaining, the Torah ameliorates the severity of the complaint. The Torah warns us that however we may justify our complaining we must never do so by asserting the irrelevance of Sinai.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
By dismissing the Sinai experience, the single most important event in the world’s history, we can turn an otherwise innocuous complaint into a catastrophe.
Kosher Kvetching
Conversely, when our gripes and demands are based on our desire to get closer to the Sinai experience, they are not only legitimate, but desired and appreciated by G-d.
Thus, Rabbi Yosef Karo, the famed author of the classic Shulchan Aruch
(The Code of Jewish Law) writes that our daily prayers express our demands of G-d that He make good on His promise to bring Moshiach and the future Redemption. This is a positive “complaint,” one that is both acceptable and desirable.
Indeed, Rabbi Yosef Karo cites to the Midrash comments that the Jews suffered in the days of King David is because they did not “demand”
the building of the Beis Hamikdash-the Holy Temple.
If we analyze this statement, even superficially, a question begs to be asked:
In the days of King David there was a Temple in the city of Givon. True, it was not the magnificent structure built by his son, King Solomon, but ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA what was so egregious about their failure to demand a grander Temple?
The answer lies in a better understanding of the Holy Temple. From the time the Mishkan was built and served the Jewish community in the desert for forty years, it was a makeshift structure. The temporary nature of the structure made manifest the temporary and tentative nature of G-d’s relationship with the Jewish nation.
As the Jewish people became more established in their Land, the portable structure of the Mishkan was replaced by a more solid structure in Shiloh and then in Nov and Givon. Even so, there was still something temporary about these structures: the cloth coverings of the Mishkan remained as the covering of all these Temples.
The construction of the Beis Hamikdash by King Solomon was an auspicious sign of the times. It indicated that the relationship between G-d and His people had matured to such a point that each “spouse”
felt secure in the relationship; understanding that it is one that will never be severed. It was a sign that they had internalized the Sinai experience where G-d had set forth the terms of their mutual relationship.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
When we feel that our relationship with our spouse remains tentative and half-baked, it is a troubling sign that there is a very serious problem, on at least one side of the equation.
In the days of King David, G-d was ready for a total and unequivocal commitment to the Jewish people. G-d’s love for us was at its peak and He was eager to consummate the “marriage” by allowing Himself to dwell in their midst. G-d desired and expected that the Jewish people would reciprocate by demanding a more intimate experience in the permanent structure of the Beis Hamikdash.
The Jewish people, tragically, took a more relaxed and passive attitude towards their relationship. There is no need to rush into it, they believed; the level of our love is fine now, there is no need to reach a higher level of love and commitment.
Thus, the Jews were at fault for not demanding more. Such a demand made on G-d would not have been an act of hubris or impudence but rather a sign that they really cared for and reciprocated in kind His overtures to them.
When a parent insists that his or her child wear a warm coat in the winter, it is a selfless demand and one that the child will eventually appreciate.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Demanding Moshiach
The lesson for our time is obvious. We do not presently have the Beis Hamikdash, nor even the Sanctuaries that preceded the Beis Hamikdash. We are in exile and G-d, our Sages teach us, is also “suffering” the pain of exile and wants nothing less for us than the final Redemption. He desires and expects of us to pray, beseech and indeed demand that Moshiach be revealed and usher in the final Redemption by rebuilding the Beis Hamikdash, thus restoring and enhancing the Sinai experience; the ultimate marriage between G-d and His people.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behalosecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
