RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:Beha’alotchah:SPIRITUAL+ETHICAL COMPENDIUM TO TORAH+TALMUD

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:Beha'alotchah:SPIRITUAL+ETHICAL COMPENDIUM TO TORAH+TALMUD

 

 Parasha Beha'alotchah: Numbers 8:01-12:16

Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"Must Be the Season of the Witch"

This parasha wins two awards for brevity, as opposed to the last one, which holds the record for being the Chumash's longest parasha. This Shabbat's readings give us the Torah's shortest prayer as well as the Torah's shortest book.

The name, beha'alotchah, comes from God commanding Moses about kindling the Mishkan's desert Tabernacle menorah. All of the lamps were to shine into the middle stem of the candelabra. Rashi writes that because this light was not spread out, it symbolized God, the source of all light. The Midrash credits God Himself with making this menorah. It says that Moses threw a talent of gold into the fire and from it emerged the finished menorah. The Talmud points out that this menorah symbolized God's wisdom through Torah. Since the menorah stood on the south side of the Mishkan, the sages reasoned that anyone who wished to increase his wisdom should pray facing south.

While praying toward the south is no substitute for study, this Shabbat is an excellent time for us, especially those who claim to have no time to study, to start and finish an entire book of Torah! Here is the entire book. It is from Numbers 10:35-36: "When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say 'Advance, O Lord! May Your enemies be scattered and may Your foes flee before You!' And when it rested, he would say, 'Return, O Lord, You who are Israel's myriads of thousands!'" If you look on the Hebrew side of your Chumash, you will notice how these two lines are bracketed with open spaces and diacritical marks resembling a reversed Hebrew letter "nun."

Why are the nun letters reversed? The obvious answer is that they look like parentheses. But the Talmud Bavli gives us another clue. In Tractate Berachot 4B, the rabbis teach that the 145th Psalm makes up our daily Ashrei (Happy) prayer. It is an acrostic prayer made up of verses starting with a letter of the aleph bait in the correct order of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter nun is missing. The sages teach that this letter is omitted because the "fall of Israel's enemies begins with it. For it is written: Fallen (Naflah)." So, Nachmanides posited that if a regular nun means "fallen," then an inverted nun means "risen." So our short book contains the entire history of the Jewish people. By keeping the ideal of the Torah with us when we travel or when we rest, we will always be raised, even when we seem to have fallen.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Eruvin 13B even goes a step further with our short book. The Hebrew for the phrase, "when it rested" (nucho) is derived from the same root word as "noach." This word means to comfort, to be gentle or to be sweet. Our history as a people will be assured when we use Torah to teach love and inclusiveness. When the Talmudic sages would argue over the words of Hillel versus the words of Shammai, the sages agreed after three years of debate that the words of both were God's. However, they decided to make their rulings follow the teachings of Rabbi Hillel because Hillel and his students were gentle and accepting. They would always give courtesy and credit to Rabbi Shammai and his pupils. If we remember to be humble, gentle, accepting, loving, inclusive, comforting and sweet, it will be difficult for any enemy's philosophy to triumph over our Torah.

The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Shabbat 115B and 116A states that these two "set off" verses are a separate book of the Torah. The sages posited that these verses are bracketed because God did not want to record three sins of the Jews in a row. What were the three sins? The Midrash claims that when verse 10:33 says we left Mt. Sinai, we ran away from it "like a child running away from school," afraid that his teacher would give him more homework (more commandments). The next two sins come after this short "book."

The second sin is the kvetching and complaining found in verses 11:01-4. Our people – who had just received the Torah on Mt. Sinai three days prior - are moaning that they are bored with manna. They want Egyptian "meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic." God responds by flying in a flock of quail that the people would eat for an entire month until "it comes out of your nose" and "becomes nauseating" (Num. 11:20). This is history's first recorded mass aversion therapy session.

The third sin was committed by Miriam. Miriam calls Moses' wife a "Cushite." She discusses his marital relationship. She further complains that she and Aaron also talk with God, so why is Moses the leader? God hears this slander and strikes Miriam with tzaraat. The sages say that this is the skin disease (mistranslated as leprosy) that God inflicts on people when they do loshan ha ra (gossip). Moses then asks God to forgive and heal Miriam with the Torah's shortest prayer. 'Please, God, heal her now" (Num. 12:13). The traditional view of these short verses in Numbers 12:01-2 has produced volumes.

Tzipporah, Moses' wife was a Midianite. Miriam calls her a Cushite. A Cushite is a black Ethiopian. The sages state that Miriam was talking with Tzipporah one day and was told that Moses was not having marital relations with her. Miriam was unaware of what God told Moses. Since Moses had to be ready at any time to talk with God, he needed to be ritually pure. Therefore, Moses was not allowed to have sex with his wife.

To get pure, he would have had to dip in the mickvah and remain impure until evening. As we were taught in a previous parasha, if a male had sex, he was impure until nightfall. Tzipporah and Moses were to keep this their private business but Tzippie slipped and told Miriam, without stating the reason why. So, our sages teach, when Miriam gossiped to Aaron she was not doing it to be mean to Moses, but to help (hopefully) the lovesick Tzipporah.

But why did Miriam call Tzipporah a "Cushite?" Was she complaining jealously that Moses married a dark-skinned foreign woman? Our sages say no. Miriam's use of the word Cushite was a euphemism for beauty. To avoid the evil eye, she used a negative word to give a compliment. I guess the sages are saying this is like Michael Jackson's song, Bad, which played on the vernacular use of the word "bad" to actually mean "good." Rashi says the numerical value of the Hebrew word for Cushite is the same as the Hebrew words for "beautiful in appearance" (yafat mareh). The Rashbam (Rashi's grandson Rabbi Shlomo ben Meir of twelfth-century France) says that this Cushite was not Tzipporah at all. She was a black queen named Adoniah who Moses married while in Cush, but with whom he never consummated the marriage. It is interesting to note that another Midrash says that Moses was king of Cush for the forty years between him killing the Egyptian task master and meeting Yethro and his daughter Tzipporah.

But the sages ask why, if Miriam was not doing anything wrong, was she punished? They answer that it was a warning to Israel. If tzaraat that lasts for seven days is what happens for appearing to have spoken lashan ha ra, imagine what could happen if one really spoke lashan ha ra.

What do we know of Miriam? Why are the Talmudic and Midrashic sages protecting her from what is an obvious fit of sibling rivalry? Miriam was the older sister of Moses and Aaron; their parents were Amram and Yochebed. She was born in Egypt and was 80 years old at the time of the Exodus. One tradition says she was married to Caleb (Josh. 14:6). Josephus considers her the wife of Hur, a leader appointed by Moses (Ex.17:10). As the wife of Caleb, Miriam would be the matriarch of the Royal House of King David. Another Midrash says that she gave birth to Bezalel, the architect of the Mishkan. Her name means "bitterness" in Hebrew in response to the troubles that befell her people in Egypt. Her name means "beloved" in Egyptian.

Another Midrash tells of her parents divorcing because Amram did not want to produce any children that would be killed under Pharaoh's decree. Miriam and Aaron were born prior to Pharaoh's decree. Her father was a leader of Levi. Miriam said to Amram, "You are worse than Pharaoh. He has only condemned our male babies to death. If B'nai Israel follows your example, both the male and female babies will be condemned." Amram remarried Yochebed and Moses was soon born.

A Midrash says that Miriam was one of the midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh and let the Jewish male babies live. When Pharaoh's officers came to arrest her, Miriam made herself invisible. She was five years old at the time. While her mother was pregnant with Moses, Miriam had a prophetic vision that the baby would be the savior of Israel from slavery.

Miriam stood watch while her mother placed her baby brother Moses in the reed basket and placed him in the Nile. She followed the basket and watched as Pharaoh's daughter rescued the baby. She told the princess about a nursemaid who could care for the baby. She brought her own mother to Pharaoh's daughter to care for Moses. Years later, at the Sea of Reeds, she led the women in song and dance after being rescued from the Egyptians. She was called a prophetess. She died and was buried in Kodesh, in the wilderness of Zin.

The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Taanit 9B gives equal credit to Miriam, along with Moses and Aaron, for Israel's survival in the desert for 40 years. It was due to Miriam's merit, the sages teach, that the Jews had a fresh well wherever they camped. When Miriam died the well went dry. The well was a symbol of one of the three pillars that the world stands upon, according to Mishna Pirkei Avot (1:2). One of these pillars is "gemilut chasadim" (kindness). The second pillar is Torah study and the third is service to God, respectively symbolized by Moses and Aaron.

 Just as Miriam supplied Moses with food, so did she supply Israel with water. Nothing can grow without water. The Maharal (Rabbi Yahudah Loewe of 16th century Prague) compares all women to wells by quoting Proverbs 5:19.

Miriam's brother Moses complains to God in this Parasha that he is forced to act like a woman. Moses, frustrated with the complaints of the Jews, asks God in Numbers 11:12 if he himself had "conceived this people?" He asks, "Have I given birth to them" so that I must carry them in my bosom and suckle them?"

The Zohar teaches that Mordechai raised (oman) Esther (Es. 2:7). Oman is the Hebrew root for a nursing mother. A mother has milk hidden within her breast that the baby needs to develop. Only by "nullifying her self-orientation and becoming nothing," writes Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, can a mother relax enough to allow the milk to flow to the baby's mouth.

In Kabbalistic terms, this allows the hidden potential, the true Divine "something," to enter the symbol of the worldly something. The Zohar teaches that this is how physical reality encloses deep spiritual concepts and how the microcosm mirrors the macrocosm. God manifests a level of nothingness (tzimtzum) that allows His infinite supply of love and energy emanating from within His essence to flow down to the world, like milk to a baby.

While God's milk is Torah brought to us by Moses, Miriam's milk, through the well that followed us in the desert, was life itself. Perhaps this is why the rabbis were apologists for Miriam's behavior.

When Moses took on the role of leader, teacher, judge, provider and nursemaid for the Jewish people, he lost touch with his own wife and family. Judaism is against celibacy. Service to God, our sages taught, did not release someone from the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply.

Marriage is not inferior to celibacy. Instead, it is part of creation's order. Our Talmud teaches that we are to sell a holy Torah scroll if we need funds to get married. The Zohar compares women to the body and men to the soul. A person consists of both. Moses' sublime soul was on such a lofty level that he could not relate to the physical needs of his wife or of his people for meat.

The Zohar teaches that the Messiah will be more of a flesh and blood man than Moses. He will not be detached from the material like Moses. The Zohar teaches that the Messiah will be married and that his wife will empower him to achieve spiritual rectification of all humanity.

The Talmud addresses the problem of men being too involved with their work or studies (or computers?) to attend to their wives' needs. They ruled that if a man forbade himself to his wife, he could only do so for a week, and that his wife must first agree. Torah students could go away to study for no more than a month at a time. Laborers could only leave their wives for a week at a time. Rich men must have sex with their wives daily, laborers twice a week, ass-drivers once a week, camel drivers once a month, and sailors twice a year. This is from Tractate Ketubot 61A and 62B. But on Daf (folio) 63A, the sages ruled that Torah scholars could leave to study for two or three years at a time. But then Rabbi Adda said that they risk their lives if they do this.

Rabbi Adda told the story of a rabbi who would only come home once a year and have sex with his wife before Kol Nidre. One year, he was so distracted with his Torah studies that he lost track of the calendar. He was studying on a roof. The roof collapsed, and he was killed. Then Rabbi Judah decreed that a scholar should have sex with his wife at least every Friday night.

How men could wish to avoid their wives may seem unclear to us now, although not to all of us. But it was not uncommon in ancient times. Women were a "strange group" to our ancient rabbis and they were "unable to decide what they want."

Women were often accused of witchcraft, especially with their words, which may be why Miriam was punished for her loshan ha ra, and Aaron was not for his.

 In Exodus 22:17 we were commanded to not let a witch live. The Hebrew term used is "mekasefa," which is a female witch. This is odd because up to this time in the Torah no mention was made of female witches. Male sorcerers, however, especially Pharaoh's and later Balaam, are mentioned to us. In the Midrash Genesis Rabbah the rabbis write that Sarah tried to use witchcraft against Hagar. The same Midrash says that when Eve was created "Satan was created along with her." But these Midrashim were written millennia after the stories in Genesis.

In I Samuel 28, we are told that King Saul visited a witch in Ein Dor who used an Ob. With this magical Ob she raised the prophet Samuel from the dead. Another witch was Jezebel, daughter of King Sidon. She is labeled both a whore and witch (II Kings 9:22). The prophet Nahum (3:4) compares Ninevah to witches and whores. Ezekiel (13:17-23) prophesied against Jewish women who dealt with witchcraft and magic and used the occult to raise the dead or kill people.

The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Chagigah 77 tells of Rabbi Simeon who hanged 80 witches at Ashkelon. These women all lived in a single cave and "harmed the world." In Talmudic literature there are other assertions that women are synonymous with witchcraft. In Pirkei Avot 2:7 it is said by the great Rabbi Hillel, "the more wives, the more witchcraft; the more female servants, the more promiscuity."

Rabbi Yose said in discussions on when to say blessings, that one should not say a blessing over a spice if one doesn't see where the good smell is coming from "because Jewish women offer incense to witchcraft" (Talmud Bavli Beracoth 53A).

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Eruvin 64A the rabbis teach that while it is a law to pick up bread that one sees on the road, this does not apply now (at the writing of the Talmud circa 500 C.E.) as "Jewish daughters are flagrantly involved in witchcraft" and the bread may be cursed. Women cause dogs to become rabid (Tractate Yoma 83B). As soon as Satan was created, according to the rabbis in Tractate Kiddushin 81A, he sought a wife to be his partner in evil witchcraft. The Zohar states that Satan, in the form of the serpent, had sex with Eve producing Cain.

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 66B Rabbi Simeon says, "The best of women is filled with witchcraft." When the rabbis ask themselves why the Torah uses the feminine word for witch and not the masculine, they answer in Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 67A that God is teaching "that most women are involved with witchcraft."

In the Midrash Sifre the rabbis teach that a man should not be afraid to go into battle against other men, but that he should be fearful of doing battle against a woman and her witchcraft. Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 100B explains that a daughter is valueless because when she is a child the father fears she will be seduced. When she is a young woman, he worries that she will not marry. And when she is old, she will be involved in witchcraft. Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 111A warns us that if we see two women at crossroads facing each other, they are witches.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Gitten 45A tells of the daughters of Rabbi Nahman who stirred a boiling pot of witch's brew with their bare hands. Ironically, the two books of witchcraft of the Talmudic era - Harba de Moshe and Sefer ha Razim - are written by men. With further irony it is noted that the same Rabbi Simeon who gives us so many examples of women being such bad witches was a sorcerer himself! In Talmud Bavli Tractate Me'ilah 17B he exorcised an evil spirit from the emperor's daughter. In Talmud Bavli Tractate Shevi'it 38B, Rabbi Simeon turned his opponent into a heap of bones by use of the evil eye. When Moses turned his rod into a snake it was a miracle by God. When the Egyptian sorcerers did the same thing, it was magic.

In the Bible women leaders are few but not rare. Our matriarchs were quite vocal and visible, as were Miriam, Judge Deborah, and Queen Esther. By the time of the Rabbinic era women who were charismatic or vocal were feared and conveniently labeled as witches. There is one notable exception. Rabbi Nachman's wife Yalta is given much space in the Talmud. Despite restrictive rabbinic rulings, Yalta was both strong enough and knowledgeable enough to get her way numerous times (Talmud Bavli Tractates Beracoth 59B, Niddah 20B, Kiddushin 69B, Chullin 109B).

 Jewish women of the time were certainly treated and protected better than their pagan counterparts. As we have seen in past d'vrei Torah, superstitious, erroneous conclusions die hard. Only 400 years ago in this country, we were burning and drowning suspected witches in Salem, Massachusetts, a town that took its name from the Hebrew word for peace. The admonition of Rabbi Yose in Pirkei Avot 1:5 of "Anyone who converses excessively with a woman causes evil to himself...and will inherit gehinnom (hell)." is still taken seriously in many circles.

The Chofetz Chaim (Rabbi Israel Kagan of twentieth-century Europe) reminds us to "judge our fellow with righteousness" (Lev. 19:15). We are commanded to give each other the benefit of the doubt, our sages decreed in Tractate Shavuot 30A. Rabbi Kagan writes that if you are not quick to judge someone in your mind, you will be less apt to speak badly about him or do something harmful to him.

Pirkei Avot 2:5 teaches us "not to judge your fellow until you have reached his place." It is impossible to reach anyone's "place," as we all have such varied experiences. Therefore we should not make judgments against people.

As Moses asked of God in the Torah's shortest prayer, let us wish healing, rfua sheilehma, to each other, as few of us are truly complete and whole. As we learned in the Torah's shortest book, let us strive to live our lives with sweetness, love, humility and inclusiveness. Let us renew our Jewish Spirituality.  These traits do not make us weak. They make us strong and beloved by others.

Shabbat Shalom:

Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

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A Short Snap Shot of Rabbi Arthur Segal

Rabbi Arthur Segal

United States

I am available for Shabbatons, and can speak on various aspects of Jewish history, (from the ancient past to modern day, and can be area specific, if a group wishes), Spirituality, developing a Personal Relationship with God, on the Jews of India and other 'exotic' communities, and on Talmud, Torah and other great texts. We have visited these exotic Jewish communities first hand. I adhere to the Mishna's edict of not using the Torah as a ''spade'', and do not ask for honorariums for my services. I am post-denominational and renewal and spiritually centered.

 I am available to perform Jewish weddings,  and other life cycle events, ONLY IF, it is  a destination wedding and the local full time pulpit rabbi is unavailable, or if there is no local full time pulpit rabbi,  or it is in my local area and all of the full time pulpit rabbis are unavailable.

 My post-doc in Psych from Penn helps tremendously when I do Rabbinic counseling. My phone number and address will be made available once I am sure of one's sincerity in working with me.

Rabbi Segal is the author of three books and many articles on Torah, Talmud and TaNaK and Jewish history. His books are : The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud, and  Spiritual Wisdom of our Talmudic Sages. The first two are published by Amazon through their publishing house, BookSurge.

For information on how to purchase these, please contact RabbiSegal@JewishSpiritualRenewal.net and visit WWW.JewishSpiritualRenewal.Net.  OR CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW. 

 Todah Rabah and Shalom v' Beracoth. Rabbi Arthur Segal ,( Dr. Arthur Segal )RabbiASegal@aol.com . 

 

Click to Order	THE HANDBOOK TO JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice into a step-by-step process to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality in a concise easy-to-read and easy-to-follow manner. If you find yourself wishing for the strength to sustain you through the ups and downs of life; if you want to learn how to live life to its fullest without angst, worry, low self-esteem or fear; or if you wish that your relationships with family, friends and co-workers were based on love and service and free of ego, arguments, resentments and feelings of being unloved...this book is for you. Price: $19.99 254 Pages Published by: Amazon's BookSurge
Click to Order	A SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL COMPENDIUM TO THE TORAH AND TALMUD Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us. This companion to The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew brings the Torah alive with daily relevance to the Modern Jew. All of the Torah can be summed up in one word: Chesed. It means kindness. The Talmud teaches that the Torah is about loving our fellow man and that we are to go and study. The rest is commentary. This compendium clarifies the commentary and allows one to study Torah and Talmud to learn the Judaic ideals of love, forgiveness, kindness, mercy and peace. A must read for all Jews and deserves a place in every Jewish home. Price: $24.99 494 Pages Published by: Amazon's BookSurge

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(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal

In The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality.

• Price : $19.99

(002) A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud

A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us.

• Price : $24.99

(003) Tzadakkah Bundle

The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal and A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud. Purchase both books as a set, and I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to the tzadakkah of your choice. -- Rabbi Segal

• Price : $44.98

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