Numbers 16-19 - Quakes, Fires, and Almonds
The earth opened up, fire from heaven, and sticks sprouted almond blossoms and nuts. What does it mean? Whether it is heaven, earth, nature, or humanity, we are all part of one Divine cosmos and interrelated.
The Book of Bamidbar is full of rebellions against the authority of Moses. No leader ever gets away without a challenge. The most serious was that of Korach. It was a direct challenge to Moses over the issue of the priesthood. He had a vested interest because he came from the same Levite family as Aaron. He was joined by 250 senior tribal leaders who argued that even non-Levites should be able to offer incense and brought incense burners to prove their point. They could have learned from what happened to Nadav and Avihu the sons of Aaron who were burnt at the altar for bringing incense which they were not commanded to do (Leviticus 10). One may wonder why they were not afraid. Did they honestly believe their cause was just? Both challenges to the priesthood ended in fire.
Others, like Datan and Aviram who joined in with the rebellion, had their personal issues. The disrespectful way, they replied to Moses reflected their agenda. The earth opened up and fire enveloped the camp. After the rebellion was put down the Torah describes a miraculous event that confirmed the exceptional position of the priesthood. Each chieftain including Aaron was given a stick of an almond tree which was placed in the tabernacle. Overnight only the staff of Aaron sprouted and produced blossoms and almonds. Confirming his position as the Divinely designated High Priest to the exclusion of the others.
Both political leadership and religious leadership were the foundation of Israelite life. But it was the hereditary priesthood that was the more controversial which is why it needed to be supported supernaturally. Interestingly both the monarchy and the priesthood proved to be corrupt at different times. And for the past two thousand years they have been inoperative other than symbolically. Though we still refer to them with nostalgia as an important part of our tradition.
In my opinion, the series of supernatural events this week was important to make the point that the priesthood needed to be supported spiritually, miraculously because that was how people expected things to be justified then.
As Maimonides has said, only those who have the least capacity to understand and rationalize will be impressed by miracles. Indeed, in the Bible no sooner had a miracle occurred than within a short span the people were acting as if it had never happened. The Torah distinguishes the things that humans can achieve and the things that God can achieve.
Miracles or magic are performed by humans to solve a problem. An intervention by God is to stress the importance of an idea and an institution. That everything is interconnected if only we can look beneath the surface.
We shouldn’t expect everything to be explained in a rational logical way. The Torah is teaching us that there is a non-rational divine energy working in this world. The priesthood was necessary at a particular time. Different times require different solutions. But the one constant is the spiritual. Just as we need the Divine world as well as the physical world. We can look at the Torah both rationally and mystically.
Moses himself said that he wished that everybody could be on this highest level religiously. Yet the fact is we need people to devote themselves to duties and functions whether we call them priests, prophets, or in our day, teachers, and religious leaders. Times change. We might have needed priests once. But now we need other ways of getting closer to God.
Shabbat Shalom
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Jeremy Rosen was born in Manchester, England, the eldest son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen and Bella Rosen. Rosen's thinking was strongly influenced by his father, who rejected fundamentalist and obscurantist approaches in favour of being open to the best the secular world has to offer while remaining committed to religious life. He was first educated at Carmel College, the school his father had founded based on this philosophical orientation. At his father's direction, Rosen also studied at Be'er Yaakov Yeshiva in Israel (1957–1958 and 1960). He then went on to Merkaz Harav Kook (1961), and Mir Yeshiva (1965–1968) in Jerusalem, where he received semicha from Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz in addition to Rabbi Dovid Povarsky of Ponevezh and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro of Yeshivat Be'er Ya'akov. In between Rosen attended Cambridge University (1962–1965), graduating with a degree in Moral Sciences.