Parshat Behaalotcha

This week we started the beginning of a number of episodes featured throughout sefer bamidbar of rebellions against Moshe Rabbenu’s leadership. Unlike prior and subsequent episodes of the Jews sinning, these are not sins against God personally but are instead directly focused on Moshe Rabbenu. Today though, we read of an episode that defers only slightly but in dramatic ways. Today we read of no challenges to Moshe’s rule only to his personal life.

(א) וַתְּדַבֵּר מִרְיָם וְאַהֲרֹן בְּמֹשֶׁה עַל אֹדוֹת הָאִשָּׁה הַכֻּשִׁית אֲשֶׁר לָקָח כִּי אִשָּׁה כֻשִׁית לָקָח.

(ב) וַיֹּאמְרוּ הֲרַק אַךְ בְּמֹשֶׁה דִּבֶּר ה’ הֲלֹא גַּם בָּנוּ דִבֵּר וַיִּשְׁמַע ה’

Moshe’ siblings, prophets in their own right, and instrumental leaders of the Jewish people discuss their perception of their brother’s marriage. Siblings may mock their sibling’s marriages, but we are discussing a woman who was responsible for leading her fellow women in song after the splitting of yam suf and in whose merit the Jews were provided with drinking water throughout their journeys in the desert. We are discussing a man who was the lead prophet of his time, who faithfully served his brother in freeing the Jews from an evil tyrant. Clearly, this conversation must have some profound significance.

Moreover, their comments delineated in two psokim make no sense and seems to be completely unrelated. They first seem to take some issue with the fact that Moshe was married to a Cushite woman. They then complain about their perception that Moshe thought he had a unique relationship with God that they did not share. Seemingly suggesting that due to Moshe’s prophetic skills, he assumed that he would be allowed to marry an outsider, a women not from the Jewish people.

The consequences of this episode are just as confusing. The narrative informs us that Moshe was the most humble man that ever lived. Then, Hashem suddenly joins the conversation and immediately proclaims the special relationship He shares with Moshe that no other prophet can ever enjoy. Hashem does not respond to their comments about Moshe’s wife and, moreover, for some reason only Miryam is punished even though the passuk never hints that she did anything worse than Aharon. For his part, Moshe does not respond to his siblings. Instead, he only prays for his sister in what will later be proclaimed one of the shortest tfillot ever uttered: קל נא רפא נא לה.

דברי הימים של משה, the Chronicles of Moshe, is a small relatively old (some of its stories are quoted by Josephus) quasi-midrashic work that presents, as its name suggests, stories from the life of Moshe Rabbenu. One of the legends discuss how Moshe fought the Ethiopians, led by their king Kieknos, after he fled Egypt and upon entering their city marries his daughter who had falls in love with Moshe upon seeing him. The Ibn Ezra assumes the book is completely fictional.

The Rashbam, however, assumes that not only was the narrative historical, Moshe also subsequently became the king of this city for forty years and married the daughter. She is the woman Miryam and Aharon were discussing in this episode.

According to this presentation, it is unclear why Moshe’s siblings are suddenly critiquing him on this marriage now as the implication is that Moshe married this women years prior, before even freeing the Jewish people from mitzrayim.

Perhaps, we can suggest that Miryam and Aharon had acknowledged that Moshe did have a special relationship with Hashem. But that was a unique role that, as we’ve discussed before, applied to Moshe prior to handing off the responsibilities of the Mishkan to Aharon. Until that point, Moshe was the navi who was introducing the novel concepts of Yahadut for the first time. He was the one who freed the Jewish people, received the Torah and taught the Jewish people the practical laws of serving God in the mishkan. And therefore, during the first seven days of instituting the laws of the mishkan, Moshe did all the עבודת המשכן and only on the 8^th day did Aharon take over.

However, now that Moshe had already completed most of the novel work he no longer was a unique navi. And as such, his siblings questioned why now should he be any different than the rest of the Jewish people and assume that he has a special type of נבואה and also why should he have a foreign wife.

Hashem, now intervenes, to let Moshe’s siblings—and more importantly, us—know that Moshe’s unique status was not due to strictly to a list of accomplishments that Hashem needed him to complete. Moshe’s status was because he was איש ענו, because he was the sort of person who would not respond to critiques on his personal life. Hashem however now does intervene, but he too, does not respond to the personal critique, only to the accusation that Moshe’s prophecy was not unique.

So why only punish Miryam? Perhaps because Hashem was teaching the siblings their roles, even after Aharon was established as a kohen and Moshe, seemingly, did not have a unique role as a נביא introducing new מצוות. Miryam became the object, the one who got צרעת. Aharon, the kohen qualified to deemed someone a מצורע, proclaims her as such. But now, Aharon turns to Moshe, the brother they now both realize has a special relationship with Hashem, begging him to pray to Hashem to heal Miryam. Moshe, the true עניו, immediately begins praying for his siter’s quick recovery.

In other words, this entire episode occurs only as a result of what may be construed as a potential challenge to Moshe’s rule, that is, his unique role as a navi. The personal attack on his spouse is not relevant, not addressed and not the reason anyone got punished. It is paramount to realize and appreciate that we too must ignore and not allow personal attacks to bother us. While they may sting and hurt, as my mother always says, getting insulted is a choice. Let us choose to not.