06/09/2017
This week for Parashat Beha'alotecha, Beit Tefilah Israeli shared what they call a "Parashir," mashing up the words parasha + shir (Torah portion + poem/song), to share some wisdom on this week's reading.
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"This week's parsha, the portion of "Beha’alotecha," follows part of the journey of the Israelites in Egypt.
And in the middle of this difficult journey are some touching verses that reveal a moment of weakness for Moses, the leader of the people. This is not something to be taken for granted, especially in the biblical text: this exposure of the apparent rift to the readers.
“Did I conceive all this people?" (Numbers 11:12) Is my responsibility for them eternal and indestructible, like that of a mother for her children? Because "I cannot carry all this people by myself, it is too much for me."
God shows understanding to Moses, and from this moment there are 70 elders to assist him in leading the people.
But I choose to answer him with a poem by the late poet Hafiz, "Something Hidden."
In this poem he talks about the difference between a teacher (a leader, like Moses) and his disciple (a people, like the Israelites).
When the student asks what the difference is between them, the teacher answers that if someone turned over their “beggar’s bowls,” what would spill out of the teacher's bowl was a hidden thing that "might drown the world."
This is an expression of the responsibility of the leader, the power that is in his hands even if he is not aware of it.
Moses, in his moment of breaking, expresses a responsibility that he finds difficult to approach, but apparently he also knows that as a leader he must hold on to his protective shell, he must not slip through its walls to the people because they might drown.
This path to understanding the "beggar’s bowl" sometimes seems very long: what is sometimes reflected in us, and sometimes must remain hidden. And yet we must keep it safe.
Shabbat Shalom!
Noam"
