The Edythe Benjamin, חיה בת שלמה, beloved mother of Barbara Hanus, Rosh Hodesh Sivan Torah Essay
Bamidbar translates as "in the wilderness", but also has its roots in the words ‘Dvar’ – thing and ‘Ledaber’ to speak. The Midbar, wilderness, is where we truly learnt what it is to ‘hear’ G-d. It is the place where the Bnei Yisrael developed a language of their own. It is where they moved from a childlike dependency, manifested through their complaints, to a developed mode of speech culminating with the narrative of the daughters of Zelofchad, Bnot Zelofchad.
The motif of speech permeates the entire book. Beginning with the complaints in Behaalotachah, moving onto Korach’s rebellion that results in the mouth of the earth swallowing up his congregation, Miriam’s slander (Lashon Hara) and, of course, the incident of the meraglim (spies).
In the latter part of the book Moshe hits the rock instead of speaking to it and finally we find the narrative of Bilaam and Balak.
Bamidbar is the book where the Jewish people, Bnei Israel, move from childhood to adulthood, from the mode of complaints and cries to an ability to express themselves through dialogue. There is a process of maturity that takes place which entails the building of a new generation. A generation who understands that to be G-d’s nation means that the tools of communication need also to be developed and sharpened.
There are three particular incidents that for me symbolize this process. The first is the incident of the meraglim. I once read a quote that left a deep impression on me ‘If a person continues to see only giants he is looking at the world through the eyes of a child’.
When the spies return the Torah tells us:
They spread an [evil] report about the land which they had scouted, telling the children of Israel, "The land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of stature. There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, descended from the giants. In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes The entire community raised their voices and shouted, and the people wept on that night. (Bamidbar chapter 12-13)
We are told in the Gemara Talmud Arachin 15a:
The decree against our forefathers in the desert was sealed only because of Lashon Hara, slander, as it says ‘They have tested me this ten times (14:22) But perhaps this Lashon Hara was only the final straw (but not innately worse than anything else)? Impossible for it stresses that ‘they have tested Me this ten times’, implying that it was uniquely this that sealed the decree”.
The people hear the report and as a child would react, they ‘cry’. There is no questioning, analyzing, inquiring into the report; instead there is a simple childlike acceptance of the perceived reality.
What the nation heard from the spies could have demoralized them, or, made them more determined to enter the land. The fact that the people hear this ‘Lashon Hara’ but were unable to process the information in a mature way, were unable to distill the facts from perception, is perhaps the reason G-d does not allow them into the land. Less a punishment, more a consequence of a generation who were not ready, who would eternally see themselves as ‘grasshoppers’ rather than fighters.
The second incident that, by its very nature, displays the difference in mentality between the first and second generation through the eyes of their leader, is in Parashat Chukat. Moshe, instead of speaking to the rock as G-d had commanded him to, hits it. Rashi comments on the incident that Moshe’s sin lay in the fact that he ‘hit’ the rock as opposed to ‘speaking’ to it.
We should not understood this explanation as simply explaining an inability on the part of Moshe to differentiate between commands; rather it was symptomatic of a leader who had led a generation, that could not and would not, understand the subtleties of speech. A generation that, by no fault of their own, were unable to relate to the complexities and richness of language and dialogue, preferring the slave mentality of being ’hit’. A generation that simply lacked the ability to communicate with each other and with G-d.
And it was this that in the end destroyed them. The new generation, who now stood at mei meriva had been on a journey, they had developed, grown, educated themselves into ‘free men’. When Moshe hit the rock he was simply following a precedent (Shemot 17:1-7), thinking perhaps that the two generations could be related to in the same way, when in reality so much had changed.
The final incident, monumental in every aspect, is the narrative of the daughters of Zelofchad. At the very end of the book the moment before entering the land, the esteemed and righteous daughters of a deceased man named Zelofchad approach Moshe with a question concerning rights of inheritance to their father’s land. The details of the incident for our purposes are extraneous, what is paramount however is the message this account conveys. These women represent for us the cream of the new generation. It is a narrative of Oral Law, Torah She'baal-peh in the making.
Unlike the previous generation that is characterized through moaning, complaining, and a complete dependency on Moshe and G-d, this generation utilizes their creativity, intellect and innovation. The Talmud tells us: The daughters of Tzelofchad were wise, learned and righteous ..." (Bava Batra 119b). The women courageously approach the elders and Moshe with a thought-out petition that they have already researched an answer to. In fact the sages present their petition as a complex legal claim:
Bnot Tzelofchad were wise. They spoke [in a way suited] to the current hour. That is what Shmuel bar Rav Yitzchak said: This teaches us that Moshe was teaching the parasha of yibum, as it is written, Devarim 25:7, "the brothers sit together." They said to him: if we are considered as a son (for the purposes of yibum), give us the portion of the son. And if not, then our mothers should perform yibum. Immediately, "Moshe brought their case before G-d." (Bava Batra 119b).
This is where we see the moment of maturity, the move from the childlike cries of the first generation to the developed and creative communication of the second generation. It is not simply by chance that it is this narrative that seals the Book of Bamidbar. A book that slowly, painfully, traces a people through their development from a dependent, childlike nation to a generation that is ready to enter their land and face unprecedented challenges.
Challenges that can only be solved through the path of communication and speech. It took 40 years in the desert, midbar, to create a ‘free people’, a generation that was not plagued by the old mentality of their ancestors, a generation that could start afresh, could renew the relationship with G-d based on their ability to listen and speak.