This sheet on Numbers 11 was written by Ilana Blumberg for 929 and can also be found here
This is a chapter of pain that cannot, at the moment, be contained. The people are unhappy, complaining, and their unhappiness reaches God’s ears. Then God becomes angry and the anger bursts into flame which eats at the edges of the camp. The people call out to Moses, who prays to God, and the fire subsides.
But just as in a family or a community or even in an individual’s life, when things are not well -- one “fire” is put out and even as you are still breathing a sigh of relief, another “fire” has erupted -- here, too, the subsided flame does not bring real relief. It doesn’t mean well-being, or peace, or a realigned balance. It’s only a respite until the trouble resumes, in another round or another direction.
The fire’s ashes are still hot, so to speak, when the people of Israel beg for meat. They cry out for the foods of “home,” ironically Egypt, and they declare that their “soul is dry.” Thirst and hunger have taken them over. All of us know the force of those primal needs.
At the intensity of this scene, Moses, too, is drawn into the trouble which previously he found himself able to mediate and to quiet. God’s anger at Israel is renewed, and this whole scene is “ra” in Moses’ eyes: the complaint, God’s anger, the intensity of demand upon him.
“Ra,” רע, evil – the word repeats four times in the first fifteen verses of this chapter. We hear a related sound in the description of the “burning” of God’s fire in response to evil –ba’ar – בער – the root repeating three times. Even Moses’ angry plea to God, “did I carry this people in pregnancy that they should cry to me now for meat?” -- – he-anochi hariti – הריתי האנכי-- repeats the sound of ״ra,״ suggesting that it’s been trouble from the very start.
If we dwell in this chapter for a moment before moving on to its resolution and to the long-term historical resolution of the journey through the desert, we are invited to recognize how difficult it is to sense “ra” at the heart of our relations. Primal needs, desires, emotions – the desire for meat, the desire for someone to feed us, for someone to take our children and raise them when what they ask seems too great or impossible, even the desire that Moses expresses, simply to die because the demands are too much – all these desires are our waystations in the desert, and God, Moses, and the people of Israel have been there before us.
But just as in a family or a community or even in an individual’s life, when things are not well -- one “fire” is put out and even as you are still breathing a sigh of relief, another “fire” has erupted -- here, too, the subsided flame does not bring real relief. It doesn’t mean well-being, or peace, or a realigned balance. It’s only a respite until the trouble resumes, in another round or another direction.
The fire’s ashes are still hot, so to speak, when the people of Israel beg for meat. They cry out for the foods of “home,” ironically Egypt, and they declare that their “soul is dry.” Thirst and hunger have taken them over. All of us know the force of those primal needs.
At the intensity of this scene, Moses, too, is drawn into the trouble which previously he found himself able to mediate and to quiet. God’s anger at Israel is renewed, and this whole scene is “ra” in Moses’ eyes: the complaint, God’s anger, the intensity of demand upon him.
“Ra,” רע, evil – the word repeats four times in the first fifteen verses of this chapter. We hear a related sound in the description of the “burning” of God’s fire in response to evil –ba’ar – בער – the root repeating three times. Even Moses’ angry plea to God, “did I carry this people in pregnancy that they should cry to me now for meat?” -- – he-anochi hariti – הריתי האנכי-- repeats the sound of ״ra,״ suggesting that it’s been trouble from the very start.
If we dwell in this chapter for a moment before moving on to its resolution and to the long-term historical resolution of the journey through the desert, we are invited to recognize how difficult it is to sense “ra” at the heart of our relations. Primal needs, desires, emotions – the desire for meat, the desire for someone to feed us, for someone to take our children and raise them when what they ask seems too great or impossible, even the desire that Moses expresses, simply to die because the demands are too much – all these desires are our waystations in the desert, and God, Moses, and the people of Israel have been there before us.
(י) וַיִּשְׁמַ֨ע מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־הָעָ֗ם בֹּכֶה֙ לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֔יו אִ֖ישׁ לְפֶ֣תַח אׇהֳל֑וֹ וַיִּֽחַר־אַ֤ף יְהֹוָה֙ מְאֹ֔ד וּבְעֵינֵ֥י מֹשֶׁ֖ה רָֽע׃
(10) Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, each person at the entrance of his tent. The LORD was very angry, and Moses was distressed.
Ilana Blumberg is a prize-winning author and teacher.
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