About that Shortage of Meat in the Desert, and Yitro Redux (Beha’alotekha) |
But first a sad joke: One of the many, many, many, many, indeed far too many little Hasidic rebbelech wanted to impress his congregation by proving that Hanukkah is actually hinted at in the Torah, in this week’s parsha.
”Our parsha Behaloysechoo (Beha’alotekha) opens with the law of lighting the menoyreh (menorah in the Mishkan) and clearly the CHOO in BehaloyseCHOO, Is a remez (hint) at the CHHHH in Chanikeh (Hannukah).
Suddenly one of the Hassidim interjected; “But rebbe, the CHOO in Behaloysechoo is written with the letter choof (khaf ך ) while the CHHHH in Chanikeh is written with a ches (het ח)”.
To which the rebbe responded angrily “I’m talking holy Toyreh (Torah) and you’re interrupting me with dikdik (dikduk/grammar)!
Beha’alotekha is a huge mishmash of a parsha that covers much ritual and narrative terrain. And yet, in media res, we get a snippet of inconclusive dialogue between Moshe and his father in law Yitro, normally referred to in the Torah as Yitro the Priest of Midian, but here referred to by one of his alternate appellations, Hovav ben Reuel the Midianite father-in-law of Moshe (Bamidbar/Numbers 10:29-32)
כט וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה, לְחֹבָב בֶּן-רְעוּאֵל הַמִּדְיָנִי חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה, נֹסְעִים אֲנַחְנוּ אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אָמַר יְהוָה, אֹתוֹ אֶתֵּן לָכֶם; לְכָה אִתָּנוּ וְהֵטַבְנוּ לָךְ, כִּי-יְהוָה דִּבֶּר-טוֹב עַל-יִשְׂרָאֵל. ל וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, לֹא אֵלֵךְ: כִּי אִם-אֶל-אַרְצִי וְאֶל-מוֹלַדְתִּי, אֵלֵךְ. לא וַיֹּאמֶר, אַל-נָא תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָנו כִּי עַל-כֵּן יָדַעְתָּ, חֲנֹתֵנוּ בַּמִּדְבָּר, וְהָיִיתָ לָּנוּ, לְעֵינָיִם.
And Moshe said to Hovav the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moshe’s father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place which God said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do good to you, for God has promised good to Israel.”0But he said to him, “I will not go. I will depart to my own land and to my birthplace.” And he said, “Please do not leave us, for you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us. And if you do go with us, whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same will we do to you.”
Clearly this conversation did not just happen. We can surmise that Yitro, having felt utterly marginalized since he arrived two years earlier, decides he has had enough, and comes to bid Moshe goodbye. After all, back in his native land Yitro was a force to be reckoned with, the high priest of a mighty society, and surely respected by one and all.
Moshe’s attempted blandishments to convince Yitro to stay are astonishingly patronizing. He thinks he can woo Yitro to remain by offering him a cut of the goodies that will eventually be given to the........