|
|
||
HOME
|
|
Drash for Shabbat Beha'alot'cha By Heather McLaughlin - June 1, 2007 Parshat Beha'alot’cha contains a number of different topics, from a second Passover to the punishment of Miriam. For me, this last section is what stands out but not for the reasons you might think. Miriam probably had a relatively high position in the community. It is likely that she was the leader of the women, and it is known that she had prophetic status. The Torah does not say much about her, but when she is mentioned, I suspect a lot has been taken out or reattributed to others including Moses himself, as in the case of the Song at the Sea. However that is a story for another time. What concerns us here is Miriam and Aaron and their discussion of Moses behind his back. This "gossip session" seems to start over Moses and his relationship to "the Cushite woman". Now if Miriam was the main leader of the women, it is quite likely that other women would have taken their complaints to her. She might have taken these before Aaron for advice in how to approach her brother, which would probably be reasonable. I don’t believe that this is the real heart of the matter though, because they quickly start complaining that neither one has the status he or she deserves and why does their little brother get all the recognition. God hears of this and demands the three come into the tent of meeting. Moses does not react to this gossip. It could be that he is humble about his accomplishments, as the text claims, or that he understands sibling rivalry and the best way to handle it is to ignore it. God does react though and lectures the other two severely and leaves, punishing Miriam with a skin disease and leaving Aaron virtually unpunished. I think perhaps something more is at work here, than just reward and punishment and who deserved them. At some point Miriam’s stories were cut from the Torah. I have my doubts that it was in this early period. While it was uncommon, women did function as political leaders in Egypt. They also functioned regularly as religious leaders and entertainers. I do not think that a strong woman leader would have given them enough trouble, in this very early period, to cut her story. I suspect Miriam’s story was edited later when times had changed, and strong women political and religious leaders were not the ideal. The redactors of the Torah could not leave her out all together, but by emphasizing her punishment over her brother’s, possibly attributing some of her deeds to others, and perhaps relegating most of her story to the genre of biblical literature known as Midrash, they could emphasize the patriarchal aspects of the culture that were thought important at the time. Now in a different time with different attitudes, we must come to terms with what we have lost due to this editing. This parsha does have many lessons but most are obvious, and I think we know what they are. There is a less obvious and often forgotten lesson left for us as we work to fill in the gaps of Miriam’s story. History is always recorded from the perspective of the time and place in which it is written. What my parents learned about Christopher Columbus, for example, was different from what I learned, and is different from what children learn today. It is easy to go along with what is socially acceptable or politically correct and cut divergent opinions or stories that don’t fit the current world-view out of our history, both religious and political. These differing opinions and stories are often important later on. We don’t know what we will need at some future time. Attitudes change and then we realize too late what we have lost, never to be recovered. We need to learn to include these variant opinions. Then we will not mourn the loss of important information down the road, as we will have a more complete view of our history. Shabbat Shalom.
|
