It is very difficult to penetrate the spirit of Mosheh, Moses, and understand his reaction to the constant difficulties he had to face while leading the Jewish nation. Although the people had emerged practically unscathed from the Egyptian persecution, there is no doubt that their travels in the desert that would last 40 years in that inhospitable and hostile environment, became fertile for complaint and depression, conducive to insurrection. For Moses it was an unprecedented adventure, even more so when from the beginning – as will be expressed in the episode of Sneh, the burning bush – he had at first declined the invitation to lead the people.
Moses listened to the counsel of his father-in-law Yitro and appointed 70 sages to accompany him in the task of teaching, settling differences between litigants, and passing judgment when necessary. Although he exercised leadership in conjunction with this body, which eventually led to the establishment of the Sanhedrin, the people knew that authentic leadership rested upon Moses’ shoulders. Hence Moses’ personal desperation in the case of the people’s discouragement while eating Man, the manna that rained daily from heaven, and their insatiable appetite for meat consumption, which is clearly in short supply in the wilderness.
Because of the discontent of the people and their lack of appreciation for all that had been done, God expressed anger with our ancestors and Moses reacted in the same way. But in Moses’ case, the disgust was probably twofold: although he was enraged at the people, perhaps he was also angry with himself. That is why Moses desired death, but preferably at the hands of God and not at the hands of an ungrateful people.
Although Moses intervened on behalf of the people so that God would not exchange them for another, at the same time he could not hide his disappointment at the lack of chivalry of the masses. Ultimately, the cause of the protest was not the tasteless taste of the Man which, according to the Midrash, reflected the taste of each individual. The protest was a manifestation of discontent with a life of routine while in the desert, the absence of change, and the consequent boredom.
Actually, it was a rebellion against Divine Providence, because after receiving a set of laws at Sinai that had put a brake on their carnal appetites and demanded general ethical behavior, the uniformity of the desert landscape produced no spiritual satisfaction.
They are even nostalgic for slavery on the banks of the Nile River, with its changing nature, a melting pot in the midst of the most important cultural environment of the time. But an authentic leader does not let himself be carried away by disappointment and ingratitude, he reflects and feels empathy for human weaknesses and, above all, highlights the virtues that emerge from the people because of the challenge and rigor of the desert.
Notwithstanding setbacks and personal reservations, Moses becomes the great defender of the Hebrew people and argues with God so that He does not choose another people, even assuming responsibility for the mistakes of others. The leader has an ambivalent role: he must keep his distance from those he leads and, on the other hand, must identify totally with their destiny. The leader must feel in his own flesh the pain and anguish that surround his people.
Moses prepared for eighty years to assume the leadership that ended after 40 years on the borders of the Promised Land. He didn’t set foot in the Promised Land, but he visualized it. He climbed Mount Nevo, and got a panoramic view of the nature of Israel, but perhaps something more forceful: he reviewed the events of the last 40 years and formulated a perspective on what the tomorrow would be for that rebellious but heroic person, complex but willing to spread to the ends of the earth the idea of the existence of the one Creator, the God of Humanity.
MITSVAH: TORAH ORDINANCE IN THIS PARASHAH
CONTAINS 3 POSITIVE MITZVOT AND 2 BANS
- Numbers 9:11 Offering Pesach Sheni on the 14th of Iyar
- Numbers 9:11 Eating the Pesach Sheni offering on the 14th of Iyar
- Numbers 9:12 Leave nothing of the Pesach Sheni offering for the next day
- Numbers 9:12 Do not break any bones of the offering Pesach Sheni
- Numbers 10:9-10 During battles and each offering, the Trumpets sound in the Temple
