Beha'olotecha

Beha'olotecha – Ben Baginsky

Ben is a movement worker for LJY-Netzer, the youth movement of Liberal Judaism. He graduated from the University of Leeds in 2008 with a BA in Cultural Studies and is currently studying for an MA in child development at the Tavistock Centre. He will be leaving LJY-Netzer in August 2010.

Research indicates that the first couple of years of life are crucial. While change is possible throughout life, the patterns laid down in infancy have a major impact on how we behave as we get older. In Parasha Beha'aolotecha Moses compares himself to a mother: "Did I give birth to them? But you told me that I must carry them in my bosom, as a nurse carries an infant until we come to the land that you swore to their ancestors." Reading about Israel's time in the desert is our best opportunity to reflect on our collective infancy and to consider what – if anything – impacted on our future development. 

As in any infancy, food plays a major role. The Israelites are hungry. They begin to ask when they are going to get some meat. They romanticize Egypt, remembering the meat and fish there. God hears their complaints and is furious. As punishment God gives the Israelites meat for an entire month. God's plan is to fill the Israelites up with so much meat they'll be sick and wish they'd never asked for meat in the first place. God informs the Israelites: "You will eat it until it is coming out of your nose." God as exasperated parent. 

Another parallel to infancy is the sibling rivalry. Miriam and Aaron turn on Moses because of the "dark-skinned" woman he had married. Putting their racism aside for a moment, this is classic childhood behaviour. Where there are three siblings there are often two factions. Again sounding like a fed up parent, God demands: "All three of you go out to the Communion Tent." God turns Miriam leprous. Shocked by the severity of the punishment, Aaron pleads that it be toned down. God relents and quarantines Miriam outside of the camp for one week. The Israelites have to wait. How many times has a parent or a teacher said: "Well, because X thought it would be a good idea to throw sand we're all be going late for playtime while we wait for him to clean it up"?

I like the idea of comparing this period of Israelite history to infancy but I'm not sure what it means. What do we learn? Our ancestors acted selfishly and so have we? This doesn't necessarily follow. What I do think is remarkable is that we have so candid a description of our infancy. Infancy is a time of innocence. But it is also brutish. Even the most cared-for infants respond to base instincts: hunger, etc. Perhaps fortunately we have no capacity to remember what we were like at the very beginning. What we would remember might upset us. Beha'alotecha arrests our forgetfulness. It doesn't tell us that our ancestors were all heroes. But it also doesn't tell us they were evil. As ever, it tells us a basic fact: there is a mix of both inside each human. It therefore reminds us to be neither too hard nor too easy on ourselves, just honest about our strengths and weaknesses. And if this is what we learnt in infancy it's a good guide for what we should collectively practice in maturity.