Xenophobia
has been around as long as humans have walked the earth; it probably existed
among earlier homo sapiens. It seems that whenever we create an “us” we have automatically designated a “them.” Israel escaped the clutches of a
Pharaoh who saw only “us” and “them”:
וַיָּקָם מֶלֶךְ-חָדָשׁ,
עַל-מִצְרָיִם,
אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יָדַע,
אֶת-יוֹסֵף.
וַיֹּאמֶר,
אֶל-עַמּוֹ: הִנֵּה, עַם בְּנֵי
יִשְׂרָאֵל--רַב וְעָצוּם,
מִמֶּנּוּ
A
new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look,
the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with
them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may
join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.” (Exodus
1:8-9)
Now,
nearing the end of their 40-year trek through the Wilderness, passing through
Moab on their way to Eretz Yisrael, the Israelites encounter yet another king
cut in the same cloth: Balak, son of Tzippor, king of Moab:
וַיָּגָר מוֹאָב
מִפְּנֵי הָעָם, מְאֹד--כִּי רַב-הוּא;
וַיָּקָץ מוֹאָב,
מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי
יִשְׂרָאֵל.
וַיֹּאמֶר מוֹאָב אֶל-זִקְנֵי מִדְיָן,
עַתָּה יְלַחֲכוּ
הַקָּהָל אֶת-כָּל-סְבִיבֹתֵינוּ,
כִּלְחֹךְ הַשּׁוֹר,
אֵת יֶרֶק הַשָּׂדֶה; וּבָלָקבֶּן-צִפּוֹר מֶלֶךְ
לְמוֹאָב, בָּעֵת הַהִוא.
Moab
was afraid because that people was so numerous Moab dreaded the Israelites, and
Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this horde
will lick clean all that is about us as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” (Numbers
22:3-4)
How
remarkable that either Pharaoh or Balak would fear this disheveled band of
former slaves. Fear is often expressed at hatred. That is the case with both
Pharaoh, who responds by enslaving the Hebrew, and with Balak, who responds by
seeking the services of the prophet Balaam to curse Israel.
Torah
never abides in a vacuum. It is a living, breathing document off which we
bounce the events and challenges of our lives. An explication of this week’s parashah,
Balak, demonstrates this. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was
partitioned three times in the late 18th century, ultimately wiping out a
sovereign Polish nation for 123 years, by the Russian Empire, the King of
Prussia, and Hapsburg Austria. The first partition, in August 1772, brought an
enormous number of Jews into the Russian Empire. The second partition, in
January 1793, included the town of Berditchev, where Rabbi Levi Yitzhak lived
and taught. How to absorb “hordes” of Jews proved a dilemma for Russia
as much as an impossibility for Balak. Russia feared their numbers and
influence, not to mention “Judaizing,” a term deriving from the Christian
New Testament[1] that
connotes the fear that (in this case, Orthodox Russians) would be drawn to
Jewish ways and perhaps convert to Judaism. To us in the 21st century this may
seem absurd, but it was a real and potent fear in the 18th century: Catherine
the Great created the Pale of Settlement in 1791 following the failures of her
predecessors to expel Jews entirely from Russia, unless they converted to
Russian Orthodoxy.
In this
environment, through the lens of the historical situation and exigencies of
life, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev reads Balak. He notices that in Numbers
22:3, cited above, Israel is referred to first as “the people” and subsequently as “the Israelites.” Here is the verse again:
וַיָּגָר מוֹאָב
מִפְּנֵי הָעָם, מְאֹד--כִּי רַב-הוּא;
וַיָּקָץ מוֹאָב,
מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי
יִשְׂרָאֵל
Moab
was afraid because that people was so numerous Moab dreaded the Israelites… (Numbers
22:3)
Levi
Yitzhak, in Kedushat Levi notes that Midrash Exodush Rabbah 42:6 and the
Zohar 2:45b explain the use of the terms by telling us that am (“people”) refers
to the erev rav (“mixed
multitude”) that
left Egypt with Moses. Torah tells us that other people attached themselves to
the Jewish nation and escaped Egypt along with the Hebrews. The text itself,
Levi Yitzhak, hints at why Moab feared the Israelites: the term וַיָּגָר (“feared” pronounced va-yagar) sounds
very much like the term גרים (geirim, “proselytes”). Balak was
afraid his own people would convert and join the Jewish people, and thus he
hated them.
We might
be inclined to think that Levi Yitzhak would next explain why this is a problem
for Moab, yet what he says is surprising, because it’s actually
more of a problem for Israel:
This
is why Moab feared the people greatly, meaning the mixed multitude, the
proselytes who were joined to Israel. For they were numerous, and they
were especially talented at raising up sparks…
For a
hasidic mystic like Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, “raising up sparks” alludes to the Kabbalistic notion of
the cosmic efficacy of studying Torah and fulfilling mitzvot.
Howard
Schwartz, master of Jewish storytelling and mythology, explains Kabbalistic
cosmogeny beautifully and succinctly:
At
the beginning of time, God’s
presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring this world into being,
to make room for creation, He first drew in His breath, contracting Himself.
From that contraction darkness was created. And when God said, “Let
there be light” (Gen. 1:3), the light that came into being
filled the darkness, and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with
primordial light.
In
this way God sent forth those ten vessels, like a fleet of ships, each carrying
its cargo of light. Had they all arrived intact, the world would have been
perfect. But the vessels were too fragile to contain such a powerful, divine
light. They broke open, split asunder, and all the holy sparks were scattered
like sand, like seeds, like stars. Those sparks fell everywhere, but more fell
on the Holy Land than anywhere else.
That
is why we were created — to gather the sparks, no matter where they
are hidden. God created the world so that the descendants of Jacob could raise
up the holy sparks. That is why there have been so many exiles — to
release the holy sparks from the servitude of captivity. In this way the Jewish
people will sift all the holy sparks from the four corners of the earth.
And
when enough holy sparks have been gathered, the broken vessels will be
restored, and tikkun olam, the repair of the world, awaited so long, will
finally be complete. Therefore it should be the aim of everyone to raise these
sparks from wherever they are imprisoned and to elevate them to holiness by the
power of their soul.[2]
The Ari
(Rabbi Isaac Luria, 1534-1572, sometimes known also as the Arizal, was the
father of Lurianic Kabbalah) taught that “raising the sparks” is accomplished through Torah study
and the performance of mitzvot, but not in a narrow and rigid sense. The Ari
taught: “"There
is no sphere of existence including organic and inorganic nature, that is not
full of holy sparks which are mixed in with the kelippot [husks] and need to be
separated from them and lifted up."
Raising
the sparks requires more than cultural absorption, difficult as that is for one
who converts to Judaism; it requires spiritual devotion and great commitment.
Many who convert to Judaism come with a wealth of spiritual devotion and
commitment. They are eager to cast their lot with the Jewish people and take on
the obligations of Jewish life. If we are honest, most of us have said at one
time another, “Some
converts make the best Jews.” As Levi
Yitzhak put it, “they
were especially talented at raising up sparks.” Converts can be a challenge to Jews,
born into the tradition, who have not had reason to carefully consider their
identity and commitment. I have met many families whose dynamic is discomfited
and balance thrown out of kilter by an eager and enthusiastic soul who joins
Israel and joins that family, imbued with a desire to live a full Jewish life
beyond the normal scope of the family.
Would that
all of us, regardless of our background and upbringing, could come to Jewish
tradition, learning, and practice, with the open eyes and searching soul of one
who comes to it anew: questioning, challenging, appreciating, marveling,
absorbing, adapting, shaping, and renewing traditions that have been passed
from generation to generation—and then passing them along to the
next generation with love and joy.
(Fireworks
photos were taken July 3, 2014 in Columbus, Ohio.)
© Rabbi
Amy Scheinerman
[1] But
when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I
said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live
like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like
Jews?” (Galatians 2:14)
No comments:
Post a Comment