Haftarat Korach—1 Samuel: No Kings?

“You said to me: ‘No, for a king must be king over us!’ But Y-H-V-H, your God, is your king!” (1 Samuel 12:12)

A king makes the rules and wields absolute power over his people, the prophet Samuel warns in this week’s haftarah¹ reading (1 Samuel 11:14-12:22). Like other biblical prophets, Samuel insists that this role belongs only to God. Yet the Israelites demand a human king.

The government of the Israelites is decentralized and minimal until Saul becomes king in the first book of Samuel. Prophets communicate God’s laws and decrees to the people. In each town and village, respected elders meet to judge cases and interpret the laws. The general community enforces its elders’ rulings. And when an enemy threatens more than one town, the elders of the region call for a war leader to command their fighting men until the threat is over.

Occasionally a notable Israelite holds two of these positions, but never three. Moses and Samuel serve as both the prophet and the appeals judge for the Israelites,² but neither is a war leader. Joshua is a judge and war leader, but not a prophet.³ In the book of Judges, Gideon and Yiftach are war leaders who become local judges.⁴

But after the Israelites ask Samuel to appoint a king, everything changes.

Samuel’s first warning

The initial reason for their request is that Samuel is preparing for retirement as the circuit judge. He appoints his two sons as judges in Beer-sheva, a town about 59 miles (95 km) south of his own home base in Ramah.

But his sons did not walk in his ways, and they were bent on following profit, and they took bribes and bent justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. And they said to him: “Hey! You have grown old, and your sons have not walked in your ways. Now appoint a king for us, leshaftanu, like all the nations!” (1 Samuel 8:3-5)

leshaftanu (לְשָׁפְטַנוּ) = to judge us, to govern us. (From the verb shafat, שָׁפַת.)

In other words, the elders of all the Israelite towns and villages demand a king to replace Samuel and his sons as the court of appeals. They overlook the facts that kings are also succeeded by their sons, and that kings govern through more than judging cases.

Rabbi Steinsaltz explained: “… the rule of judges is unstable and national leadership has begun in Israel … The elders did not wish to dismiss Samuel from his position, but they wanted to regularize and facilitate the continuation of a central authority. They turned to the prophet because he had the power to decide on behalf of all Israel.”⁵

And the matter was bad in Samuel’s eyes … and Samuel prayed to God. And God said: ‘Listen to the voice of the people … However, you must definitely warn them; and you must tell them the procedures of the king who will be king over them.” (1 Samuel 8:6-9)

The kings of other countries in the Ancient Near East, especially Egypt and Assyria, issued new laws as well as administrative decrees. They served as appeals judges, and they also enforced their own rulings. They conducted all foreign policy, including war. They funded their personal and administrative costs through taxes, and imposed corvée labor⁶ and military service on their people.

So Samuel tells the Israelites:

“This will be the procedure of the king who will be king over you: he will take your sons for himself, and put them in his chariots and on his horses … and to plow his plowing and to harvest his harvest, and to make his battle weapons and his chariot weapons. And he will take away your daughters for ointment-makers, and cooks, and bakers. And he will take away your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves, the best ones, and give them to his courtiers.” (1 Samuel 8:11-14)

Samuel adds that a king will also take slaves owned by the Israelites for himself, and tithe everyone’s produce and livestock.

But the people refused to pay attention to Samuel’s voice, and they said: “No! Rather, let a king be over us, and we, we too, will be like all the nations! Ushefatanu, our king, and he will go out in front of us and fight our battles!” (1 Samuel 8:19-20)

ushefatanu (וּשְׁפָטָנוּ) = and he will judge us, and he will govern us. (Also from the verb shafat.)

The people are so swept up in the idea of having their own king, one man to serve as both judge and war leader for all the tribes, that Samuel’s warning makes no impression on them. They probably cannot imagine their own king commandeering their sons and daughters, farms, slaves, and livestock. They would only have experienced these losses when a foreign king conquered part of their territory. So Samuel resigns himself to finding a king for the Israelites.

Samuel makes Saul the first king

In another town on Samuel’s circuit as an appeals judge, God identifies the future king of Israel: Saul, a tall, handsome young man who has never done anything. And Samuel anoints him.⁷

Samuel gathers the Israelites at Mitzpah, and casts lots, knowing that God will make the lot indicate Saul. But when it does, Saul “has hidden himself among the baggage” (1 Samuel 10:22), and the elders have to haul him out to be presented.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the new king. But when the king of Ammon threatens a town in Gilead, God inspires Saul to unite the tribes and defeat the Ammonite army. In this week’s haftarah reading, after the victory, Samuel assembles the Israelites at Gilgal for a ceremony confirming Saul’s kingship. Now all the Israelites are enthusiastic about King Saul—except for Samuel.

In this week’s haftarah, Samuel first asks the crowd whether he has ever abused his position as a circuit judge.

And they said: “You have not defrauded us, and you have not oppressed us, and you have not taken anything from anyone’s hand!” (1 Samuel 12:4)

The implication is that they do not need a king as a judge.

Next Samuel argues that the Israelites do not need a permanent war leader. In the past, he says, when Israelites needed to be rescued from enemies, God inspired someone to step forward as a temporary war leader.

“And he rescued you from your enemies all around, and you lived in security. But you saw that Nachash, king of the Ammonites, was coming against you. And you said to me: ‘No! For a king must be king over us!’ Yet God is your king. But now here is the king whom you have chosen, whom you have requested. And here, God has set a king over you!” (1 Samuel 12:11-13)

The kings of the Israelites

Later, Samuel replaces King Saul with King David, who is succeeded by his son Solomon. After King Solomon dies, the Kingdom of Israel splits into two kingdoms because Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, imposes harsher corvée labor than his father.⁸

Yet according to the Hebrew Bible, none of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah make the Israelites quite “like all the nations”. Although Israelite kings do issue decrees, judge cases, conduct wars and other foreign affairs, and impose taxes and obligatory labor, they do not wield absolute power. Unlike neighboring kings, they are not considered divine, and they are forbidden to interfere with the priests—or to ignore the laws in the Torah.⁹

The “No Kings” protests on June 14, 2025, made me wonder what Samuel would think of President Donald Trump.

(The inspiration for the “No Kings” protests included Trump’s own comment “Long live the king!” on a social media platform in February, and his deluge of executive orders that exceeded previous restraints on presidential power. The date for “No Kings” coincided with a military parade Trump had arranged. The slogan “No Kings” was also reminder of the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention, both dedicated to the ideal of democratic self-governance.)

On laws and decrees. Samuel believed that God was the people’s true king, and that any government could not transgress God’s laws recorded in the Torah. In the United States, the constitution fills a similar function—although unlike the Torah, it can be amended. (Samuel would probably disapprove of the freedom of religion clause in the first amendment to the U.S. constitution. But he never questions freedom of speech, or the right of people to assemble and petition him.)

No one had real power to make new rules until there were kings, who issued unilateral decrees. Samuel warned that kings ruling by decree could seize family members and personal property.

The American constitution established an elected legislative branch to write new laws as needed, and an elected president to administer those laws. But in the 20^th century, as Congress became increasingly impotent, presidents issued executive orders that did not just administer programs, but also initiated or effectively eliminated programs. This “imperial presidency” has reached its peak (so far) in the first part of Trump’s second term as president. I suspect Samuel would disapprove of any head of state ruling by unilateral decree, even if courtiers or lawyers justified the decrees by referring to laws written for other purposes.

On judges. In ancient Israelite territory, judges interpreted the written laws and determined whether they have been transgressed. Local judges, i.e. a court of elders in a village or town, referred difficult cases to appeals judges like Samuel. Samuel would have approved of the separate judicial branch in the U.S. constitution—especially the right of the Supreme Court to overthrow laws it deemed unconstitutional.

On enforcement. Samuel preferred the self-policing communities of the Israelites before they had a king. He did not specifically address the question of who would enforce a king’s decrees, but he denounced the seizures of human beings and personal property that he said were the typical results of those decrees.

In the United States today, municipalities, counties, and states provide police to enforce the law, but technically there is no federal police. The national guard of each state serves as a militia in the event of an emergency, and Trump recently mobilized California’s national guard over the governor’s protests. He has also expanded the policing authority of ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Authority. Samuel would have denounced both moves as the unethical actions of a king.

On war and foreign policy. Samuel advocated for the old Israelite custom that in the event of a war, the elders of collaborating towns would call for a volunteer general, and the communities would muster their own soldiers. Samuel warned against setting up a permanent war leader, and he accused kings of drafting soldiers. He would have denounced the clause in Article 2 of the U.S. constitution, which makes the president the commander in chief of all the armed forces.

He would have had a more favorable opinion of the clauses in Article 1 of the constitution that assign Congress the right to declare war and to regulate commerce with foreign nations.

But the delay in declaring war became unwieldy in the mid-20^th century, and presidents began issuing executive orders to engage in military actions—wars in all but name. This year, President Trump has executed a military action against Iran, as well as ordering tariffs on goods from foreign nations. Samuel would consider these the actions of a king.

The only kings today are constitutional monarchs with ceremonial roles, so “king” has become a friendlier word. People who have the powers of Ancient Near Eastern kings are called autocrats instead. Some autocrats begin their careers with an election. But then they take the law into their own hands, like the ancient kings, and deprive people of their customary rights and freedoms. Voters do not always know who will turn out to be an autocrat.

At this point, Samuel would probably consider President Trump a king.

The haftarah is the weekly reading from the Prophets that accompanies the Torah portion. This week’s Torah portion is Korach in the book of Numbers.
Samuel is a circuit-court judge who travels from town to town judging cases that the elders cannot resolve (1 Samuel 7:15-17). However, Deuteronomy 17:8-9 decrees that in the future, when a town’s elders cannot reach a verdict, they must take the case to the priests or appointed judge at the yet-to-be-built temple. This temple is built by King Solomon in 1 Kings.
The high priest uses lots and magical devices to interpret God’s desires in the book of Joshua.
Judges 6-8, 11.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Introductions to Tanakh, I Samuel, reprinted in www.sefaria.org.
Corvée labor is unpaid, forced labor imposed by the government on some of its residents for a fixed period of time. The pharaohs in the book of Exodus imposed a corvée on the Israelites then extended the time period indefinitely.
1 Samuel 9:1-21.
1 Kings 12:1-20.
Deuteronomy 17:19-20.

Haftarat Shelakh-Lekha—Joshua: Loyalty, Kindness, or Exchange?

English makes a clear distinction between “loyalty” and “kindness”. Loyalty means a long-term, committed allegiance; a loyal person consistently supports a person or a social group no matter what happens. Kindness means acting with generosity, thoughtfulness, or consideration; you can do a kindness for a stranger you will never see again.

But in Biblical Hebrew, the word chessed (חֶסֶד) covers both loyalty and kindness. The translation depends on the context—but it also colors the interpretation.

For example, Abraham uses the word chessed when he is explaining to the king of Gerar why both he and Sarah said they were brother and sister, when in fact they are husband and wife. He claims that if strangers knew they were married, they would kill him to get her; but if a man who wants her (such as the king) believes Abraham is only Sarah’s brother, the man would pay him to take her as a concubine, and Abraham would live.¹

Abraham’s Counsel to Sarah, by James Tissot, ca. 1900, detail

“When God made me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: ‘This is your chessed that you will do for me: At every place where we arrive, say of me: He is my brother.’” (Genesis 20:13)

If chessed is translated as “kindness” here, the implication is that Sarah lies about her marital status out of the goodness of her heart, as a favor to her husband. If chessed is translated as “loyalty”, the implication is that Sarah has an obligation to her husband: as a loyal wife, she must either obey him, or (if she believes Abraham’s claim about strangers) save his life by telling the lie.

The word chessed appears four times in this week’s haftarah reading, Joshua 2:1-24. (A haftarah is the passage from the Prophets that accompanies the weekly Torah portion. In this week’s Torah portion, Moses sends spies into Canaan almost 40 years before Joshua does it in the haftarah. See my post Shelakh-Lekha: Sticking Point.)

Disloyalty to king and country

In this week’s haftarah, the Israelites are camped on the east bank of the Jordan River, across from the city-state of Jericho. Moses has died, and the people are poised to begin the conquest of Canaan under their new leader, Joshua. Before he leads his troops around Jericho and the walls come tumbling down, Joshua sends two spies across the river. They slip through the city gates as evening approaches, and go to a prostitute’s house.

Someone in town sees the two strangers, assumes they must be spies from the horde of Israelites camped right across the river, and tells the king of Jericho. The king immediately sends a message to the prostitute, Rachav, saying:

Rahab Receiveth and Concealeth the Spies, by H.R. Pickersgill, 1897

“Bring out the men who came to you, who came into your house, because they have come to search out the whole land!” (Joshua 2:3)

Naturally the king of Jericho wants to interrogate the two spies, and then make sure they never report back to the Israelite camp.

Thinking fast, Rachav tells the king’s messengers:

“True, the men came to me, but I do not know where they were from. And it was, the gate was closing at dark, and the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Quick, chase after them, for you might overtake them!” (Joshua 2:4-5)

As a loyal subject and citizen, Rachav should have handed over the two Israelites—not only because her king ordered it, but also because they are enemies of her own city-state. But she has secretly decided to defect to the other side, so she lies to the king’s men. They believe her, and run off to look for the two spies at the fords along the Jordan River.

Allegiance to a deity

Rachav hides the two Israelites on her roof, under the stalks of flax she had spread out to dry.²

And before they lay down, she herself came up to them on the roof. And she said to the men: “I know that Y-H-V-H has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen over us, and that all the land’s inhabitants are quivering before you. Because we heard that God dried up the waters of the Reed Sea before you when you went out of Egypt, and what you did to the two Amorite kings who were across the Jordan …³ And we heard, and our hearts melted [in fear], and no spirit of life rose again in a man before you, because Y-H-V-H is your god. He is God in the heavens above and on the earth below!” (Joshua 2:8-11)

Once she has declared her faith in the God of Israel (a necessary step for defecting and joining the Israelites), and provided some valuable information about the morale of the people of Jericho, Rachav asks the two spies to repay her for saving them from the king of Jericho’s men.

Loyalty to family

“And now, please swear to me by Y-H-V-H, since I have done chessed for you, then you will also do chessed for my father’s household, and you will give me a sign of emet; and you will preserve the lives of my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, and all those who belong to them, and you will rescue our souls from death!” (Joshua 2:12-13)

emet (אֱמֶת) = reliability, faithfulness; truth.

Rachav asks the spies to save her whole family as well as herself. Yet in the Hebrew Bible, a prostitute supports herself by taking customers because she is not supported by her father, brother, or husband. Rachav’s father and brothers are still alive. Either they refused to let her live with them, or she is an unusually independent woman who chose to set up her own house and business, even though it would shame the whole family.

Despite this earlier rift, Rachav is now loyally doing chessed for her family by requesting that the spies save their lives as well.

Exchange of favors

But although Rachav is loyal to her family, she has not yet had an opportunity to join the Israelites and pledge her loyalty to them. So when she points out that she has done chessed for the two spies, she means she has done them a kindness or a favor.

When she asks the spies to swear that they will do chessed for her and her family, she is not asking for an act of kindness or an act of loyalty. She is asking for reciprocity, an exchange of favors.

Later in the story of the conquest of Canaan, the word chessed is employed that way when some Israelite scouts see a man leaving the town of Beit-El. They stop him and propose an exchange of favors:

“Please show us the way to enter the town, and we will do chessed for you.” And he showed them the way to enter the town, and they struck the town with the edge of the sword, but they sent free the man and his whole clan. (Judges 1:24-25)

Rachav’s proposal is more formal, calling for an oath and a reliable sign from the two men.

And the men said to her: “Our souls to die instead of yours—as long as you do not tell about this business of ours! And it will be, at Y-H-V-H’s giving the land to us, that we will do with you chessed and emet.” (Joshua 2:14)

The combination “chessed and emet” can be translated as “reliable loyalty” or “true kindness”, depending on the circumstances. Here, the men are not pledging to be kind, but to be loyal—loyal to the reciprocal arrangement that Rachav requested.

Thorough kindness

After dark, Rachav completes her initial act of kindness by helping the two spies leave the town unnoticed.

Escape from Rahab’s House, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860

Then she let them down by a rope through the window—since her house was in a recess of the wall, and in the [city] wall she lived. (Joshua 2:15)

Fortified cities in the Ancient Near East were encircled by double (casemate) walls, with rooms between the two walls. At strategic points, these rooms were occupied by soldiers, but other stretches of wall were available to those who could not afford larger quarters.

And she said to them: “Go to the hills, lest the pursuers encounter you, and stay hidden there for three days, until the pursuers return. After that you may go on your way.” (Joshua 4:16)

Rachav tells the spies to hide in the hills to the west of the Jordan valley, the opposite direction from the river where the “pursuers”—the king’s men—will be guarding the fords.

Before they leave, the two spies designate the sign of emet that Rachav asked for.

“Hey, we will be coming into the land. Then you tie this cord of red string in the window through which you let us down; and you gather your father and mother and brothers and your father’s whole household to yourself in the house. And it will be: anyone who goes outside the doors of your house, his blood will be on his own head and we will be innocent. But anyone who is with you in the house, his blood will be on our head, if a hand is against him. But if you tell about this business of ours, then we will exempt from this oath of yours you had us swear.” (Joshua 4:18-20)

The spies make sure the terms of the arrangement are spelled out so they can avoid any mistakes or misunderstandings.

And she said: “As you have spoken, so be it!” And she sent them off, and they went. And she tied the red cord through the window. (Joshua 2:21)

The two spies follow Rachav’s directions, and after hiding in the hills for three days, they arrive safely back at the Israelite camp. When the Israelite troops come to Jericho, Joshua orders them to kill all the people in the city, except Rachav and everyone with her in her house.⁴ While the city wall is collapsing and the rest of the troops are running through killing people, the two spies fulfill their oath by bringing Rachav and her family out to safety.

And Rachav the prostitute, and her father’s household, and everyone who was hers, Joshua let live. And she settled in the midst of Israel, to this day, because she had hidden the messengers whom Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho. (Joshua 6:25)

Some people remain loyal to a person or a country no matter what. Others are loyal only as long as the person or government meets their ethical standards. And some people act loyal only when it is in their self-interest.

Rachav acts in her own self-interest when she becomes disloyal to her king, her city-state, and the god of Jericho. But her request that the Israelites save her family is an act of loyalty to her relatives. She hides the two Israelite spies as an act of kindness. When she realizes that this is her opportunity to defect to the Israelite side, she frames her kindness as a favor, and asks the men to return the favor. After they do, Rachav becomes a loyal citizen of Israel. For her, chessed encompasses impulsive kindness, the practical exchange of favors, and loyalty—both to the family she was born into, and to the people she chose.

See my post Lekh-Lekha, Vayeira, & Toledot: The Wife-Sister Trick, Part 1.
Joshua 2:6.
The two Amorite kings are Sichon and Og; Israelite soldiers conquer their kingdoms, Chesbon and Bashan, in Numbers 21:21-35, once their families have camped above the Jordan River across from Jericho.
Joshua 6:17.

Beha-alotkha: Cold Feet, Dry Throat

The Israelites followed Moses out of Egypt in an adrenaline rush. After years of being treated as sub-human disposable labor by the pharaoh and most Egyptians, they were free! Their Egyptian neighbors gave them gold, silver, jewels, clothes, swords—anything to make them leave so the plagues would end.¹ Moses told his followers that God would give them the whole land of Canaan as their own country.² They did not wonder what would happen to Canaan’s current inhabitants. All they had to do was follow God and God’s prophet, Moses, to happiness and glory.

An adrenaline rush does not last. Anxiety plagued the people along the way, because everything depended on God’s help. They panicked when God delayed in rescuing them from the Egyptian chariots at the Reed Sea,³ and they panicked whenever they were uncertain about food or water.⁴ When Moses disappeared into the fire on top of Mount Sinai for 40 days, they panicked so much that they made a golden calf for God to inhabit.⁵ Then God gave them an alternative, and they spent a contented year making a portable tent-sanctuary for God to dwell in.

But once the new Tent of Meeting was completed and its new priests were ordained, it was time to leave Mount Sinai and head north toward Canaan.

Military service

When the book of Numbers opens, God tells Moses to take a census of men aged 20 and over—

“—everyone in Israel going out to war; you will muster them for their troops, you and Aaron.” (Numbers 1:2)

Illustration of Numbers 2, by Jan Luyken, 1673

There is a separate census of the Levites, whose war duty is to guard the Tent of Meeting while the Israelites are encamped. Each Levite clan is assigned a campsite next to one side of the Tent, and the other twelve tribes must camp in a larger square around them. (There are twelve tribes not counting the tribe of Levi, because at this point the descendants of Joseph count as two tribes, Efrayim and Menashe.)

And God spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: “Each in its contingent, under the banner of their fathers’ house, the Israelites will camp, at a distance surrounding the Tent of Meeting they will camp. Those camping eastward, toward sunrise: the contingent of the camp of Judah, by their troops … (Numbers 2:1-3)

When they pull up stakes, they will travel in military formation, from Judah at the front to Naftali at the rear. (The Torah does not tell us where the women and children are in this army; we are left to assume they are walking with the men of their tribes.) And God will give the marching orders. This week’s Torah portion, Beha-alotkha, reminds us:

At God’s order the cloud would rise up from above the tent, and after that the Israelites would break camp; and in the place where the cloud would settle down, there the Israelites would camp. (Numbers 9:17)

Silver trumpets in Numbers 10, 19th-century illustration

But then we learn that the signal of the divine cloud is not enough; God also calls for two silver trumpets. When a priest blows a single short blast, the leaders of the Israelites must assemble at the Tent of Meeting for instructions. A longer, trilling blast means that that the people must march.

And when you enter into battle in your land with an attacker who attacks you, then the trumpets should cry out, and you will be remembered before God, your God, and you will be delivered from your enemies. (Numbers 10:9)

Thus when the Israelites finally leave Mount Sinai, they leave as an army expecting to fight for the land of Canaan.

Rebellion

They march north for three days, then camp in the Wilderness of Paran.

And the people became like bad complainers in the ears of God. God heard, and [God’s] nose heated up [with anger]. And a fire of God burned against them, and it ate up the outer edge of the camp. Then they wailed to Moses for help, and Moses prayed to God, and the fire sank down. (Numbers 11:1-3)

The book of Numbers does not tell us what the people are complaining about this time. According to Rashi, they felt sorry for themselves because they had walked for three days without stopping to camp, and they were weary.⁶ But according to Da-at Zekinim,

“The people were already mourning the potential casualties they would incur when going into battle against the Canaanites in order to conquer their land. They were lacking in faith and dreading warfare.”⁷

After the fire, people start complaining again.

Still Life with a Plate of Onions, by Van Gogh, 1889

Then the asafsuf who were among them felt a lusting lust. And moreover, the Israelites turned away and wept, and they said: “Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt at no charge, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic! And now our nefesh is dry. There is nothing except for the manna before our eyes!” (Numbers 11:4-6)

asafsuf (אֲסְפְּסֻף) = rabble, riffraff; the non-Israelites who joined the exodus from Egypt. (They are called the eirev rav (עֵרֶב רַב)—the“mixed multitude”—in Exodus 12:38.)

nefesh (נֶפֶשׁ) =throat, appetite, life (in the sense of the animating force that makes one’s body alive).

First the asafsuf feel a lusting lust. Some commentators have written that they crave forbidden sexual relations; others that they lust for meat, and the Israelites pick up on their complaint. The manna that God provides every morning magically meets everyone’s nutritional needs, but not their emotional needs.

Their fond memories of some of the foods they ate in Egypt reveal that sometimes they wish they were still Pharaoh’s servants, instead of God’s. “… we are confronted by yearnings and nostalgia for a humdrum, small-time existence, a life of serfdom subject to their habits, passions and desires.” (Leibowitz)⁸

Life as God’s people seems too hard. In Egypt, they did not need to exercise any self-discipline, or follow so many rules. As long as they did whatever their foremen told them to, for as many hours as they were forced to work, they were fed “at no charge” and they could indulge in whatever pleasures they liked during their miniscule amounts of free time.

“The terrible price they had to pay for this give-away diet—slavery, suffering, persecution, murder of their children—is conveniently forgotten.” (Abravanel)⁹

Yet they lived at Mount Sinai for a year without complaining, the year when they were engaged in making the Tent of Meeting for God—a cooperative project calling for skilled craftsmanship. What has changed now, a three-day journey north of the mountain?

I would argue that now they are facing war, against unknown enemies. None of the Israelites were soldiers in Egypt. They engaged in only a single battle on their journey to Mount Sinai, when Amalek attacked them.¹⁰ The only other time anyone used the swords they took from Egypt was right after the golden calf worship, when Moses ordered the Levite men to go through the camp and kill the worst offenders.¹¹

Yes, God rescued them many times on the way to Mount Sinai. But how could God make it easy to fight a long war against the Canaanites and seize all their land? They are not soldiers. How can they face all those battles? If God will no longer let them live quietly in the wilderness, they would rather be slaves in Egypt. Just thinking about the war ahead fills them with fear and dread. And they are close to the southern border of Canaan now. Desperate for a distraction and a respite from anxiety, the people long for comfort food.

We all live with anxiety about what will happen next. We might be afraid of an attack, or we might worry about our health, our work, our family, our country, our world. And most of us know about “good” strategies for managing anxiety and carrying on. I used to take long walks while singing prayers. These days, I find respite by studying and writing about Torah, and I fortify myself with naps, physical therapy, and nutritious food such as fish and leeks.

But when too many appointments and obligations use up my self-discipline, and I feel overwhelmed, I sit down with a pint of gelato. I crave sensual distraction. So I slowly savor every spoonful of gelato. Sometimes it takes a whole pint before I calm down.

I feel sorry for the people in this week’s Torah portion, who only have manna and memories.

Exodus 11:1-3, 12:33-36 and 13:18.
Exodus 6:2-8, 12:25, 13:5, 13:11
Exodus 14:1-31.
Exodus 15:22-25, 16:2-3, 17:1-7.
Exodus 24:17-18, 32:1-6. See my post: Vayakheil & Ki Tisa: Second Chance.
Rashi is the acronym of 11^th-century rabbi Shlomoh ben Yitzchak.
Da-at Zekinim, a 12^th-13^th century collection of commentary by tosafists, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Bamidbar (Numbers), translated by Aryeh Newman, The World Zionist Organization, Jerusalem, 1980, pp. 95.
Yitzchak Abravanel, 15^th century, quoted and translated in Leibowitz, p. 99.
Exodus 17:8-13.
Exodus 32:26-28.

Naso, Bemidabar, & Vayakheil: Reconstructing

(It is a pleasure to type effortlessly and comfortably again! I am glad return to my favorite work: writing about Torah.)

Model of Tent of Meeting in Timna Valley Park, Israel

The Tent of Meeting that the Israelites make as a dwelling for God in the book of Exodus is 10 cubits wide, 10 cubits high, and 30 cubits long. (Ten cubits equals about 15½ feet, or 4¾ meters.) This boxy tent stands in the back half of an open courtyard, slightly smaller than an Olympic-sized swimming pool, with a linen wall stretched between acacia wood posts around its periphery.

Neither the tent nor the courtyard is a permanent structure.

In the first two Torah portions of the book of Numbers, we learn how everything is dismantled, transported, and reassembled at the next campsite on the Israelites’ long journey north from Mount Sinai—and who is responsible for the wood, the fabric, and the holy furnishings.

Exodus: Vayakheil

Neither the inside cloth nor the outside cloth of the Tent of Meeting is sewn into a continuous shell.

And all the wise of mind among the makers of the work, the mishkan, made ten cloths of fine twisted linen threads and blue, purple, and red [dyes]; they were made with a design of keruvim. (Exodus 36:8)

mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) = (literally) dwelling place. (In the books of Exodus through Numbers, mishkan always refers to the portable tent-sanctuary where God dwells, at least part-time, in the tent’s back chamber, the Holy of Holies. After its first assembly, in Exodus 40:17-33, it is also called the Tent of Meeting and the Tent of Testimony. One common English translation for mishkan is “tabernacle”.)

Keruv, ivory from Samaria, 9th-8th century BCE

keruvim (כְּרֻבִים or כְּרוּבִים) = hybrid creatures with wings. Singular keruv. (Two gold keruvim rise from either end of the gold lid of the ark in the Holy of Holies, the back chamber of the mishkan, and keruvim are woven or embroidered into some of the fabrics of the mishkan as well.)¹

Each of these ten tapestries is 4 cubits wide (about 2 yards or meters) by 28 cubits long (about 14 yards or meters), long enough to drape across the ceiling frame and hang down on both sides just short of the ground. Fifty loops of blue wool are sewn down both side edges of each cloth, and the loops are connected with gold clasps.

And fifty gold clasps were made, and the cloths were joined, each one to the other, with the clasps. And the mishkan became one [piece]. (Exodus 36:13)

Someone has to fasten a row of 50 clasps nine times, every time the Tent of Meeting is assembled; and unfasten them all when the tent is dismantled again. (The open end of the mishkan is covered with a free-hanging curtain, so it serves at the entrance. A hanging curtain also separates the Holy of Holies from the main chamber inside the tent.)

The outside of the framework is covered with similar cloths woven from goat-hair, joined together by bronze clasps. Two layers of leather lie on top of the goat-hair cloth over the roof.

The frame of the tent roof is made from acacia wood bars, but the three walls are solid acacia wood: wide upright planks stabilized with cross-bars. Two tenons at the bottom of each plank fit into silver sockets in wood bases. And even though these wooden elements are hidden by linen inside and goat-hair fabric outside, they are covered with gold!² Each of the 48 upright planks is over 15 feet tall and 3 feet wide, so erecting and dismantling the underlying wooden structure means a lot of heavy labor.

Numbers: Bemidbar

The book of Numbers opens after the Israelites have made the Tent of Meeting and all its furnishings (in Exodus), and ordained new priests for the revised religion (in Leviticus). Before the people leave Mount Sinai and head north, God organizes them for the coming conquest of Canaan.

The first Torah portion, Bemidbar, opens with God calling for a census of soldiers for future combat: the men age 20 and older in every tribe except Levi. The Levites are exempt from battle because they are assigned their own “army” duty: transporting and guarding the Tent of Meeting.

And they will be in charge of all the gear of the Tent of Meeting, and the Israelites’ charge to serve the service of the mishkan. (Numbers 3:8)

Campsites of 12 tribes and 3 clans of Levites

When God signals that the people must pull up stakes, the Levites dismantle the Tent of Meeting. They carry the furnishings, the fabric, and the wood on every journey. When the Israelites pitch camp again, the Levites erect God’s tent in the middle and the courtyard wall around it. They pitch their own tents immediately around the courtyard, and serve as guards to prevent any unauthorized persons from encroaching on the sacred space.

There are three clans of Levites, named after the three sons of Levi listed in Genesis 46:11: Gershon, Kohat (or Kehat), and Merari. Sons in a biblical genealogy are list by birth order, so Gershon was born first, then Kohat, then Merari last.

And the charge of the Gershonites at the Tent of Meeting was the mishkan and the tent: its coverings, and the curtain of the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and the cloths of the courtyard, and the curtain of the entrance of the gate of the coutyard, which is near the mishkan and near the altar—all around; and their cords, and all its service. (Numbers 3:25-26)

The descendants of Levi’s middle son, Kohat, are responsible for transporting the holy items inside the mishkan, and the bronze altar in the courtyard.

Their charge was the ark, the table, and lampstand, and the altars, and the holy utensils for ministering to them, and the curtain, and all their service. (Numbers 3:31)

The only curtain that this clan is responsible for is the one inside the tent that divides the main chamber from the Holy of Holies.

But why are the descendants of Levi’s middle son responsible for the holiest items of the mishkan? In the book of Genesis, the firstborn son of each extended family becomes responsible for making burnt offerings to God. If the people followed this precedent, the descendants of Levi’s oldest son, Gershon, would be in charge of the holiest things.

However, in Exodus and Numbers, the job of burning offerings for God is transferred to the priests, with assistance from Levites. All priests are descended from the first high priest, Moses’ brother Aaron. Moses and Aaron’s father, Amram, is a descendant of Kohat, the middle son of Levi.³ That means the rest of the Kohatites are Moses’ and Aaron’s closest relatives. No wonder they become responsible for transporting the holiest items in the mishkan.

As for the descendants of Levi’s youngest son:

The Merarites are appointed for the charge of the beams of the mishkan and its bars, and its uprights, and its sockets, and all its gear, and all its service; and the uprights of the courtyard, all around, and their sockets, and their tent-pegs, and their cords. (Numbers 3:36-37)

While the men in the other tribes of Israel are mustered into the army at age 20, the work of disassembling, carrying, reassembling , and guarding the Tent of Meeting is restricted to Levite men between the ages of 30 and 50. (See my post Bemidbar: Two Kinds of Troops.)

When God’s cloud lifts from above the mishkan, indicating that it is time for the Israelites to journey on, the priests enter the tent first. Aaron and his sons Elazar and Itamar wrap up the ark, bread table, lampstand, and gold incense altar inside, and the bronze altar in the courtyard. (See my post Bemidbar: Covering the Sacred.) The embroidered curtain that divides the Holy of Holies from the main chamber of the mishkan becomes the first of three layers covering the ark.

Only after these holy objects are completely covered, so they cannot be seen or touched, may the other Kohatite men pick them up by their carrying poles. And only after the Tent of Meeting is empty may the Gershonites and Merarites begin dismantling it.

Numbers: Naso

This week’s Torah portion, Naso, opens with God’s instructions regarding the Gershonites and Merarites between the ages of 30 and 50—

—everyone who enters to do military service of the military, to serve the service at the Tent of Meeting. (Numbers 4:23 for Gershonites, Numbers 4:30 for Merarites)

They are non-combatants in any future battle because they must be continuously responsible for all the elements of the tent itself, as well as its unroofed courtyard.

Once the sacred objects have been removed, the Gershonites take down all the lengths of fabric and leather, carefully undoing 950 clasps. They handle the lightest objects, so their work requires the least physical strength. But it requires the most patience and delicacy.

The Merarites do heavy physical labor. Furthermore, disassembling and reassembly the wooden structure with its upright plants, cross-bars, and bases, is a team effort requiring coordination between the men so that nothing collapses.

Once the wooden structure is stable, the fabric layers have all been fastened to make continuous walls and roofs, and the holy objects are all in place, only the priests may enter the mishkan. But the Levites remain on duty, assisting in the courtyard, and guarding the sacred space they have rebuilt.

Some people excel at fine detail work, like the Gershonites. Others are good at team projects on a grand scale, like the Merarites, whether they help organize the team or do the heavy lifting. We need both kinds of people to build a community.

And although everyone who has contributed tries to guard their community and keep it going, no congregation, association, institute, or enterprise continues forever unchanged. At some point, it will fall apart—unless the Gershonites and Merarites in the group pitch in to carefully dismantle the old structure, help everyone move to a place that meets the people’s new needs, and then use the elements of the old structure to build a new one. And we need people like the Kohatites to carry the most sacred goals and values of the community into the next stage.

Never underestimate a Levite.

For more on keruvim, see my post Terumah: Cherubs are Not for Valentine’s Day.
Exodus 36:34.
Exodus 6:20.
Numbers 4:5-6. See my post Bemidbar: Covering the Sacred.

2 Kings & Tazria: Skin

This is my last blog post before a surgery that will prevent me from writing for a month. My next post will probably be the first week of June. In the meantime, here are some earlier posts for the rest of Leviticus and the first portion in Numbers:

May 4-10: Acharei Mot & Kedoshim: Fire of the Molekh
May 11-17: Emor: Death Is Not Holy
May 18-24: Behar: The Injustice of Wealth
May 25-31: Bamidbar: Two Kinds of Troops

Naaman. by Pieter Fransz de Grebber, 17th century, detail

Na-aman, head of the army of the king of Aram, was an important man to his master, and high in his favor, because through him God had saved Aram. And the man was a mighty warrior, a metzora. (2 Kings 5:1)

metzora (מְצֺרָע) = one stricken with tzara-at (צָרַעַת) = a disease characterized by patches of unnaturally white skin (possibly vitiligo), or scaly white skin (possibly a form of psoriasis). (Tzara-at was formerly mistranslated as “leprosy”.)

What would it mean for an important public official in Aram to have an obvious skin disease?

An Israelite metzora

The skin disease tzara-at is a major topic in this week’s Torah portion, Tazria (Leviticus 12:1-13:59), as well as in the accompanying haftarah, the story of Na-aman in 2 Kings 5:1-19.

The Torah portion includes detailed and lengthy instructions for determining whether a skin affliction counts as tzara-at. If a priest determines that it does, the metzora must live outside the camp (or later, outside the town), isolated from the rest of the community.¹ If someone else gets within shouting distance,

… then he must call out “Tamei! Tamei!” All the days that the mark is on him, he will be tamei. He is tamei, dwelling alone, his dwelling outside the camp. (Leviticus 13:45-46)

tamei (טָמֵא) = ritually impure; polluted, contaminated, defiled.

The instructions in Leviticus apply to Israelites. But General Na-aman is an Aramaean.

An Aramaean metzora

The kingdom of Aram was located between the kingdom of Israel² and the expanding Neo-Assyrian Empire. (The Assyrians conquered Damascus, the capital of Aram, in 732 B.C.E. and Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, in 720 B.C.E.) Although no Aramaean documents relating to skin disease have been unearthed, we do have cuneiform documents showing how Assyrians viewed skin diseases.

A recent study of these tablets concludes:

“Someone displaying skin imperfections might involuntarily unsettle his peers in everyday social interactions and the gods during religious and ritual events. Therefore, purity represented both a form of everyday cleanliness and a ritual requirement.”³

Since certain skin diseases resulted in isolation and ritual impurity in both Israel and Assyria, it is likely that they were treated that way in Aram, as well. So is not out of place for the Aramaean general in this week’s haftarah to say that if bathing in a river cured tzara-at, he could have stayed home in Damascus, which had two small rivers.

“Couldn’t I bathe in them, and become tahor?” (2 Kings 5:12)

tahor (טָהוֹר) = ritually pure. (Sometimes tahor is used metaphorically to describe something physically clean or morally pure.)

Na-aman as a metzora

Let’s look again at the opening verse of this story:

We are not told when Na-aman’s skin develops white patches. A reasonable assumption, given the widespread custom of excluding people with skin abnormalities from regular social intercourse, is that Na-aman was important to and favored by the king of Aram before he got tzara-at, and now that he has the disease, his position is threatened. That would explain why Na-aman goes to a lot of trouble in search of a cure.

Just as people in the Neo-Assyrian Empire believed the gods punished individuals for bad deeds by afflicting them with skin diseases, medieval Jewish commentators believed that God punished people in the Hebrew Bible for bad character traits. Bamidbar Rabbah, a 12^th-century commentary, cites Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi bar Rabbi Shalom, who said that eleven bad traits led to being afflicted with tzara-at: blasphemy, illicit sex, illicit bloodshed, slander, arrogance, trespassing, lying, stealing, swearing false oaths, profanity, and idol worship. Rabbi Yehudah then cited cases of individuals in the Hebrew Bible whom he claimed had tzara-at, and identified their bad character traits.

Rabbi Yehudah said: “For arrogance, this is Naaman … It is that he had an arrogance of spirit because he was a great warrior. It is due to this that he was afflicted with leprosy.” (Bamidbar Rabbah)⁴

Na-aman’s arrogance

General Na-aman does exhibit arrogance during the first part of the haftarah. On his quest for a cure, he travels with an escort of men, horses, and chariots, and he brings riches in gold, silver, and clothing to pay anyone who heals him. That is how things are done by men in high positions.

When he arrives at the prophet Elisha’s house in Samaria, he and his retinue halt, and he waits for the prophet to come out and greet him. But Elisha just sends out a messenger to tell the general:

“Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your skin will be restored and be tahor.” (2 Kings 5:10)

Naman stalks away, saying:

“Hey! I thought he would surely go out to me, and stand and call on Y-H-V-H, his god, and wave his hand toward the spot, and cure the disease. And aren’t the Amanah and Parpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I bathe in them and become tahor?” And he turned and went off in a rage. (2 Kings 12:11-12)

He is too important to be told, second-hand, to take a bath! He wanted a magic show! Na-aman is also arrogant about his own country, assuming that the very small rivers in the capital of Aram are superior to any river in Israel.

Then his servants approached and spoke to him, and they said: “My father, [if] the prophet spoke to you of a great thing, wouldn’t you do it? Then how much more when he says to you: Wash and be pure.” (2 Kings 5:13)

Addressing a superior as “my father” was a sign of respect in the Ancient Near East, the equivalent of saying “sir”.

The Cleansing of Naaman, Biblia Sacra Germanica, 1466

Then he went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had spoken. And his skin was restored, like the skin of a little boy, and he was tahor. (2 Kings 5:14)

Na-aman overcomes his arrogance because he is not too self-centered to listen to the advice of his social inferiors.

In fact, he began his quest for a cure by listening to the advice of a social inferior. His wife is waited on by a girl whom Na-aman’s men kidnapped when they were raiding in the kingdom of Israel. Out of the kindness of her heart, the Israelite slave tells her mistress:

“Oh, I wish that my master were in front of the prophet who lives in Samaria! That’s when he would be cured of his tzara-at!” (2 Kings 5:3)

A more arrogant and self-centered man might assume that a foreign slave could not possibly know anything about the subject. But Na-aman believes her.

And [Na-aman] came and told his master, saying like this, like that, the girl from the land of Israel said. (2 Kings 5:4)

Reactions of two kings and a prophet

Na-aman’s master, the king of Aram, does not listen to what his general is telling him about a prophet in Samaria. Perhaps he is distracted by the sight of Na-aman’s tzara-at, and has subconsciously stopped treating his general as an important man. At least the king writes a letter for Na-aman to take to the king of Israel. But when Na-aman delivers the letter, the king of Israel opens it and reads:

“Behold, I have sent to you my servant Na-aman! And you will cure his tzara-at!” (2 Kings 5:6)

The king of Israel tears his clothing, and cries out:

“Am I God, to deal death and life, so this person sends to me to cure a man of his tzara-at? Indeed, you see that he is looking for a quarrel with me!” (2 Kings 5:7)

The king of Israel absolutely does not want another war with Aram. He tears his clothes in despair because he is so self-centered, he assumes that the letter is a communication from one king to another, and Na-aman is just the delivery man. It never occurs to him to investigate whether the famous prophet Elisha, who lives in Samaria, could cure Na-aman.

But Elisha sends the king of Israel a message saying:

“Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, please, and he will learn that there is a prophet in Israel!” (2 Kings 5:8)

Elisha is polite to the king, but he also sounds boastful (though it is true that Elisha has a track record of miracles). When Na-aman does show up at the prophet’s house, Elisha does not open the door to greet him, but merely has a servant tell the general what to do. We do not learn at first whether Elisha is too arrogant to greet a visitor himself, or whether he has an ulterior motive.

A deliberate outsider

I think Elisha does not greet Na-aman when he first arrives because he wants to test Na-aman’s character. Social considerations do not matter to him because he works directly for God.

When Na-aman returns from dipping in the Jordan, Elisha apparently does open the door, because the text says Na-aman “stood in front of him” (2 Kings 12:15). Na-aman says politely:

“Here, please! I know [now] there is no god on all the earth except in Israel. And now please take a gift from your servant.” (2 Kings 12:15)

Elisha Refusing the Gifts of Naaman, by Pieter Fransz de Grebber, 17th century

After all, he brought all that gold, silver, and clothing from Aram in the first place to pay for his cure. But Elisha replies:

“Y-H-V-H lives, whom I wait on, if I take—!” (2 Kings 5:16)

This is a literal translation of a statement containing two biblical idioms. “Y-H-V-H lives” means “As God lives,” or “By the life of God,” and serves as an introduction to swearing an oath.⁵ Elisha’s oath here is “If I take—” with the rest of the sentence omitted. When someone in the Hebrew bible starts a sentence with “If I” and does not finish the sentence, it is because the implied ending is “may I be cursed”, and nobody wants to curse themselves. So allowing for the two idioms, Elisha is swearing that he will not take anything from Na-aman.

Na-aman presses him to accept the gift, but he still refuses. Elisha might be refusing in order to get Na-aman to think of a way to express his gratitude to God instead of to the prophet who is God’s agent. But declining riches is not a hardship for Elisha, who is indeed a “man of God”; from the time he becomes Elijah’s disciple until he dies,⁶ he does not ask for anything but food, a place to sleep, and respect for himself and for God. Although he lives in a place where the trappings of social status matter,⁷ Elisha is a deliberate outsider.

Then Na-aman says:

“If not, then let your servant be given a load of dirt, [enough] for a pair of mules; because your servant will never raise up a burnt offering or a slaughter offering to other gods, but only to Y-H-V-H. [But] for this thing may Y-H-V-H forgive your servant: when my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down there, and he is leaning on my arm so I must bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may Y-H-V-H pardon your servant in this thing.” (2 Kings 5:18)⁶

Elisha says: “Go in peace.” (2 Kings 5:19) In the Hebrew Bible, this is a polite way for a superior to give a subordinate permission to leave on a mission.⁸

Now that Na-aman no longer has tzara-at, he can return to being the king of Aram’s right-hand man, the one the king leans on, literally as well as figuratively. He can resume his old place in society. But he decides to be an outsider in one regard: he will worship the god of Israel, the erstwhile enemy of Aram. The experience of being a metzora has changed him.

Today some people are like the authors of this week’s Torah portion in Leviticus, considering diseases and other misfortunes punishments from God, so it is right to exclude the metzora. Others are like the king of Aram in the haftarah, too distracted by the appearance of people who do not look normal by their standards to pay attention to what they say. Some are like the king of Israel, too wrapped up in themselves and their own issues to spare a thought for anyone else.

But some people are like the Israelite girl and Na-aman’s attendants, trying to help even those who have power over them. And some are like Na-aman, paying attention, thinking, and growing.

Leviticus 13:1-44.
According to the Hebrew Bible, there was a single kingdom of Israel which split up in 931 B.C.E. into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
“Ancient Mesopotamian views on human skin and body: a cultural–historical analysis of dermatological data from cuneiform sources”, by Dr. Francesca Minen (published March 6, 2019), in Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2018.0056#FN6R.
Bamidbar Rabbah 7:5, translation in www.sefaria.org.
“Y-H-V-H lives” appears as an introduction to an oath 46 times in the Hebrew Bible, and only 3 times as an exclamation. (In addition, Job swears once that he will be honest using the word “Eil” instead of “Y-H-V-H” and God swears an oath using the phrase “I live” 17 times.) In 2 Kings, the prophet Elisha swears an oath starting with the phrase “Y-H-V-H lives” five times (2 Kings 2:2,4,6; 3:14; and 5:16).
1 Kings 19:19-21, 2 Kings 13:29.
See the addendum to the story, 2 Kings 5:20-27, in which Elisha’s own servant tricks Na-aman in order to get enough wealth to buy“olive groves and vineyards and flocks and herds and male and female slaves”. (2 Kings 5:26)
The text informs us that two methods of worship, for Aramaeans as well as for their Israelite neighbors, were slaughtering and burning animals, and bowing down to an idol. Until now, Na-aman has been worshiping Rimmon, the god of Aram. He assumes that there are no universal gods, only gods of particular lands; and therefore that he can only worship Y-H-V-H by making his animal sacrifices on top of some dirt from Israel.
E.g. Exodus 4:18, where Moses asks his father-in-law Yitro, the head of the household, permission to return to Egypt, and Yitro says “Go in peace” (leikh leshalom, לֵךְ לְשָׁלוֹם, literally “go to peace”).

Shemini: Follow the Rules

The first animal offerings on the new altar are devoured by God’s fire—and so are two of the new high priest’s sons.

The Consecration of Aaron and his Sons, Holman Bible, 1890

The new portable tent-sanctuary, also called the Tent of Meeting, is complete. The first five priests of the revised religion are dressed in their new vestments. Moses has sacrificed a “ram of ordination”; daubed its blood on Aaron, the new high priest, and his four sons; and splashed the rest of the blood on the new altar in front of the tent. After that, Aaron and his sons have spent seven days sitting in the entrance of the tent-sanctuary.

This week’s Torah portion, Shemini (Leviticus 9:1-11:47), opens on the eighth (“shemini”) day, when the high priest slaughters the animal offerings for the first time. Aaron applies the blood to the horns, base, and sides of the altar, and lays out the prescribed animal parts over the wood fuel inside.

Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and he blessed them. And he came down from doing the guilt-offering, the rising-offering, and the wholeness-offering. Then Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting. And they went out, and they blessed the people. (Leviticus 9:22-23)

The text does not say why Moses and Aaron pop into the Tent of Meeting and back out. One common answer in the commentary, as explained in the 17^th-century commentary Siftei HaChamim, is:

“Since the incense is a service performed inside [the Tent of Meeting], Moshe could not teach Aharon during the seven days of installation, and he needed to teach him on the eighth day of the installation.”¹

But it seems odd to interrupt the dramatic inauguration of the priests and the altar for a lesson on how to burn incense on the incense altar inside the tent—a job the high priest would not perform until sunset anyway.²

Another line of commentary theorizes that Moses and Aaron are waiting for God to make the next move. When nothing happens, they go inside God’s tent to pray. Perhaps they even say a prayer the back chamber, the Holy of Holies, where God promised to dwell in the empty space above the ark. According to Sifra, circa 300 C.E.:

“When Aaron saw that all the offerings had been sacrificed and all the services had been performed and the shekhinah had not descended upon Israel, he stood and grieved: “I know that the Lord is wroth with me [because of the Golden Calf].” … Whereupon Moses entered [the tent] with him, they implored mercy, and the shekhinah descended upon Israel.”³

The term shekhinah (שְׁכִינָה), meaning God’s presence dwelling in the world, was not invented until after the fall of the second temple in 70 C.E. The book of Leviticus says that after Moses and Aaron come out and bless the people, everyone sees God’s kavod emerge from the tent.

And the kavod of God appeared to all the people. And fire went out from in front of God, and it consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. And all the people saw, and they shouted in joy and they threw themselves on their faces. (Leviticus 9:23-24)

kavod (כָּבוֹד) = glory, weight, magnificence, authority; (later) shekhinah.

If the divine fire starts “in front of God”, it apparently goes through the curtain screening off the Holy of Holies, through the main chamber of the tent, and out through the entrance curtain, without burning anything. Then God’s fire lands on the altar in front of the tent-sanctuary, and instantly creates a blaze that consumes the animal parts laid out there.

The people’s year of labor fabricating the Tent of Meeting has been crowned with success! No wonder they shout joyfully and prostrate themselves.

Meanwhile, Aaron’s two younger sons, Elazar and Itamar, are apparently just standing outside, waiting for instructions. But his two older sons, Nadav and Avihu, do something on their own initiative.

And Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu took, each one, his fire-pan. And he put embers in it, and he placed incense on it, and he brought it close before God—zarah fire, which [God] had not commanded them. (Leviticus 10:1)

zarah (זָרָה) = strange, foreign, unauthorized.

Aaron the High Priest (at the incense altar), by Ephraim Moshe Lilien, 1914, detail

The commentary assumes that since Nadav and Avihu “brought it close before God”, they went inside the Tent of Meeting—as Moses and Aaron had done shortly before. Yet God’s instructions in Exodus are that incense for God is to be burned only on the gold incense altar in the main chamber of the sanctuary tent, and only by the high priest. Aaron must burn incense on the incense altar at sunset and sunrise, when he tends the lamps of the menorah. And he must burn the incense on embers brought in from the big altar outside. God adds:

“You may not bring up any zarah incense on it!” (Exodus 30: 9)

Nadav and Avihu, being only assistant priests, are not authorized to burn incense on the gold altar at all.

Moses and Aaron are allowed to go in and out of the Tent of Meeting, and to pray to God there, so they did not break any rules when they popped inside between blessings. But Nadav and Avihu violated God’s rules about incense: they used their own embers and their own fire-pans, and they usurped one of the high priest’s jobs. None of this was authorized, so their incense was zarah in three ways. Furthermore, they did not consult with their father or their uncle Moses first, to see if they had forgotten any rules that Moses had passed down from God.

The Two Priests are Destroyed, by James Tissot, circa 1900

And fire went out from in front of God, and it consumed them; and they died in front of God. (Leviticus 10:2)

Why did they do it?

My favorite theory about why Nadav and Avihu risk death to bring unauthorized incense to God is that they are impulsive mystics. They are reckless because they are eager for the ecstasy of another close encounter with God, like their encounter partway up Mount Sinai when they and the 70 elders saw God’s feet on a sapphire pavement. (See my post: Shemini: Fire Meets Fire.)

But Jewish commentary offers other theories. This year, I am struck by the theory that God’s fire rushes out from the Holy of Holies only once, killing Nadav and Avihu on the way to igniting the animal parts on the altar.

One piece of evidence is that the two descriptions of God’s fire start with identical language in Hebrew. Here are direct English translations:

And fire went out from in front of God, and it consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. (Leviticus 9:24)

And fire went out from in front of God, and it consumed them; and they died in front of God. (Leviticus 10:2)

Rashbam, a 12^th-century commentator, explained the timing: “Fire came forth from before God—from the Holy of Holies … The fire found Aaron’s two sons there, near the golden [incense] altar, and it burned them to death. Then the fire went out of the Tabernacle to the copper altar where it consumed the burnt offering and the fats on the altar.”⁴

In this reading, Moses and Aaron have emerged from the Tent of Meeting and are outside blessing the people while Nadav and Avihu slip behind them and bring their own incense into the tent. God’s fire does not rush out of the tent until after the two assistant priests are inside.

Zornberg explained in her recent book, The Hidden Order of Intimacy: “Nadav and Avihu are on fire to bring God’s presence into their midst. Only in this way will the shadow of the Golden Calf be removed. This passion is pragmatic in its thrust: to resolve the suspense of waiting for the sacrifices to be consumed. It is, starkly, a passion to consummate the sacrificial rituals. The Netziv⁵ imagines the situation—the crowds of Israelites waiting for the revelation of the consuming fire: an element of social pressure plays its part.”⁶

Although God never promises to inaugurate the altar with divine fire, the crowd of Israelites is no doubt expecting to see something spectacular. It would be a disappointing anticlimax if the new priests had to light the first fire on the altar—the fire that is supposed to be so holy that it can never be allowed to go out.⁷Naturally all the people are delighted when God’s miraculous fire rushes right through the entrance curtain of the tent-sanctuary and pounces on the altar.

All the people except Nadav and Avihu, who are dead because they disobeyed God’s rules at a critical time.

The book of Leviticus is primarily a priests’ handbook, listing rule after rule about how to correctly run a religion that no longer exists. The Israelite way of worship based on animal sacrifices died out quickly after the Romans destroyed the second temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. Since then, Jews have worshipped God through prayer, study, and good deeds. Few of the laws in Leviticus apply any more; the major exceptions are the rules for keeping kosher in Leviticus 11:1-23, and the ethical injunctions in the “Holiness Code”, Leviticus 19:1-35, which includes “Love your fellow as yourself” and “You must not place a stumbling-block in front of the blind”.⁸

Yet even when specific rules for worship no longer have any application, the concept of following the rules remains crucial. On a political level, the rule of law is necessary for civil society, and if the leader of a nation overrides it, everyone’s liberty is imperiled. On a religious level, each group has its own norms of behavior, and anyone who violates them too extravagantly will disrupt and perhaps even destroy a congregation. And on a personal level, we can function well in families and other social groups only when everyone observes basic rules of courtesy.

I believe it is good to question rules that may be outdated, and to suggest new rules to meet new needs. But human beings need rules. Without them, the best of us do unintended harm to others, and the worst of us get away with murder.

Siftei HaChamim, 17^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Exodus 30:7-8.
Sifra, circa 300 C.E., translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rashbam (12^th-century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir), translation in www.sefaria.org.
The Netziv is the nickname of Naphtali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, a 19^th-century rabbi who wrote Ha-Amek Davar.
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Hidden Order of Intimacy: Reflections on the Book of Leviticus, Schocken Books, New York, 2022, p. 98.
Leviticus 6:12-13.
See my posts: Kedoshim: Ethical Holiness, Kedoshim: Love Them Anyway, and Kedoshim: Vilification and Hindrance.

Ki Tisa: Apotheosis of Moses?

(This is my twelfth and final post in a series about the evolving relationship between Moses and God in the book of Exodus/Shemot. Next week’s post will be back in sync with the Jewish weekly readings. Meanwhile, this is Passover week! If you’d like to read one of my posts on Passover, you might try: Pesach & Vayikra: Holy Matzah.)

Moses: from fearful loner to authoritative leader

When Moses walks over to look at the bush that burns but is not consumed, he is a curious man who has compassion for the victims of bullies,¹ but he also has a history of anxiety. After a problematic childhood as an Israelite who was adopted by Egyptian royalty, he fled a murder charge in Egypt, then found a home with a Midianite priest. Safe but still wary, the last thing Moses wants to do is return to Egypt.

Moses and the Burning Bush, by Domenico Zampieri, 17th century

Then God speaks to him out of the fire, and Moses hides his face. (See my post: Shemot: A Close Look at the Burning Bush.) God tells him that he will be the human leader of the victimized Israelites in Egypt; Moses must give the pharaoh ultimatums, then conduct the people from Egypt to Canaan.

Moses tries to excuse himself from the job. He is certain that he is not qualified (see my post: Shemot: Empathy, Fear, and Humility); that the Israelites will not believe or trust him (see my post: Shemot: Names and Miracles); and that he cannot speak well (see my post: Shemot: Not a Man of Words). But God patiently answers his every objection, like a parent with a resistant child. Panicked, Moses begs God to send someone else. God coaxes Moses into cooperating by promising that his long-lost brother Aaron will help him (see my post: Moses Gives Up).

Back in Egypt, Moses gradually changes. During his first few negotiations with the pharaoh, he simply parrots the words God gives him, but as his confidence grows he adds words of his own. It helps that a powerful deity backs him up with miraculous plagues, and it helps that the pharaoh and his court treat Moses with increasing respect. (See my post: Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds His Voice.)

When he leads the Israelites across the wilderness to Mount Sinai, they are the ones who behaved like wayward and frightened children. Moses behaves like a nervous new parent. He asks God, his mentor, for advice, but he also acts on his own initiative. (See my posts: Beshalach: Moses Graduates and Yitro: Moses as Middle Manager.)

At Mount Sinai, God pursues a formal covenant with the Israelite people. Between them, God and Moses arrange a covenant four times. (See my post: Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant.) The third of the four covenants is entirely Moses’ creation, and includes all of the people in a dramatic ritual with standing stones, animal sacrifices, blood splashing, and a public reading of the laws God has told Moses so far. The fourth covenant, God’s idea, is when the elders behold God’s “feet” and hold a feast (the Ancient Near East equivalent of a signing ceremony for a treaty).

Then Moses spends 40 days on the mountaintop listening to God outline a revamped religion, which includes a sanctuary tent where God will dwell in the midst of the people. But the Israelites below think Moses will never return, and they ask Aaron for an idol to follow instead. Aaron makes the Golden Calf, and the people worship it—a clear violation of the covenant with God.

On the 40^th day God offers to exterminate the people and start over with Moses’ descendants, but Moses passes God’s test and remains loyal to the Israelites. He walks down to the camp and smashes the two stone tablets engraved by God, but God recognizes Moses’ right to make decisions and takes no action. (See my post: Ki Tisa: Taking Risks.) The co-leaders arrange a massacre and a plague that kill the worst Golden Calf worshippers.

Then God tells Moses that a messenger will lead the Israelites to Canaan, because God is too angry to go in their midst. Moses presses God to reverse that decision, and also to pardon all the surviving Israelites. God seems favorable toward both requests, but never makes an explicit commitment. (See my post: Ki Tisa: Seeking A Pardon.) A lack of openness between the two leaders of the Israelites continues through the book of Numbers, with Moses pitching arguments designed to flatter and influence God, and God making decisions that are close to what Moses requests but not exactly the same.²

The story about Moses’ second 40-day stint at the top of Mount Sinai illustrates that the working relationship between the two leaders is not the only thing that changes.

Moses and God: shifting commitments

At the burning bush, God was determined to rescue the Israelites from Egypt and give them the land of Canaan. Moses tried to get out of being personally involved, even though he was empathetic toward all victims of bullies.

By the time Moses leads the Israelites to Mount Sinai, he has unreservedly embraced the mission God gave him, and he would do anything to make sure the Israelites as a people get to Canaan, even if individual Israelites have to die along the way. So after the Golden Calf worship, he focuses on restoring good relations between God and the people.

But God views the Golden Calf as a personal rejection, and seems less committed to the Israelites after that episode. God starts calling the Israelites Moses’ people, and shies away from recommitting to God’s earlier plan to dwell among them in the sanctuary tent.³ Twice in the book of Numbers, God threatens to wipe out all the Israelites.⁴

The God character: a new development

Nevertheless, when Moses asks to see God’s “ways”, “glory”, and “face”,⁵ God shows him what Jews now call “The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy”, including compassion, patience, loyal-kindness, and a willingness to exonerate (some of) the guilty.⁶ Although God continues to smite people in sudden fury from time to time, this description of God indicates a change in the God character that was depicted earlier in the Torah.

And right after the revelation of the Thirteen Attributes, when Moses begs God once more to pardon the people, God says:

“Hey, I am cutting a covenant: In front of all your people I will do wonders that have not been created on all the earth and among all the nations. And all the people in whose midst you are, they will see the doing of Y-H-V-H, how awesome it is what I do with you.” (Exodus 34:10)

The only awesome deed God mentions is driving out the six peoples living in Canaan when the Israelites arrive there. This is a promise that God will “give” them the land of Canaan, even though God is still calling them “your people” (Moses’ people) instead of “my people”. In return, the Israelites must refrain from making idols or bowing down to any other god and reject the gods of Canaan by destroying their objects of worship. They must also refuse to make covenants with the natives of Canaan, and avoid intermarriage with them. Then God throws in some of the earlier rules about observing religious holidays and donating firstborn animals and first fruits to God.

Then Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Write these words for yourself, because according to these words, I cut a covenant with you and with Israel.” (Exodus 34:27)

So even if God does not explicitly pardon the people, as Moses asked, God is now patient and loyal enough to propose another covenant.

Moses: an apotheosis?

Moses on Mount Sinai, by Jean-Léon Gérôme,
1895-1900

The experience of beholding God’s attributes also changes Moses in ways that might be considered an apotheosis: deification or elevation to divine status.

And he was there with Y-H-V-H forty days and forty nights. Bread he did not eat, and water he did not drink. And [God] engraved on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words. (Exodus 34:28)

Exodus does not say whether Moses went without food or drink the first time he spent 40 days at the top of Mount Sinai, though it is hard to imagine him trudging up to the barren volcanic mountaintop carrying enough food and water on his back to last 40 days. But Exodus does say that Moses lives without eating or drinking during his second 40-day stint.⁷

Shemot Rabbah explained: “What, then, did he eat? He was sustained by the aura of the Divine Presence. Do not wonder, as the heavenly beasts that bear the Throne are sustained by the aura of the Divine Presence.”⁸ This makes Moses like the serafim in Isaiah’s vision or the divine creatures in Ezekiel’s vision, at least temporarily.⁹

Rabbeinu Bachya wrote: “Moses’ nourishment during these forty days was provided by the attribute חסד and the radiation of supernatural light.”¹⁰ Chesed, חסד, is the “loyal-kindness” in God’s thirteen attributes. This commentary implies that God’s new gentle and compassionate approach sustains Moses so that he can live on the supernatural equivalent of light.

At the end of Moses’ first 40-day stint on the mountaintop, God gave him a pair of stone tablets that were already engraved. These were the tablets that Moses smashed at the foot of the mountain when he saw the ecstatic worship of the Golden Calf. For Moses’ second 40-day stint, God tells him to hew out his own stone blanks and carry them up.¹¹ Then God engraves them after revealing the Thirteen Attributes. Moses may even see the words appearing on the stones.

And it was, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai—and the two tablets of testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from Mount Sinai—then Moses did not know that the skin of his face karan because of [God’s] speech with him. (Exodus 34:29)

karan (קָרַן) = shone, was radiant.

This verb has the same root as keren (קֶרֶן ) = horn, ray of light. (The Latin translation of this verse in the Vulgate said Moses “sprouted horns”, so for centuries artists depicted Moses with two horns growing from his forehead.)

What makes Moses’ formerly ordinary face start radiating beams of light? The text says it happens because of God’s “speech with him”. Many Jewish commentators wrote that it happens when God reveals the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy to Moses. God said:

“… as my glory passes by, I will place you in a crevice of the rock, and screen you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you will see the back side of me. But my face will not be seen.” (Exodus 33:22-23)

The “back side” of God that Moses “sees” consists of the Thirteen Attributes. Either God’s supernatural hand,¹² or the experience of these divine attributes,¹³ gives Moses an inner light so strong that it shines out through the skin of his face.

On the other hand, some commentators wrote that God gives Moses a radiant face as a strategic move to make sure the Israelites continue to accept him as their leader. The 13^th-century commentary Chizkuni says:

“Seeing that prior to Moses’ return with the first set of Tablets the people had been prepared to accept another leader in Moses’ place, his emitting rays of light on his descent from the Mountain this time made a repetition of such an attempt quite unlikely.”¹⁴

And Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, and hey! The skin of his face karan! And they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:30)

Chizkuni explained: “According to the plain meaning of the verse, when they beheld him, they thought that they were looking at an angel.”¹⁵

And Robert Alter wrote: “If, as seems likely, Moses’ face is giving off some sort of supernatural radiance, the fear of drawing near him precisely parallels the people’s fear of drawing near the fiery presence of God on the mountaintop.”¹⁶

Detail from Terra Sancta, by Willem Janszoon Blaeu and Joan Blaeu, 17th century

Moses himself is not aware that his own face was radiating light, according to the 18^th-century commentary Or HaChayim, because he assumes that the extra illumination came from the second pair of stone tablets he is holding as he walks down the mountain. “As soon as he deposited the Tablets and he became aware that the light had not departed, he realised that he himself was the source of the light.”¹⁷

Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the chiefs in the congregation returned, and Moses spoke to them. And after that, all the Israelites approached, and he commanded them everything that Y-H-V-H had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 34:31-32)

According to Chizkuni, just hearing Moses’ voice calling out was enough so that “they realized that he was not an angel”. Then when Moses spoke to Aaron and the chiefs, the rest of the Israelites “noticed that no harm had come to them from his speaking to them.”¹⁸

And Moses finished speaking with them, and he put a veil over his face. And whenever Moses came before Y-H-V-H to speak with [God], he would remove the veil until he went out. And [whenever] he went out to speak with the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see Moses’ face, that skin of his face was karan. Then Moses would put back the veil over this face, until he came in to speak with [God]. (Exodus 34:33-35)

Moses exposes his altered face to God, and he to the Israelites whenever he is telling them the latest batch of rules from God. Who would question the words of someone whose face emits supernatural light? But the rest of the time when he is with people, Moses covers his face with a light-proof veil.

According to Rashi and Ibn Ezra, Moses puts on the veil out of respect for the light God has created on his face; it is not for ordinary use, or for people to gawk at. People should only see it when he is transmitting God’s instructions. According to Kli Yakar, “Moshe, in his great humility, was embarrassed when people gaped at the radiance of his face.”¹⁹

It seems as if God has turned Moses into a semi-divine being. He lives for 40 days on the aura of God’s presence, like God’s divine attendants. When he comes down from Mount Sinai, God’s supernatural fire shines through the skin of his face. Moses might look like one of the gods of other peoples in the Ancient Near East, who radiated an unearthly light called melammu. For example, a story about the Babylonian god Marduk says “With burning flame he filled his body” and “With overpowering brightness his head was crowned.”²⁰ The gods in Mesopotamian myths sometimes gave melammu to their favorite kings.

Or perhaps (if he took off his robe) Moses would look like the celestial being shaped like a man whom Daniel sees in a vision sent by Y-H-V-H:

His body was like yellow jasper, and his face had the appearance of lightning, and his eyes were like torches of fire, and his arms and legs were like glittering bronze, and the sound of his speech was like a roaring crowd. (Daniel 10:6)

But in the Hebrew Bible, the various angelic creatures in the bible are either mouthpieces for God or manifestations of God’s powers, without lives of their own.

Perhaps that is why Moses’ radiant face appears only in Exodus 34:29-35. The authors of the rest of the Torah chose to depict Moses as a human being—one who is especially close to God, but a mortal man with his own thoughts and personality.

In the next chapter of Exodus, Moses proceeds with God’s earlier plan for building a tent-sanctuary, as if God had never refused to dwell in the midst of the Israelites. And God does not challenge Moses’ stubborn human initiative.

Moses Sees the Promised Land from Afar, by James Tissot, circa 1900

When Moses is 120 years old and has finished speaking to the Israelites on the Moabite bank of the Jordan River, God tells him to climb up the heights of Aviram and look across the river at the land of Canaan. God says:

So, after delivering a prophecy about the tribes, Moses hikes up.

“You will die on the mountain where you are going up … because at a distance you will see the land, but you will not enter there, into the land that I am giving the Israelites.” (Deuteronomy 32:50, 52)

And Moses, the servant of Y-H-V-H, died there in the land of Moab, al-pi Y-H-V-H. And [God] buried him in the valley in the land of Moab … and no man knows his burial place to this day. (Deuteronomy 34:5-6)

al-pi (עַל־פִּי) = an idiom meaning at the order of, at the command of, according to the word of. Literally: al (עַל) = upon, over, on account of, because of, by. + pi (פִּי) = mouth of.

Some commentators translate al-pi as “by the mouth of”, and say that Moses dies by a kiss from God.²¹ So although Moses is not permanently transformed into a semi-divine being, he has the the most intimate human relationship with God.

And no prophet arose again in Israel like Moses, whom Y-H-V-H knew face to face. (Exodus 34:10)

Moses has already taken action against an Egyptian taskmaster beating an Israelite (Exodus 2:11-12) and male shepherds bullying female shepherds (Exodus 2:16-19). See my post: Shemot: Empathy, Fear, and Humility.
E.g. Numbers 14:11-35.
See my post: Ki Tisa: Seeking A Pardon.
Numbers 14:11-12, 17:8-9.
Exodus 33:13, 33:18, 33:20. See my post: Ki Tisa: Seeking A Pardon.
Exodus 34:6-7.
At least this is the second time Exodus says Moses spends 40 days and 40 nights on the mountaintop. But some classic commentators claimed it was the third time, the second time being the indefinite period when God and Moses converse in Exodus 33:12-34:3.
Shemot Rabbah, 12^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Isaiah 6:2-7, Ezekiel 1:5-26 and 10:1-22.
Rabbeinu Bachya (Rabbi Bachya ben Asher ibn Halawaa, 1255-1340), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Exodus 34:1.
E.g. Midrash Tanchuma (8^th century), Rashi (11^th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), and Da-at Zekinim (12^th-13^th century).
E.g. Ibn Ezra (12^th century) and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (21^st century).
Chizkuni, by Chizkiah ben Manoach, 13^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Chizkuni, ibid.
Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004, p. 512.
Or HaChayim, by Chayim ibn Attar, 18^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Chizkuni, ibid.
Kli Yakar, by Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, 16th century; translation in www.sefaria.org.
Enuma Elish IV, lines 40 and 58; translation by L.W. King.
E.g. Talmud Bavli, Moed Katan 28a, Bava Batra 17a; Rashi; Da-at Zekinim.

Ki Tisa: Seeking a Pardon

(This is my eleventh post in a series about the conversations between Moses and God, and how their relationship evolves in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Vayikra, the first in the book of Leviticus/Vayikra, you might try: Vayikra: A Voice Calling.)

Moses Destroys the Tablets, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

On top of Mount Sinai, God gives Moses a pair of stone tablets engraved with laws, and detailed instructions for making a portable tent-sanctuary. At the foot of the mountain, the Israelites despair of seeing Moses again, and start worshiping a Golden Calf. God offers to exterminate the people and start over with Moses’ descendants, but Moses remains loyal to the Israelites. Then Moses goes down and smashes God’s stone tablets without permission, but God takes no action against him. The working relationship between the two leaders, human and divine, seems strong. (See my post: Ki Tisa: Taking Risks.)

Moses, citing an order from God, arranges the massacre of 3,000 Israelites who are presumed to be the worst of the Golden Calf worshipers.¹

Then it was the next day, and Moses said to the people: “You, you are guilty of a great guilt! And now, I will go up to Y-H-V-H. Perhaps akhaprah [with God] on behalf of your guilt.” (Exodus 32:30)

akhaprah (אֲכַפְּרָה) = I may make atonement, appease, effect reconciliation.

Moses does not want the surviving Israelites to think they are in the clear, so he reminds them that they, too, bear some guilt, even those who passively stood by while others engaged in calf worship. But he also wants God to forgive the surviving Israelites, so he tries to get God to commit to a general pardon.

Forgive them or erase me

Then Moses returned to Y-H-V-H and said: “Please, this people is guilty of a great guilt; they made themselves a god of gold! And now, if you would lift their guilt— But if not, erase me, please, from the book katavta!” (Exodus 32:31-32)

katavta (כָּתָבְתָּ) = you have written, you have engraved words on.

According to Rashi, “the book you have written” means “the entire book of the Torah” and the reason Moses asked to be erased from it is “that people should not say about me that I was not worthy enough to pray effectively for them.”²

Yet in the Hebrew Bible, the only part of the Torah that God writes directly (instead of dictating to Moses) is whatever God engraves on the two stone tablets (according to Deuteronomy 5:19, the Ten Words or Ten Commandments).

Other commentators have identified “the book you have written” with “the book of life” in Psalm 69.³ Praying for the downfall of his enemies, the psalmist begs God:

“Erase them from the bookof life, and do not inscribe them among the righteous!” (Psalm 69:29)

Many psalms assume that God grants health and long life to the righteous, but Psalm 69 is the only one in which God keeps a (perhaps metaphorical) account book.⁴

So Moses is asking God to either pardon the Israelites, or give him death. I suspect he hopes that God will quickly opt to preserve the life of God’s favorite prophet, and issue a pardon.

According to Or HaChayim, “… it is one of God’s virtues that He cannot tolerate seeing His righteous people, His ‘friends,’ suffer pain. Accordingly, how could God inflict the pain of destroying His people on Moses? Surely God was perfectly aware of how Moses would grieve over the destruction of his people!”⁵

Yet God’s reply indicates that he does not fall for Moses’ either-or statement.

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Whoever is guilty against me, I will erase from my book. And now go, lead the people to where I have spoken to you! Hey, my messenger will go before you. But on the day of my accounting, I will call them to account over their guilt.” (Exodus 32:33-34)

God is not about to erase Moses, who is innocent. But God refuses to declare a blanket pardon for the surviving Israelites.

When is the day of God’s accounting? Every day, according to a commentary in Yiddish: “The Holy One said: I will forgive the sin. However, I will make Israel pay for the sin a little at a time. No trouble comes upon Israel that is not related to the Golden Calf. That is to say, the Holy One repays Israel for the sin of the Golden Calf all the time.”⁶

Or perhaps God’s day of accounting is the day of a plague in the next verse of Exodus:

And Y-H-V-H struck the people with plague over what they did with the calf that Aaron made. (Exodus 32:35) The text does not say how many people die in this plague, but it certainly counts as a punishment.

Let me know your ways

Then Y-H-V-H spoke to Moses: “Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up from Egypt! … I will not go up in your midst—because you are a stiff-necked people—lest I consume you on the way.” (Exodus 33:1, 3)

Now God says Moses brought up the people from Egypt, making him responsible even though it was God’s idea in the first place, and it never would have happened without God’s persistence and miracles. God also seems to be ordering an immediate departure from Mount Sinai, even though the people have not constructed the tent-sanctuary God requested so that God could “dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).

Furthermore, God decides not to dwell among the Israelites as they travel, because God is so angry already that when the stubborn Israelites violate the rules again, God will “consume” them. (This God character is located in only one place at a time.)

The Israelites mourn over the news that God will not go with them. But Moses is determined to get God to both pardon them and travel in their midst. He tries a different tactic, saying:

“And now, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me know your ways! Then I will know you—so that I can find favor in your eyes. And see that your people is this people!” (Exodus 33:13)

Moses asks to learn God’s ways so that he can continue to please God in the future. He does not mention that if he knows how to please God, he can bargain more effectively for God’s pardon and presence.

Moses on Mount Sinai, by Jean-Leon Gerome, 1895-1900
(Divine communion?)

Rabbi Steinsaltz, however, assigned Moses an additional motivation: “Moses requested a deeper relationship with God than he had attained thus far. Until this point, he had mainly received instructions. Now Moses desired the secret knowledge that would enable him to achieve communion with God, as one’s closeness to God is related to the extent of his knowledge of the Divine.”⁷

Moses follows up his polite request to know God’s ways with an imperative: “See that your people is this people!” God must admit ownership of the Israelites. They would not be in the wilderness of Sinai if it were not for God, and they will feel abandoned if God’s presence is not with them.⁸

And [God] said: “[If] my panim goes [with you], will I make you rest easy?” (Exodus 33:14)

Moses exclaims:

“If your panim is not going, don’t bring us up from here!” (Exodus 33:15)

panim (פָּנִים) = face; front surface; presence.

He adds a rationale that he hopes will sway God.

“And how is it to be known, then, that I have found favor in your eyes, I and your people? Isn’t it in your going with us? Then we are distinct, I and your people, from all the people that are on the panim of the earth.” (Exodus 33:16)

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Indeed, this word that you have spoken, I will do, since you have found favor in my eyes, and I know you by name.” (Exodus 33:17)

It is not clear which “word” God is promising to do: to go in the midst of the Israelites, or to let Moses know God’s ways. At this point Moses decides to press his request to learn God’s ways.

Then [Moses] said: “Please let me see your kavod!” (Exodus 33:18)

kavod (כָּבוֹד) = impressiveness, honor, splendor, glory.

All the Israelites have seen the kavod of God as a fire at the top of Mount Sinai, which looked like a cloud to Moses.⁹ But Moses is asking to see more. According to Chizkuni, “Moses asked for a visual appearance of God’s essence.”¹⁰ But according to Rabbi Hirsch, “The perception he now seeks is on a higher level, that of intuition.”¹¹

And [God] said: “I, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of your panim, and I will call out the name of Y-H-V-H in front of your panim. But … you will not be able to see my panim, because a human cannot see me and live.” (Exodus 33:19-20)

Here panim means “face”. Moses’ face is where his physical organs for seeing and hearing are located (if we count ears as part of a human face). God’s face is unknowable.

“… as my kavod passes by, I will place you in a crevice of the rock, and screen you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you will see the back side of me. But my panim will not be seen.” (Exodus 33:22-23)

Next God grants an additional favor that Moses has not asked for.

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Carve yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will inscribe on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.” (Exodus 34:1)

The first time, God provided the completed tablets. Now God tells Moses to carve stone blanks, which God will inscribe. Abarbanel explained: “For it was Moses’ obligation, since he destroyed the first set of tablets … And the reason for the word ‘yourself’ was to warn Moses that he himself, and no other, should carve the tablets.”¹²

Moses carries two blank stone tablets up Mount Sinai early the next morning. God comes down in a cloud, and as “the back side” of God passes Moses, Moses perceives some of God’s qualities. Either God or Moses calls out:

“Y-H-V-H! Y-H-V-H! Mighty-one, compassionate and gracious, long-nosed [slow to anger], abundant in loyal-kindness and reliability, keeping loyal-kindness to the thousandth [generation], lifting away crookedness and transgression and wrong-doing, and clearing [the guilty]!” (Exodus 34:6-7)

This list is called “The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy”, which are still chanted at services on Jewish holy days. (Most commentators reach thirteen by counting the second “Y-H-V-H” as a different attribute from the first.) Rashbam noted that each of these thirteen “is of relevance when inducing forgiveness and repentance.”¹³ Since Moses wants God to forgive the Israelites, this insight would be encouraging.

Is the compassionate god in this description the same deity who killed thousands of innocent Egyptians without a second thought in the tenth miraculous plague, the death of the firstborn? Is this the god who would angrily “consume” the stiff-necked Israelites along the way to Canaan?

Perhaps the God character has decided to become more compassionate and kind, and is giving an aspirational self-description. Moses seizes the moment to repeat his request.

And Moses hurried and bowed to the ground and prostrated himself. And he said: “Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, please may my lord go among us! Indeed, it is a stiff-necked people. So forgive our crookedness and our wrong-doing, and make us your possession!” (Exodus 34:8-9)

Moses identifies himself as one of the Israelites, begging God to forgive and accept “us”.

Commentator Jerome Segal detected an additional strategy in Moses’ plea. What if God’s anger overwhelms God’s compassion? “Thus, it appears that Moses prevailed upon God to be in their midst just so he would be able to argue, should the eventuality arise, that God is too closely identified with the Israelites to destroy them. In short, Moses emerges as a canny strategist, subtly manipulating the powerful but less crafty deity.”¹⁴

A year or so later, God is indeed ready to wipe out the Israelites, and Moses persuades God to refrain with an argument along those lines.¹⁵

An ambiguous answer

After Moses has asked God again to “go among us” and forgive the Israelites, God says:

“Hey, I myself will be cutting a covenant: in front of all your people I will do wonders that were not created on all the earth or among all the nations. Then they will see, all the people in whose midst you are, the deeds of Y-H-V-H—that it is awesome what I myself do with you.” (Exodus 34:10)

Once again, God calls the Israelites Moses’ people, not God’s own people. And once again, God’s response is favorable but avoids addressing Moses’ request directly. Instead, God tries to resolve the whole issue with a new covenant. The terms are that God will perform more wonders for the Israelites, through Moses. In return, the Israelites will obey the commandments on the stone tablets, along with some other rules that God dictates to Moses on the spot.

Moses has to assume that God has forgiven the Israelites, and that the new covenant means God will dwell among them after all.

Moses and God respect one another, but Moses resorts to wheedling and subterfuge—because God refuses to make definite commitments. Their relationship has become like an unhealthy marriage.

To be continued …

Exodus 32:25-28. See my post: Ki Tisa: Golden Calf, Stone Commandments.
Rashi (11th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), translation in www.sefaria.org.
E.g. Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashanah 16b; Rashbam (12^th-century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir), Chizkuni (a 13^th century collection), Tur HaArokh (14^th century), Or HaChayim (by 18^th century rabbi Chayim ibn Attar).
In Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashanah 16b, God writes down the names of the righteous in one book and the names of the wicked in another. People whose deeds are partly good and partly bad are listed in a third book until Yom Kippur, ten days later, when God decides which of these intermediate people to record with the righteous in the book of life. To this day, the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy includes prayers to be written in God’s “book of life” so we will not die before the next Rosh Hashanah.
Or HaChayim (18^th century), by Rabbi Chayim bin Attar, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Tze-enah Ure-enah (17^th century), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.
This may be a misunderstanding. What if the Israelites only want the manifestation of God as the column of cloud by day and fire by night that led them from Egypt to Mount Sinai? God might consider that a divine messenger. When the Israelites leave Mount Sinai, the column appears again to lead them, and when God is dwelling among them in the tent-sanctuary, cloud and fire appear over its roof.
Exodus 24:16-17.
Chizkuni, a 13^th-century collection of commentary, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Samon Raphael Hirsch (19^th century), The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translated by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2005, p. 794.
Isaac ben Judah Abarbanel (15^th century commentator), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rashbam (12^th-century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meier), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Jerome M. Segal, Joseph’s Bones, Riverhead Books, New York, 2007, p. 134-135.
Numbers 14:11-20.

Ki Tisa: Taking Risks

(This is my tenth post in a series about the evolving relationship between Moses and God in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Pekudei, you might try: Pekudei: Clouds of Glory.)

After Moses has orchestrated four covenants between God and the Israelites (see my post: Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant), God tells him:

“Go up to me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you the stone tablets and the teaching and the command that I have written to teach them.” (Exodus 24:12)

Moses spends 40 days and 40 nights on top of Mount Sinai, listening to God tell him how to set up a formal religion for the Israelites, from the portable sanctuary-tent to the gold-plated ark to the ordination of Aaron and his four sons as priests.

Moses Receiving the Tablets of Law, by Marc Chagall, 1966

Only at the end of the 40-day period does God give Moses any stone tablets.

Then [God] gave to Moses, when [God] finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone engraved by the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18)

Meanwhile, in the camp at the foot of the mountain, the Israelites despair of ever seeing Moses again.

… and the people assembled against Aaron and said to him: “Get up, make us a god who will go before us! Because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!” (Exodus 32:1)

Blame game

Moses has no idea that the Israelites are worshipping a golden calf below. After giving Moses the stone tablets, God breaks the news to him.

Then Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have become corrupt! They have quickly turned away from the path that I commanded them; they made themselves a cast-metal calf, and they bowed down to it, and they sacrificed to it, and they said: ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt’!” (Exodus 32:7-8)

First God says the calf-worshipers are Moses’ people whom Moses brought up from Egypt. Then God notes that they are calling the Golden Calf their gods who brought them up from Egypt.

Yet God was the one who noticed the suffering of the Israelites, recruited and trained Moses, created the ten miraculous plagues in Egypt, led the Israelites with a column of cloud and fire, split the Reed Sea, and fed them manna in the wilderness. God told Moses:

“And I will bring out my ranks, my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt …” (Exodus 7:4)

But now God seems to be disowning the people and the whole enterprise.

Rashi¹ and earlier commentators claimed that the people whom God calls “your people” are not all the people, but only the non-Israelites who chose to leave Egypt with the Israelites. In this reading, the non-Israelites are Moses’ people because Moses converted them. And the non-Israelite converts are the ones who corrupted the “real” Israelites and persuaded them to demand an idol. (Like most humans, the classic commentators were not exempt from xenophobia.) The Torah itself does say that an erev rav—mixed multitude or riff-raff—joined the Israelites,² but it never says Moses converted them.

To me it seems more likely that the God character says “your people” as a way to pass the buck for the people’s violation of the divine rules. Alternatively, the God character is pretending to assign the blame to Moses in order to see how he will respond.

Moses tosses the blame back at God. After God tells Moses about the Golden Calf, Moses says:

“Why, Y-H-V-H, should your nose burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?” (Exodus 32:11)

(A burning nose is a biblical idiom for anger.)

Moses is confident enough to pass the buck back to God, and God lets it go and moves on to the important item on God’s agenda: making Moses an offer he can refuse.

Taking a risk with Moses

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “I have observed this people, and hey! It is a stiff-necked people. And now, hanichah me, and my nose will burn against them, and I will exterminate them! And I will make you into a great nation.” (Exodus 32:9-10)

hanichah (הַנִּיחָה) = allow, leave alone. (Imperative of the hifil form of nach, נעָה = rest, settle, wait.)

It sounds as if God is ready to give up on the Israelites, eliminate them, and start over with Moses’s descendants, who presumably would someday rule Canaan. But first God wants Moses’ permission.

Is God serious? One possibility is that God is asking Moses as a courtesy, but is determined to exterminate the Israelites no matter what Moses says. This is unlikely, however, since Moses has become a full partner in leadership, and would not agree with God the way a subordinate says yes to curry favor.

Another possibility is that God really is leaving the decision up to Moses. According to the Talmud, “Moses said to himself: If God is telling me to let Him be, it must be because this matter is dependent upon me. Immediately Moses stood and was strengthened in prayer, and asked that God have mercy on the nation of Israel and forgive them for their transgression.”³

But it is hard to believe that God has no strong preference. A few hundred years before, God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would rule the land of Canaan. Recently God created ten miraculous plagues that ruined Egypt. The Israelites have become God’s people as much as Moses has become God’s prophet. It seems unlikely that God would discard them and wait another four hundred years until Moses’s descendants had multiplied enough to occupy Canaan.

A third possibility is that God intends to give the Israelites a sharp lesson without abandoning them altogether—but also wants to find out what Moses would choose. After all, God tests Abraham in the book of Genesis by ordering him to slaughter his son Isaac as an offering, and then calls him off at the last minute.⁴ Now God seems to be testing Moses.

Then Moses softened the face of Y-H-V-H, his god, and he said: “Why, Y-H-V-H, should your nose burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?” (Exodus 32:11)

In order to “soften the face” of God, i.e. reduce the God character’s anger, Moses reminds God of how much God has invested in the Israelites. Next he gives one of the reasons that God went to all that trouble: to prove to the Egyptians that they had better not mess around with a people God chooses to deliver.

“Why should the Egyptians actually [be able to] say: ‘In evil he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains, and to exterminate them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your burning nose, and hinacheim about the evil against your people!” (Exodus 32:12)

hinacheim (הִנָּחֵם) = have a change of heart; regret, repent, or find consolation. (From the verb nacham, נָחַם.)

Moses knows God wanted to establish a reputation as more powerful than any Egyptian god because God told Moses to pass on these words to the pharaoh before the plague of hail:

“Indeed, on account of this I let you stand: so that you would see my power, and for the sake of recounting my name throughout all the land!” (Exodus 9:16)

In case all this is not enough to persuade God to refrain from wiping out the Israelites, Moses offers a third argument:

“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, whom you yourself swore to when you spoke to them: ‘I will multiply your seed like the stars in the heavens, and all this land that I said, I will give to your seed, they will inherit it forever.” (Exodus 32:13)

Here Moses is insisting that God must keep promises. This argument is not as convincing, since Moses himself belongs to the tribe of Levi and is a “seed” of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, a.k.a. Jacob. God’s promise could still be fulfilled through Moses’ descendants, although it would take several hundred more years.

But I suspect that the content of Moses’ arguments does not matter. God’s motivation is to test Moses and find out if he will stick up for the Israelites, instead of pursuing his own glory as the founding ancestor of a nation. And Moses passes the test without hesitating for a moment, by arguing against eliminating the Israelites.

Vayinachem, Y-H-V-H, about the evil that [God] had spoken of doing to [God’s] people. (Exodus 32:14)

vayinachem (וַיִּנָּחֶם) = and he had a change of heart; regretted, repented, consoled himself. (Also from the root verb nach.)

From Moses’ point of view, God has a change of heart and therefore rescinds the plan to wipe out the Israelites. The text does not tell us the God character’s point of view. But I think God takes a risk by tempting Moses with an easier path to fame, something he could achieve simply by going home to Midian and having more children. God knows Moses never wanted to be in charge of thousands of frightened, stubborn, and wayward ex-slaves.

Taking a risk with God

Moses turns around and walks down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets engraved by God. The text emphasizes the divine origin of the tablets, saying:

And the tablets, they were God’s making. And the writing, it was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. (Exodus 32:16)

What could be more precious and holy?

Moses Breaking the Tablets, by Ephraim Moshe Lilien, 1808

Then it happened, as he approached the camp and he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses’ nose burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands, and he shattered them at the bottom of the mountain. (Exodus 32:19)

The text implies that Moses acts in anger, as God had threatened to do. But much of the commentary assumes that whatever his mood, Moses is not throwing a temper tantrum, but rather acting on a flash of insight.

According to the midrash Shemot Rabbah, “he saw that Israel would not survive, and he joined himself with them and broke the tablets. He said to the Holy One blessed be He: ‘They sinned and I sinned, as I broke the tablets. … if You do not pardon them, do not pardon me …”⁵

According to 12^th-century commentator Ibn Ezra, the stone tablets “served, as it were, as a document of witness. Moses thus tore up the contract.”⁶ (Ibn Ezra considered the stone tablets a contract document because according to Deuteronomy 5:19, God uttered the “Ten Commandments” and later engraved them on the stone tablets. One of these commandments prohibits making or worshiping idols. In Exodus 24:3, Moses told the people all the rules God had handed down, including the “Ten Commandments”, and the Israelites vowed: “All the words that God has spoken, we will do!”⁷)

And according to 19^th-century commentator Hirsch, when Moses saw the dancing, “he realized that the pagan error had already borne its usual fruit—the unleashing of sensuality. He then understood that the nation would have to be re-educated … By this act he declared in no uncertain terms that the people in its present state was unworthy of the Torah and not fit to receive it.”⁸

Whatever Moses’ insight is, he risks retribution from God when he shatters God’s words carved in stone. By taking this risk, he joins his fate to the fate of the people (Shemot Rabbah), shatters the evidence of the covenant so the Israelites are not technically guilty of violating it (Ibn Ezra), and sets himself the task of teaching the Israelites how to behave (Hirsch).

And the risk pays off. God never questions Moses’ dramatic action. The two leaders, Moses and God, work together to punish the Israelites for the Golden Calf.

To be continued …

Rashi is the acronym of 11^th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki.
Exodus 12:38.
Talmud Bavli, Berakhot 32a, William Davidson translation, from www.sefaria.org.
Genesis 22.
Shemot Rabbah 46:1 (10^th-12^th century midrash), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, translation in www.sefaria.org.
See my post: Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translated by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2005, p. 770.

Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant

(This is my ninth post in a series about the conversations between Moses and God, and how their relationship evolves in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Vayakheil, you might try: Vayakheil & Psalm 13: Waiting in Contentment.)

Between God and Moses’ conversation at the burning bush on Mount Sinai and God’s revelation to all the Israelites at the same mountain a couple of years later, the God-character in Exodus maintains the same approach to Moses: calm, reassuring, patient with all of his prophet’s panic and dithering, but always nudging him to take the next step toward becoming the human leader of the Israelites.

By the time Moses returns to Mount Sinai, he has become that leader. His experiences have changed him from a frightened introvert with an inferiority complex who is certain he cannot speak convincingly or lead anyone (see my posts Shemot: Not a Man of Words and Shemot: Moses Gives Up) into someone who asks God for advice, but is prepared to speak and to make decisions for his people when necessary (see my post Beshalach: Moses Graduates). While God remains the ultimate authority, Moses is the human leader whom the Israelites both follow and complain to.

Now that the Israelites have camped at the foot of God’s mountain, they must make a binding covenant with God. Moses, knowing he must arrange it, orchestrates four covenants in a row.

First covenant

One the Israelites have pitched camp, Moses climbs up the mountain to speak with God—even though he had no trouble speaking with God at any place in Egypt or on the journey across the wilderness. Perhaps at Mount Sinai, he keeps hiking up and down so that all the Israelites can see him when goes to speak with God. (See my post Yitro: Moses as Middle Manager.) The first time he walks back down,

Moses came and summoned the elders of the people, and he set before them all these words that God had commanded him. And all the people answered as one, and they said: “Everything that God has spoken, we will do!” Then Moses brought the words of the people back to God. (Exodus 19:7-8)

This is the first covenant, an oral agreement. “All these words that God had commanded him” are only that the people must “really listen to my voice and observe my covenant” and become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”. In return, God promises that the Israelites will be God’s personal treasure out of all the nations on earth.¹

This initial agreement may be inspiring, but it lacks specifics.

Second covenant

The Law on Mount Sinai, by Jan Luyken, 1708

Three days later, God stages what Jews call “The Revelation”, which includes dense cloud, thunder, lightning, the sound of a ram’s horn blowing, smoke, and earthquake.² Moses leads the people out of the camp to the foot of the mountain.

And God came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And God summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. (Exodus 19:20)

Moses obeys even though Mount Sinai seems to be an erupting volcano. Clearly he has learned to trust God to preserve his life.

Before the revelation begins, God tells Moses:

“Hey, I myself am coming to you in a dark cloud, so that the people will listen when I speak with you, and also they will trust you forever.” (Exodus 19:9)

We do not know whether the dark cloud is the smoke emerging from the mountain, or a manifestation of God coming down from the heavens.

At this point, the redactor of the story inserts what have become known as the Ten Commandments (called “The Ten Words” when they are repeated in Deuteronomy).³ Then God’s revelation continues with:

And all the people were seeing⁴ the sounds of thunder and the flashing lights and the sound of the ram’s horn and the smoking mountain. And the people saw, and they trembled, and they stood at a distance. And they said to Moses: “You speak with us, and we will listen! But may God not speak with us, lest we die!”⁵ (Exodus 20:15-16)

God’s plan is working; the people are terrified of God—and they now trust Moses and promise to listen to whatever he says God said.

Moses steps closer to the dark cloud where God is, and God tells him the dozens of laws in verses 20:21 through 23:22, which are more specific than the “Ten Commandments”. Most of the laws are ethical rules for an agrarian society, including two laws about not oppressing an imigrant.⁶

Then comes God’s side of the covenant:

“And you must serve God, your God! And [God] will bless your food and your water, and I will remove sickness from among you. There will be no miscarriage or barrenness in your land, and the number of your days I will make full. My terror I will send before you, and I will panic all the people among whom you come, and I will give all your enemies to you by the neck.” (Exodus 23:25-27)

The ancient Israelites prized fertility as well as good health and long life. And people facing a protracted war for land ownership would be relieved to learn that God will be on their side—as long as they follow the rules.

The final word from God during this session with Moses is about the Canaanite tribes that have been living for centuries in the land God will give to the Israelites:

“You must not cut a covenant with them or their gods. They must not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to do wrong against me.” (Exodus 23:32-33)

Immigrants should be treated fairly, but existing residents of Canaan must be rejected.

Then God tells Moses:

“Come up to God, you and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow down from a distance. Then Moses alone will come close to God, but they must not come close, and the people must not go up with him.” (Exodus 24:1-2)

But first, without any order from God, Moses confirms a second oral covenant between God and the people.

Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of God and all the laws. And all the people answered with one voice, and said: “All the words that God has spoken, we will do!” (Exodus 24:3)

Third covenant

Next on God’s agenda is a special revelation and covenant partway up Mount Sinai, between God and seventy elders plus Aaron and his two older sons. But Moses has a different idea. He imagines a written covenant, which he will notarize with ritual elements that the Israelites are accustomed to: an animal sacrifice and the splashing of its blood. And God does not interfere with Moses’ plan.

Standing stones on the Sinai Peninsula, photo by Emmanuel Anati

Then Moses wrote down all the words of God. And he started early in the morning and he built an altar below the mountain, and twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent the young men of the Israelites, and they made rising offerings and slaughtered wholeness offerings for God: bulls. And Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls, and half the blood he threw over the altar. (Exodus 24:2-6)

The altar represents God in this covenant ceremony, so Moses scatters half of the blood over it. He reserved the other half for the Israelites after they have agreed to the covenant.

Then he took the scroll of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said: “Everything that God has spoken, we will do and nishma!” (Exodus 24:4-7)

nishma (נִשְׁמָע) = we will listen, hear, pay attention, heed, obey.

This time the people add another vow after “we will do”. Why do they add nishma? According to one early commentary, their vow should be translated as “We will do, and then we will understand.”⁷ The people were wise enough to realize that sometimes you cannot understand what an action means until after you have done it.

Another explanation is that the Israelites meant: “We will carry out what God has said already, and we are also prepared to listen (obey) to what He will command from here on in.”⁸

Either way, the people make a stronger commitment (although they break it when they worship the golden calf). And Moses figured out how to inspire them to make that commitment.

Then Moses took the blood and threw it on the people, and he said: “Here! The blood of the covenant that God cut with you according to all these words!”⁹ (Exodus 24:8)

Only after the Israelites as a whole have finished ratifying the written covenant with God does Moses carry out God’s order regarding the seventy elders.

Fourth covenant

Then went up, Moshe and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel, and under [God’s] feet something like a brick pavement of sapphire, and like the substance of the heavens for purity. And God did not send out [God’s] hand to the eminent Israelites. Vayechezu God, and they ate and they drank. (Exodus 24:10-11)

vayechezu (וַיֶּחֱזוּ) = and they beheld, saw in a vision, perceived.

This may not sound like a covenant between God and the elders. Furthermore, many medieval Jewish commentators criticized the Nadav, Avihu, and the elders for eating and drinking at a time like that.¹⁰ Others wrote that looking at God “provided them with the kind of satisfaction ordinary people get through the intake of food and drink”.¹¹

But one 13^th-century commentary pointed out: “…we know from Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, that when they made a pact with human beings, they invariably sealed it by having a festive meal with their partner.”¹²

Rabbi Steinsaltz wrote in his 2019 commentary: “And they beheld God, to the extent that this is possible, and ate the peace offerings and drank, as though sharing a meal with God.”¹³

Moses walks to the top of a smoking, thundering volcano because he trusts God to keep him safe. And God goes along with Moses’ additional covenant ritual because he trusts Moses to know what the Israelites need. The two leaders have reached a point of harmony.

Until God decides to test Moses, and Moses decides to test God.

To be continued …

See my post: Yitro: Moses as Middle Manager.
Exodus 19:16-20; Deuteronomy 4:13.
Exodus 20:1-14.
Exodus 20:15 says “the people ro-im (רֺאִים)” sounds as well as sights. Usually ro-im means “were seeing”. Some translations say “the people were perceiving”. Others suggest that the people were experiencing synesthesia.
The story assumes that Moses could hear the people below when he was on top of the mountain. Perhaps the authors imagined a shorter mountain than any of the current top candidates for Mount Sinai: Jabal Sin Bisher, Jabal Musa, and Chashem el Tarif.
Exodus 22:20, 23:9. The word geir (גֵר) is often translated as “stranger”, but it means a resident alien or immigrant.
Avot DeRabbi Natan 22:1, c.700–900 CE, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rashbam (12^th century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meier), translation in www.sefaria.org.
The story assumes that enough of the thousands of Israelites were splashed with blood to make the ritual effective.
From Rashi (11^th century) to Rabbeinu Bachya (14^th century).
Chayim in Attar, Or HaChayim, 18^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org. This concept also appears in Talmud Bavli, Berakhot 17a.
Chizkuni, 13^th ccentury, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.