Charm, Kindness, and Mischief in Beha’ Alotakha (Numbers: Chapters 8-12)
By Irvin H. Jacobs, MD, MPH, MFA
LA JOLLA, California — The reading is busy, but here are a few nuggets to tickle one’s sentiments.
I. Chapter 8, v. 7 describes the process of prepping Levites for their duties, which were to maintain and transport the Holy Ark and its gear. A Levite was sprinkled with ‘pure’ water, whole body shaved with a razor, skin inspected for blemishes, and finally dressed in laundered clothes.
This was not an original idea, as something similar had preceded in Egypt. In Egypt’s ‘early’ history, priests and royalty wore long hair and thick beards, which they believed depicted the gods. Later, as fashions changed, kings and clergy shaved their body hair, again to resemble their images of gods. This lead to the profession of “street barber.” High Priests opted for full-body shaves. Kings were even buried with gold razors in their tombs.
II. Chapter 9: vv. 5-12 describes rules for the Passover sacrifice and meal. One the 14th of Nissan, Hebrew families are to offer up a lamb, and the group was to eat it all at one sitting. Those who at the time were impure by virtue of contact with a corpse, or who were away on a journey could not then participate. These could postpone the process for the 14th of the next month, Iyyar.
Also they were to take care not a break a bone of the festive animal. Nahum Sarna, in his commentary on Exodus Chapter 12: v. 46 offers that this was a prohibition against sucking the marrow, a sign of non-satisfaction with the meal, or gluttony. Now, in Numbers, Jacob Milgrom explains that among ancient nomadic tribes, survival of an intact skeleton was essential for resurrection in the after life. Their belief was that treatment of an animal affects the fate of its consumer!
III. Chapter 11: vv 31-33 can be understood as God’s revenge against the ever-complaining Israelites. They protested that the manna which appeared each morning was boring, even though Chapter 11: v. 8 tells us that its recipe “tasted like rich cream.” They demanded “meat, fish, cucumbers, leeks, onions, and garlic,” which they ‘enjoyed’ in Egypt.
Poor Moses, in despair over such ingrates, pleaded to God for relief. Shortly they were visited by a wind from the Sea, which brought a huge strew of quail over the camp, a month’s worth. The people promptly gorged on it, choked, and fell ill with a plague. Incidentally there are edible natural plant and insect secretions and resins that do appear to this day in the North African desert, and have been called ‘manna’ or ‘honeydew.’
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Dr. Jacobs regularly delivers commentaries on the weekly portion at Congregation Beth El and at a Torah discussion group.