The Torah is a complicated book. Its origins are obscure, its contradictions are many, its stories range from heartwarming to confounding; some of its principles transcend generations while others are clearly of a different place and time. This week’s Torah portion provides an excellent opportunity for an exploration of the complex nature of our Torah text. The portion is called Chukat and you can find it here.
Rebellion and dissent were constant features of the Israelite wandering. You might think that their shared experiences – slavery and liberation, their encounter with the Divine at Mt. Sinai, and the wise leadership of Moses – would combine to create powerful unity. But the Torah’s account is filled with rebellions, complaints, dissent, and even the desire to return to slavery. This week’s Torah portion carries the classic Israelite complaint: “Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place?!” The people are without water and in a state of distraught panic. In response, God instructs Moses to provide for them by ordering a rock to flow with water. Moses is wrought with anger and, instead of speaking, strikes the rock and rebukes the Israelites saying: “Listen you rebels, shall we get you water from this rock?” You can read it here.
The question that I often ask when reading Torah is: “Why is this story here?” There were, no doubt, countless tales of Israelite wandering; some were incorporated into the stories we have, others have been lost to oblivion. Why record the rebellious murmurings and outright rejection of Moses and Aaron? Why record Moses’ anger? Why declare that this understandable act of frustration precludes Moses from entering the promised land? The Torah gives three reasons for that. You can read about them here.
Given that they were threatened by outside forces, their own dissent from within, and despair over their leadership, would we have been surprised if the last we heard of the Israelites was about how they broke into warring and discordant factions and evaporated into the sands of history? If we ask the question: “Why is this story here?”, perhaps our answer might be: because we are still here. Lest we imagine that the Israelite nation and the Jewish people always existed in marvelous concordance, our founding narrative reminds us that we have always been a rebellious, fractious bunch. It also reminds us that despite times of internal disunity, we’ve recognized that when the needs arise, we will stand together. As we encounter our own generation’s displays of Jewish unity and disunity over a range of issues, we would do well to be reminded that through it all, we are still one people. Despite the vehemence of our dissent and the rage of our arguments, there is also much that draws us together. This self-contradictory capacity for unity is perhaps our greatest strength. We would do well to learn the lessons of history.
-Rabbi Ron Stern