Before a word of Torah, I am including a statement from the Conservative Movement which ably expresses our prayers for Israel:
Avinu she-ba-shamayim, stronghold and redeemer of the people Israel: Bless the State of Israel, [that it may be] the beginning of our redemption. Shield it with Your love; spread over it the shelter of Your peace. Guide its leaders and advisors with Your light and Your truth. Help them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the hands of those who defend our holy land. Deliver them; crown their efforts with triumph. Bless the land with peace and its inhabitants with lasting joy. And let us say: Amen.(Prayer for the State of Israel from Siddur Lev Shalem)
Dear Community,
A few hours ago, a heavy but necessary decision was made: Israel took pre-emptive and decisive military action to dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities. In a world of continued instability and danger, Iran has brazenly pushed forward its nuclear ambitions, disregarding international agreements and relentlessly calling for the destruction of our homeland. This is not just a geopolitical issue; it is a matter of Israel’s very survival. We stand behind Israel’s right to self-defense, protecting itself, others in the region, and all those in range of Iran’s weapons of mass destruction and the terror it sponsors through Hamas and Hezbollah.
Our fervent prayers are with the people of Israel. We pray for the success of the IDF and for the safety of those seeking shelter in the shadow of the threat of retaliation. Our hearts also remain with the Israeli hostages who have lived in Hamas captivity for 615 days and whose fate is even more tenuous at this moment.
As Shabbat approaches in Israel and around the world, we stand together, praying for security, peace, strength, and hope.
Num. 8:1 - 12:16
Précis: The parasha begins with a description of the making of the seven-branched menorah, a central Jewish symbol. The parasha returns to narrative with a recounting of a second Passover celebration (required because some of the Israelites had been ritually impure when the first anniversary of Passover was celebrated). The cloud of God’s Presence lifts, and the march of the People through the wilderness of Sinai begins. The people began to murmu about a lack of meat. God provides, but the People are struck with a plague. This time, even Miriam and Aaron seem to have complaints about Moses, cast in terms of their critique about his “Cushite woman.”
Num. 12:1-2 “And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses about the Cushite wife whom he had taken, because he had married a Cushite wife. And they said, ‘Has Adonai only spoken through Moses? Has not Adonai also spoken through us?’”
This incident has been one we have reviewed before, but which bears reconsideration. What, exactly, did Aaron and Miriam do to receive God’s rebuke, and why is Miriam the only one to be explicitly punished? Some suggest that her use of the “Cushite” term was a form of racism, as that land was associated with dark-skinned people. Others suggest that their claim of prophetic importance was the problem.
Rashi, however, suggests an alternative interpretation to Miriam’s statements about Tziporah with a focus on the word “married.” He declares that Miriam was acting righteously, because Moses was no longer performing his conjugal duties with his first wife, Tzipporah.
Let’s imagine the following: Tziporah shared with Miriam that she had not been intimate with Moses for quite some time because of Moses’s commitments to God. Miriam felt empowered to speak up on behalf of her sister-in-law. She decided to share this intimate detail with Aaron. So, perhaps, Miriam is saying, “I’m a prophet too, but I don’t ignore my marital responsibilities!”
Viewed in this light, Miriam is a prophet in another sense: she stresses the importance of marital relations as a key to a successful and lasting marriage.
In most of the Torah, Miriam is celebrated (watching over Moses in the basket, leading the songs and dance at the Red Sea, and the tragic loss her death brings to the Israelites). It is most unfortunate that our text here seems to single her out for punishment, and thereby ignores one of her great contributions: as a role model for promoting healthy sexual relationships between spouses.
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