Devarim

Yes, late again. Maybe I should make it a policy to be one week behind. Then I wouldn’t be late all the time.

Devarim is the first parsha in the Book of Deuteronomy. The entire parsha is an extended recap of Exodus and Numbers, like that hour-long special they showed before the Lost series finale. Much of it is told in first person by Moses. It’s an extended monologue: “And then God said this, and we did that, and I said this, and you did that, and ...” “And I said to you at that time, saying, 'I cannot carry you alone.’” (1:9) “ How can I bear your trouble, your burden, and your strife all by myself?” (1:12) And then you pissed God off, and He punished you like so, and I pissed God off, and he punished me, and these are all the people we displaced, and so as to justify our exterminating them I’ll mention how those peoples were in the land because they’d come in and exterminated the people who lived there before them, who had done the same to the people who lived before them. And here we are, back in the bloodbath.

Chukkat, part one, the synopsis

Chukkat, a synopsis: (Numbers 19 - 21)

God tells the priests burn up a red heifer and mix it with water. This potion will purify people made unclean by contact with death. Many paragraphs explaining how to do this. Involves hyssop.

Miriam dies. The people complain to Moses that they’re thirsty. No water in the desert, why’d you bring us here, will this wandering never end. Moses throws himself down on his face. God, could you help? Also, please, please make the whining stop. God says, “ Take your staff, stand at that boulder, speak to the boulder and water will come.” Moses goes to the boulder, says “Look how much God loves you even though you are all ungrateful wretches.” and hits the rock, twice, with his staff. Water springs forth, and everyone drinks it. God says “Moses, I didn’t tell you to hit the rock. Because of this neither you nor Aaron will reach the promised land.” (Moses does not point out to God that this punishment violates the clear meaning of ‘promise’, and what does Aaron have to do with it anyway?)

Korach

It is appropriate that I start with Korach. Last year, when I first began looking for God, I went to synagogue once and had a really lovely experience, and then I went again, and there was Korach.

This parsha reports, in the usual strange and muddled way, on a rebellion led by Korach, a Levite, against Moses and Aaron, during the time the Israelites wandered in the desert after leaving Egypt. Korach says that the entire nation is holy and who are Moses and Aaron to say that some israelites are more holy than others. Some other chieftans, Dathan and Abiram, chime in complaining to Moses for not having come through on his promises to bring them to a land of milk and honey.