{"id":13755,"date":"2014-04-25T16:12:34","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T22:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=13755"},"modified":"2014-04-25T16:12:52","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T22:12:52","slug":"passover-is-past-but-mysteries-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/passover-is-past-but-mysteries-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"Passover is past, but mysteries remain"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TED ROBERTS, the SCRIBBLER ON THE ROOF<\/em><\/p>\n

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1. Why does Moses, a man on speaking terms with G-d, marry a non-Jewish child of the desert like Zipporah. Why is she called a Cushite \u2013 a land a thousand miles south of Midian, her home? She\u2019s also called a Midianite, which makes sense. And to add to her disabilities, she\u2019s the daughter of a Midianite priest. Talk about adding insult to injury. (There is a moderating factor here since the Midianites or Kennites spring from the Abrahamic line. Keturah, Abraham\u2019s concubine, is referred to as a Kennite. Still, it seems strange. Midian and Egypt were full of zoftig, nubile Jewish ladies. What does Cush or Ethiopia have to do with it? Maybe there was a second wife, wonder some of the sages.)<\/p>\n

2. How to ethically reconcile the death of the firstborn Egyptian infants? They, in their helplessness never whipped an Israelite slave. We know that G-d asks us not to exult over Egyptian deaths. They too, are my children, He announces. Hard to explain. My advice is to ask your rabbi. It seems ethically inconsistent.<\/p>\n

3. Mystery No 3. Why does Aaron always get a pass? Recall, along with Miriam, his jealousy over Moses and his tight relationship with G-d, and separately his complaints about the \u201cCushite woman\u201d mentioned above. He basically asks our question: Why couldn\u2019t he marry a Jewess? How are you going to lead 600,000 fractious Israelites through a barren desert when you didn\u2019t even marry one? Some commentators suggest he married a Cushite? Midianite? Pagan? since they were desert people and knew every sand dune in the Sinai. They could serve as his navigators. Could be.<\/p>\n

But nevertheless Miriam is struck with leprosy because of her Loshon Hora \u2013 Aaron gets a pass. And the mercy extended to Aaron is further strengthened by the golden calf episode. Aaron is babysitting hundreds of thousands of Israelites as Moses climbs Sinai to receive Torah. And what does he return to? A gritty orgy in the desert. Moses says, \u201cAaron, how could this happen?\u201d Aaron replies: \u201cThe people are evil. . . make us gods\u201d. (This! After the plagues and the Reed Sea miracle.) The people gave me gold \u201cand I cast it in the fire and this calf came out\u201d. If you believe that, you\u2019ll believe it snows in Goshen. Not a satisfactory answer in any court of law. 3,000 men were killed, but Aaron gets off scot free. Thousands of Israelites die \u2013 Aaron is not even suspended without pay. Mystery of mysteries. Cynics answer that this section of Torah was written by the priests, who were most anxious to preserve the cult of Aaron. Could be.<\/p>\n

4. The final conundrum is how hundreds of hungry Jews (we love to eat) survived in the Sinai desert \u2013 no tsimmus \u2013 no stuffed cabbage \u2013 no knaidlach. Easy. G-d provided manna and quail, which between two matzos was edible. But the mystery that hammers hardest at this father\u2019s heart, the greatest ethical puzzle, is why Joseph (years before) who is leading the good life in Egypt \u2013 assistant CEO to Pharaoh while Jacob is crying at home \u2013 NEVER, NEVER writes the old man a letter. \u201cI\u2019m fine, how are the boys, come visit.\u201d That\u2019s all he had to say. As Eccleciastes says, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing new under the sun\u201d. My kids don\u2019t write, email, fax either.<\/p>\n

Deeper and blacker and more convoluted than all, is that misty business at Meribah, where Moses evidently \u201cput the Lord your G-d to test\u201d. His punishment is shocking and frankly, to the 21st Century reader, unjust. Forty years of hiking through the desert with our rebellious ancestors \u2013 and he isn\u2019t even privileged to enter the Promised Land. He is tortured by a vision of it from Mount Nebo. \u201cI have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.\u201d Some piece of the puzzle of Torah is missing.<\/p>\n

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