Parashat Bemidbar [Sinai] (Numbers 1:1-4:20) for May 27, 2006

This week's parasha study has been generously sponsored by Meryl Gardner in loving memory of her mother Harriet H. Cohen.
Kolel is very appreciative of Meryl's ongoing support.

Not only should we be faithful, but we should live in a relationship of partnership.

Study with Baruch Sienna

This year's cycle of weekly Parasha study explores what connections and insight we can find by examining the Torah portion together with the Haftarah.

This week we begin the book of Numbers, or Bemidbar. The books begins 'bemidbar Sinai, in the wilderness of Sinai', hence the Hebrew name, which is taken (as always) from the first significant word(s). The English/Greek name, on the other hand, reflects the content of the book, in this case, focusing on the census that appears in the opening chapters. (This must be a good week for counting; we are in the middle of 'counting the Omer, and this week Canada has just completed its Census 2006.) The book continues with the narrative of the Israelites in the wilderness, with several episodes echoing earlier stories. The opening chapters of the book of Bemidbar are always read the Shabbat before Shavuot, when God spoke to the Israelites at Sinai.

Hosea is the first of the 'minor' prophets, a collection of twelve prophets included in the second section of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh). His name means '[God] has saved.' He lived around 700 BCE and was a contemporary of Micah and was active in the northern kingdom. (The prophet Amos preceded Hosea by a generation.) After the death of Solomon (922 BCE), the united kingdom had split into two. The northern tribes were called Israel (or Ephraim after the tribe of their first king Jeroboam) and the southern kingdom was called Judah. Although this was a time of material prosperity, it was also a time of moral laxity and growing paganism. Hosea's prophecies reflect his fear that the growing power of Assyria to Israel's north would destroy Israel. Very little biographical information is known about Hosea.

Next week, we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot which marks the theophany (God's revelation) at Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments. The Rabbis see Shavuot as a cosmic wedding between God and Israel, and some communities even read a ketubah (marriage contract) drawn up between the two partners! One examination of the Ten Commandments can further this 'marriage' metaphor. The Ten Commandments can be organized in many different ways; if we divide the ten into five sets of pairs, the respective commandments on each of the tablets (1 and 6; 2 and 7; ... 5 and 10) can be made to match up (more or less). Some require creative midrash to make the connection, but the second one fits rather nicely: "Don't have other gods before Me" lines up with "You shall not commit adultery." In other words, the same monogamous, sacred relationship we have with our partners, is the model for our relationship with God (and vice versa). Don't go whoring after false gods, the Torah says, just like we are commanded to not cheat on our spouses. (Whoring may in fact not just be a metaphor here, as idol worship often included cultic prostituition.)

Hosea is the first prophet to use this metaphor of husband and wife for God and Israel, and describes Israel's unfaithfulness to God as akin to a breach of marital trust. This parallels Hosea's turbulent domestic life, but it is not clear if his relationship to Gomer, an unfaithful woman, is an actual person or simply a product of poetic license and a highly imaginative prophet? The commentators Ibn Ezra and Radak consider Hosea's allegory to be a dream. (Recently the popular 'biography' A Million Little Pieces, by James Frye, was highly criticized when it was discovered to have been similarly fictionalized.) But whether Hosea was married to Gomer or not doesn't matter; the point is, God is portrayed as the patient, loving husband, who wants his bride to change her ways, and he will take her back.

The word 'husband' comes from the Old English for 'house' and 'dwell' and has the meaning of 'master of the house.' "Animal husbandry' is the management of domestic animals, and according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to 'husband' means to manage prudently and economically, or to use sparingly. In Hebrew, the word for husband baal has similar connotations, but also means 'master,' as in the expressions 'baal habayit' or 'baal teshuvah.' Someone skilled in prayer is called a 'baal tefilah' just like someone who engages in giving charity is a 'baal tzedakah', and the founder of Chasidism was known as the master of the good name: the Baal Shem Tov.

So the word 'baal' in itself is certainly not a negative word. In the Bible, the word can generically refer to 'master' (as above) or 'lord' as in the Old English sense, "M'lord" as well as Lord (capital 'L'). It appears in proper names, such as Jerubaal and Ishbaal. Baal was a name given to the local deity, a Canaanite/Phoenician fertility god responible for thunder and rain among other things. Baal becomes a synonym for idol worship, and the Torah and prophets railed against Baal worship and were commanded to destroy the altars and shrines for Baal. Using the title Baal to refer to God fell out of fashion, and Ishbaal's name (man of Baal) was changed to Ishboshet (man of shame). The name Beelzebub (lord of the flies) mocks the name Baal Zvul, (mighty Baal).

Hosea envisions a day when God will no longer be called Baal. Israel will no longer call on the false gods (the ba'alim) and be promiscuous. But Hosea's double entendre also hints that we will no longer serve God as 'master' but as an equal partner. There will shift in our relationship with the divine just as there can be in marital roles. Hosea was ahead of his time. In Israel, some egalitarian couples prefer to refer to their male partners as 'ishi' (literally, my man) as opposed to 'baali' my master. Today here too, couples often introduce their significant other as 'my partner' or 'my spouse' instead of 'my husband' or 'my wife.' Besides being gender neutral, and therefore more 'politically correct' there is another reason why a couple might choose to use 'partner' over 'husband.' Hosea's message is that not only should we be faithful, but we should live in a relationship of intimacy and partnership.

Shabbat Shalom,

BDS