Parashat Shlach Lecha (Numbers 13:1-15:41) for June 24, 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.
The signs to enter God's Promised Land and see God's Presence may be found in surprising places!
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.
In this week's parasha, Shlach Lecha, we read of the disastrous episode of the spies sent to scout out the land of Israel. It is this lack of faith and gratitude that sentences the Israelites to wander in the desert for 38 [more] years. In a parallel account, (hence its choice by the Rabbis for this week) the haftarah provides closure: Joshua similarly sends two spies, and this time the mission is successful.
Besides the obvious connection to the book of Numbers' spy story, the haftarah has a number of parallels to other narratives in Torah. The crimson thread connects this narrative also to the birth of Perez and Zerach (Gen. 38), the sons of Tamar. Like Rahab, Tamar was a Canaanite woman who used sexual seduction to secure safety for her herself and her family. The crimson thread that identifies Rahab's house and protects her and her family is reminiscent of the blood on the doorposts that protected the Israelites in Egypt. (Parenthetically, the 'crimson thread' that identified the harlot's house is said to be the original 'red light' district.) Finally, Rahab's bravery lying to the king about the spies' whereabouts calls to mind the midwives who similarly risk their lives when confronted by Pharaoh. Interestingly, Rahab actually explicitly refers to the Exodus narrative as one of the things she knows about the Israelites' God.
Jericho was one of the oldest inhabited cities of the ancient Middle East. Because of its low altitude it has a subtropical climate; its rich soil makes it a suitable site for growing dates. The spies are sent to Jericho, but by that time, the city had been uninhabited for centuries, possibly giving rise to the legend of 'walls tumbling down.' The famous story of its dramatic capture with trumpeting shofars (disputed by modern historians and archaeologists) appears in chapter 6, (and is not included in the haftarah).
The book of Joshua is the first book of the section of Prophets, and continues chronologically from the death of Moses. Joshua succeeds Moses and is the military leader who invades and conquers Canaan. Joshua lived around 1200 BCE (the beginning of the Iron Age).
Rahab is a fascinating character. The Hebrew root of her name: r.h.b means 'wide' or 'spacious'. The word frequently appears with the former meaning when dimensions such as 50 cubits wide are listed (Noah's Ark, and the Ark of the Covenant). The latter meaning is given as the etymology of the city Rehobot. After several disputes over wells between the herdsmen of Gerar and the herdsmen of Isaac, they dug another well that they didn't fight over, and they named the place Rehobot, for "now at last Adonai has granted us ample space to increase in the land." (Gen. 26:22). The Bible uses the phrase, rehov ha'ir, which probably refers to the centre, open area of the city (like the Roman forum). In modern Hebrew, the word rehov means street. Appropriately enough, Rahab 'worked the street.'
Rahab is identified as a 'zonah - prostitute' which lends an almost comic quality to the story. One tradition recorded in the Babylonian Talmud goes even further, and describes her as the Marilyn Monroe of the Bible- just saying her name can make men climax (Megillah 15b). Generally, however, the Rabbis try to recast Rahab; you may recall your grade school teacher's explanation (following Rashi) that zonah refers to being an innkeeper, like 'birkat hamazon'. Some midrashim go even further and make Rahab into a righteous convert like Ruth, since she says, "Adonai your God is God in heaven above and here on earth" (Josh. 2:12).
This is surprising, because in the Bible, prostitution is often paired with idolatry, which is described as literally, whoring after other gods. The remedy for such idolatrous prostitution is found at the conclusion of our parasha, where, instead of 'looking' after false gods, we are commanded to look at the tzitzit (blue threads): "You shall look at it and recall all the commandments of Adonai and observe them so that you do not follow your heart and eyes whoring after them" (Num. 15:39). The word to 'follow' is taturu, the same verb used to describe the 'spying' of the scouts: latur et ha'aretz (it even sounds like the English: tour!). Rashi comments: the eyes and heart are the bodies' spies.
The lesson of the spies' mission gone horribly wrong is that they focused on the wrong things. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner (liberally adapting the midrash of Shmot Rabbah 24:1) describes the experience of two Israelites, Reuven and Shimon at the greatest miracle, the splitting of the sea:
"What is this muck?"
Shimon scowled, "There's mud all over the place!"
"This is just like the slime pits of Egypt!" replied Reuven.
"What's the difference?" complained Shimon. "Mud here, mud there; it's all the same."
... For Reuven and Shimon the miracle never happened.
In addition to this theme of prostitution/ spying, the motif of looking at a particular coloured thread also connects the Torah and haftarah portions (see last year's Metzora column for a discussion on the connection between blue and red threads). In the haftarah too, the spies are told to look for a red cord. The red string is a sign, 'ot' which serves as an ironic reminder that the Israelites disregarded the 'ot' the very signs that God had performed: "How long will this people spurn Me, and how long will they have no faith in Me despite all the signs [otot] that I have performed in their midst? (Num. 14:22). In the Rahab narrative, the red thread becomes a sign of loyalty, the very opposite of prostitution.
It seems that even earth-shattering miracles are no guarantee that our lives will be filled with God's Presemce. Perhaps we have to look for God's signs in more subtle ways. Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute is an unlikely hero. Yet it was Rahab who had the faith in God that the Israelites themselves hadn't demonstrated, and helped them keep their eyes open.
To enter God's Promised Land, we have to be prepared to see God's Presence, and the signs may be found in surprising places!
Shabbat Shalom,
BDS
