Numbers - 0801-1216 - Be-Ha'aloteka - Cycle 2

If only we could raise up the candles in every heart with one glance. If only it was easy, zapping messianic consciousness into ourselves and groups of thousands. If only we could fuel a march to the Promised Land with the trumpets sounding, the signs before our eyes.

If only we could see that if only is just a state of mind and that our march is happening all the time, whether it seems to be going anywhere or not.

On one level let’s look at a sphere. Imagine the radiance at the center, the path to the circumference. Yes, it will squeeze out darkness, but the sphere, not made of hard metal (8:4) might be damaged. What we end up with looks like a mess, pieces of darkness (yetzer hara) chaotically flung into the universe like leprous marks. The light, without a vessel, dissipates. The clean up job seems huge.

Of course, there are increments of radiance. Too little and the path will take forever. Too much and that’s when we have this supposed clean up job. That’s when people start complaining. Even the high priest might start identifying himself with the darkness. These aren’t huge problems. They are a sign of spiritual decay seemingly caused by too much too fast too soon for a people used to very little or none at all.

Of course, it’s God doing all of this, not us. You can say that we aren’t God so why not kick back, wait for Him (not Her here) to figure Himself out? My answer is this. If we are God, we have work to do. And if we aren’t, we have work to be done on us. We are subject, object or both so we may as well get involved. We will never be like Moses (12:6‐7) but we are gifted with the dreams that can move us forward. Also, it seems to be the dharma of Judaism. We witness, learn and act. Look at the trials of the patriarchs (B’reshit), Moses (Sh’mot), the kohens (Vayikra). Now we seem to be at the source.

Here are some questions. First, how do we raise up or haelah the people closest to us (including ourselves)? Second, how do we oversee the passing on to the greater population, the people we love? And third, what is the healing if it just doesn’t go as planned?

First, for the raising up. This is what we witness. The seven candles just aren’t lit. They are raised up by Aaron (as instructed by God to Moses) on against (mul) the face of the menorah. I think what’s being expressed here is that the raising up is not always new or smooth. Love can slap against our mortal beings, our face, our God‐mirror, the solid piece of hard gold. Look. Even seven tiny flames need this single hard piece of metal to carry them.

But what do we do then, we humans? We’re not made of one piece of hard gold. So, how can we be strong enough to experience the eternal? In Be‐Ha’aloteka we begin with the Levites, close to the heart. We raise ourselves through deep inner prayer, purification, witnessing, atonement, and service. We bring comfort and a solid base through the organization of time. Then through ritual, we show how the raising up can be passed on but to who? Well in 8:19 the Israelites are mentioned five times. Each, in my opinion, manifests one more level of consciousness, one more level of the rest of us. We allow questions. We allow the tamay. We specify aberrations. Therefore, it takes patience, flexibility. Finally we can see and hear the signs and use them in our march as well as in our fight against darkness. What a miracle! It’s time to serve up that love, let it roll, scatter the enemy, move the ark forward! We’re all ready! Let the banners fly! Let’s get moving! And what a march! Protected by two inverted nuns, midrash says it even is its own book of Torah. It could be thousands of years of marching, thousands of pauses of white space.

Then all it takes is one small chip of darkness. This fear, in its ravishing gilded robe, its mask (oh no, this is not the yetzer harah….) can bring down the parade in a snap. What happens? My guess is two things. We begin to fear that too much too soon might hurt us, that our vessels are too weak to begin with. We wish we are perfect. We wish we are imperfect. We are both.

Well, then, what do we do? First, we try to burn away, talk away or write away the yetzer harah. It just gets worse. We try to make everyone eat the radiance, open ourselves big time to the elders, give ourselves the material stuff we beg for. But it keeps growing. It becomes a plague. It buries itself in the hearts of Aaron and Miriam. It attaches to the body. This is a sad moment in Torah. Heal her, Moses begs, heal her.

At that moment, I think, we all realize this: The only way to heal the wild proliferation of the yetzer harah is not to throw floods of radiance or darkness onto the world, rather to pull back and in small increments, to visualize, localize and then act. We need to admit that the more light does not necessarily mean the more enlightened. We need to forgive ourselves for the
weakness of our vessels, past present and future…and face the whole picture, our God, our love, the trumpets beyond the trumpets, the signs beyond the signs, the path beyond the path.

So, may we respect the increments. May we know that there never is too much too fast too soon. And if we mess up…which we will do and that’s all right…emphatic action, joyous or tragic, will only bring more darkness. The localization and the healing come first. God comes first, and that means us, marching forward beyond the march into the real experience, into sacred human moments meant for human Gods and Godly humans, into the scraps of darkness flying, the chaos, the tears, the smiles, the work, the spiritual decay with its opening to spiritual healing, the very beautiful work, the love, compassion, patience and acceptance. That action beyond the action is the truth. That is the hard metal, the gold flesh of our menorah…there with us the whole time from book to book beyond light and darkness…helping to raise us up…from our ancestors to our children into (one day) the warmth of the divine calling. May we all love forever within the heart of the divine calling.