This week’s portion has several unique issues. We meet instructions for the Levites and the laws concerning Pesach Sheini.We also find, in Number 12:13, the first healing prayer in our tradition when Moses prays for healing for his sister Miriam. But as I was looking at this passage again, I was drawn to the section in Chapter 11 where we again meet a disgruntled group, the “riffraff”, who complain again that they are hungry and recalled the food in Egypt. Moses, in a rare very human moment, cries out in 11:14 that he cannot do this anymore, it is becoming too much and that better that God kill him now.
To whom does Moses turn for help? Again, to the z’keinim, the elders. “Gather for Me seventy elders of Israel of whom you have experience as elders and officers of the people and bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their place with you” (11:16). Once again, Moses brings to his help the elders of the community to seek advice and to share the burden of leadership. A Midrash to Numbers on this passage reminds us of the value of the elders and that if it is fitting that God honors elders, how much the more so that we, mere flesh and blood, do so as well. In an essay on this portion, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z’l) also notes the power of the elders.” God tells Moses to take seventy elders who will bear the burden with him. God takes the spirit that is on Moses and extends it to the elders.”
I mention this passage to remind us of the great reservoir of life experience that rests within the multi-generational cohort of Jewish elders. At a recent conference on the future of Reform Judaism that I attended; much was made of the need to raise the educational horizons for our youth. All that is good. However, if we write off what is almost one-half of the contemporary Jewish community, then we do so at our own peril. Look at your congregation or organization. Are there opportunities for elders to meet and discuss the issues that confront us as we get older? Are there opportunities to see how Jewish texts and tradition can inform and empower us as we face new challenges and opportunities that are the benefit of the revolution in longevity?
Let me suggest that this section of the portion is very relevant to our generation. Moses is frustrated in leadership. He is tested and voices his concerns. How many of us have walked that walk in our lives, only to emerge re-energized and changed? That life experience needs to be shared. We elders have lived life and learned from our journey. How can these lessons be shared?
Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Richard F Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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