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NCJW offices 30233 Southfield Rd., Southfield, MI Questions? call (810) 258-6000 Tax deduction up to $250 oday's sedrah describes the mutiny of the people of Is- rael in the desert. Moses confronts a lusting, angry and rebellious multitude which he has been ordained to lead across the wilderness, and weld into a people. They have lost the vision of Sinai and the beckoning dream of the Promised Land. Moses' spirit wilts because here in the wilderness this erstwhile chosen people has set up a sickening clamor for food, for meat, which the wilderness cannot provide. "And the children of Israel... wept... and they said, would that we were given flesh, meat to eat... We remember the fish which we could eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic, but now our soul is dried away... We have nothing but this manna to look to." This hungering cry echoes in the wilderness and Moses can stand it no longer. He pleads to God in desperation "Have I con- ceived this people? Did I bring them forth that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a suckling child...' I am not able to bear this people myself alone. It is too much for me. If this is how You will deal with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more..." These are remarkable pas- sages. Thus speaks the paragon of leaders, the supreme moral ge- nius whom God has called His sure and faithful servant. The pathos of these words is profound. God answers Moses in a very Paradoxical manner. "And the Lord said unto Moses, gather unto Me seventy men of the el- ders of Israel... And bring them into the tent of meeting that they may stand there with you... I will come down and speak with you there and I will take of the `ruach' or spirit which is upon you, and will put it upon them. And they shall bear the burden of the peo- ple with you, that you bear it not yourself, alone." The text seemingly makes no sense. Moses' problem is that the people want meat and a variety of foods. They are tired of the man- na; yet God says to him give them "mach", spirit. Bring together 70 elders and I will take the spirit from you and pour it on them. Did God not hear, as it were, what Moses had asked? It is as though the answer is unconnected to the question and the solution is un- related to the problem. Yet, upon reflection, we recog- nize that God, of course, knew what He was doing. He had care- fully heard Moses' complaint, by responding to it with compassion and wisdom. His message an- swered not the manifest question, but the concealed question; not the stated concern, but the hid- den yearning. To us, the therapy of"ruach" or spirit, may not seem a sensible solution to material hunger. But God, who is the keeper of man's conscience, rec- ognized that the core of the peo- ple's affliction was not physical. Shabbat Bahaalotecha: Numbers 8:1-12:16 Zachariah 2:14-4:7. Yes, Moses, the people are craving for meat. But that crav- ing is to itself the cause of their dissatisfaction. It is a surface symptom produced by a deeper, unsatisfied yearning, the hunger of the soul, a spiritual famine, and moral starvation. The out- ward symptom was to rebel and complain, to reach out for more and more material things. The truth was that the manna they received daily in the desert, although it was not a feast for the gourmet, was not a tasteless diet. It could sustain them. So God was telling Moses that a people that has enough food for suste- nance, but is obsessed by mate- rial craving, must be spiritually hungry. Therefore, Moses, the problem is not where shall I get meat for all these people. What is needed is more of your spirit to feed their souls, to inspire them with a sense of mission. This text sheds great light on the human condition. Doctors tell us that certain people eat too much to the point of affliction and disease—not because their bod- ies physically crave or need more food, but rather because of an emotional maladjustment, a sense of depression or anxiety or guilt. A spiritual disorder afflicts them and drives them to overeat, or sometimes to starve, even as it drives other people to drink or drugs or other kinds of compul- sions. To test our truth, let us reverse it. It is possible to live by the spir- it, even when material needs are unsatisfied. People can endure physical hunger and pain and suffering, so long as they live with