36 | MAY 27 • 2021 

SPIRIT

Moses As ‘Mother’
W

e know that God 
has no gender. In 
fact, according 
to Maimonides, God is so far 
beyond description that we 
should take special care 
not to describe God.
Still, the Torah and 
broader Jewish tradi-
tion does describe God 
extensively. We can think 
of all the descriptions of 
God as metaphors. These 
shape the way we see 
God, the way we under-
stand the world around 
us as well as our own 
understanding of who 
we are as individuals. 
God is a friend (to 
Abraham), a king (to the Jewish 
people) and a warrior (as in the 
Song of the Sea). 
It isn’t only metaphors of 
God which help us understand 
ourselves and our world. In 
Parshat Behaalotecha, the Torah 
presents us with an interesting 
image of Moses that can open 
our eyes to the way we perceive 
ourselves. In Numbers, the 
Children of Israel turn to Moses 
with complaint. Moses then 
turns to God, saying: 
“Did I conceive all these peo-
ple, did I bear them that you 
should say to me, Carry them 
in your bosom as a nurse car-
ries an infant, to the land that 
You have promised on oath to 
their fathers?” (Numbers 11:12).
Moses is described in a vari-
ety of ways in our tradition 
— as Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses 
our Teacher), as a lawgiver, as a 
shepherd (this is both physical 
and metaphorical). But I don’t 
think that many of us carry 
around the image of Moses as 
our mother. Yet here it is in the 
Torah. 

Professor Mara Benjamin’s 
recent book The Obligated Self: 
Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish 
Thought focuses attention on 
the many ways in which we are 
enriched by exploring 
the many sides of moth-
erhood. She describes 
religious categories such 
as obligation, love, power 
and teaching through the 
lens of motherhood and 
the complexity of that 
role. 
I’
d argue that the 
Torah chooses to have 
Moses frame his experi-
ence as one of mother-
hood in the above verses 
due to the very com-
plexity that Professor Benjamin 
illuminates. 
Moses feels the pressure 
of caring for the people. He 
knows that he is responsible 
for them. Even as he turns to 
God in frustration, wondering 
why God is expecting him to 
care for the people, Moses does 
not reject the responsibility. In 
this moment, Moses sees him-
self and describes himself as a 
mother. 
Of course, motherhood con-
tains a multitude of experiences 
and moments, not only the 
frustration that Moses deals 
with here. 
It is worth asking ourselves 
— If Moses can best describe 
his experience at that moment 
as a mother, might not we be 
enriched by knowing the wide 
variety of experiences of peo-
ple who are, in any number 
of ways, different from our-
selves? 

Rabbi Steven Rubenstein is the 

rabbi of Congregation Beth Ahm 

in West Bloomfield.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Steven 
Rubenstein

Parshat 

Bahaalotecha: 

Numbers 

8:1-12:16; 

Zachariah 

2:14-4:7. 

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