Torah Sparks
Our Torah portion tells how the people of Israel struggled with finding their place as God’s people. Were they supposed to simply follow the leadership of God’s appointed messengers, Moses and Aaron, or were they suposed to take responsibility for themselves and reject any attempts on the part of Moses or others to tell them what to do? Korah’s rebellion was one manifestation of this struggle.
The Torah tells us that this rebellion was rejected by God and the leadership of Moses and Aaron was affirmed in dramatic ways. The famous way of affirmation was the miraculous opening up of the earth to swallow the rebels. The less noted affirmation was the test of the leadership staffs. As I described it in last year’s Torah Sparks, this test had the staffs of each tribal leader, including Aaron’s (as representing the tribe of Levu), placed in the Tabernacle over night. The next morning would reveal who God had chosen as leader by having that person’s staff miraculously blossom. And it is Aaron’s staff that emerges as a beautiful almond tree, with buds, blossoms and almonds. God then commands Moses to place this staff beside the Ark of the Covenant. (Num. 17:16-26)
When Aaron’ blossoming staff was taken out of the Tabernacle for all to see, the Torah dryly reports: “And Moses took all the staffs from before the Eternal for all of the Children of Israel, and they saw; and each person took his own staff.” (v. 24) The sullen silence is deafening. There is no clamoring to get closer to the living tree. Each person sullenly walks away with their own dead wood. Sadly, this Divine message seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Immediately afterwards the Israelites complain that they have no access to the holy. How different the story might have been had the Israelites allowed themselves to appreciate the blossoming wood come alive and take it to themselves.
That story happened long ago. But the coming to life of this stick of wood and its placement by the ark raises a direct association with our present-day practice. When we stand before the open ark, with the Torah scroll safely returned into it, after we have read from its words, we chant: “It is a living tree (- etz, which is also the Hebrew word for “wood”) to all who hold fast to it!”
The living piece of wood of long ago was Aaron’s staff. Today it is our Torah. We are meant to hold on tight to Her. It is here, with all its beautiful flowers and fruit, for all of us to touch, for all of us to grasp to ourselves.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein
Image “Blossoms-1” by Rick Ruppenthal used with permission via Creative Commons: Attribution License
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