Numbers 9: In Writing

In a world of have and not

Today and tomorrow

Where night burns to mist

And when the cloud lifts

We move again 

Through shifting sands

Far from solid shapes

of here, of now

Knotted to air and water

Vapor-breath

Fog that catches fire

Where can we feel our fingertips

The cool of solid skin that says

     I am here

     I am here

     I am here

When the wind changes

And They are Us

And Now is Then?

Numbers: Chapter 9

Transformations 

Replacements

The space between

Now and then

Them and us

[For full chapter, click here

In a sudden chronological leap, we return in time to the "first month of the second year." The a-chronology is ironically juxtaposed with the demand to "perform the Passover in its time (be-moado)."

The change in chronology is actually thematic. In the opening section, the Isralites who cannot keep the Passover demand: "we are unclean to the dead; Why should we lose, to not to bring the offering to God in its appointed time among the children of Israel?" God responds by creating a fluidity within the rigid structure: there is to be an alternative time for those who cannot make the first appointment, though those who choose to miss the time "will be cut off from their people."

This idea of replacement and  alternatives within the long-term impact of the Exodus echoes the previous chapter. Just as the Levites replace the firstborn of Israel, who were consecrated during the Plague of the First Born, so the alternate Passover in the second month is an alternative to the consecrated first month. we are in the spaces "between:: the Levites stand between the Kohanim and Israel; Passover is celebrated "between the evenings" (ben ha-arbayim, twilight)

the fluidity of time is heightened in  the final section, where the Israelites' sense of time becomes utterly caught up in the Cloud above the Tent of Meeting. The can encamp for "many days" "two days" "a night" "a month" "a year": "According to the word of God they camped; according to the word of God they traveled." Time becomes defined by relationship]

Numbers 8: In Writing

Between the lines of

lanterns looming in

goosebumps gleam

skin pale and pitted

as a plucked dove

Stripped, shorn,

Hairless as a babe born

tadpole riding the rising wave

that wanders the wilderness

Bear me up

Lay me down

Bobbing between

The rise and crest

The you and them

The give and take

We are 

absence

air

puckered flesh

the sudden inhalation

asking

why?

when?

the closed O of shared breath

Numbers: Chapter 8

The spaces between

You and I and Thou

Between the palms of your hands

To be given, 

given,

taken

To be mine, to be yours, to be his

[For full chapter, click here

After the gifts of princes, and the dedication of the altar, we move inwards, literally and figuratively: we speak to the head of Levi, Aaron, the High Priest, and move into the sanctuary to light the Menora. The section of the menora can serve as a symbol for the position of Levi as a whole; "The candles will look to the center (pnei) of the Menora" just as the tribes look inwards towards Levi, who stands before them (pnei) and between them. Just as the Menorah is a single whole (miksha), the set aside Levi nonetheless comes from "within" (be-toch, mi-toch) Israel.

This chapter of consecration repeatedly emphasizes Levi's liminal state as the double "given" (netunim netunim). They come to serve the kohanim, yet here they are unmistakably presented as representatives of Israel. There are the "offering" of Israel (k'r'b) who are brought close (k'r'b). Their symbolic state is emphasized by the fact that Israel "lays their hands" over them, as is done in the case of a literal offering. Levi are the offering, Aaron is the priest, "waving them before God"; Israel are those who bring the offering. "Given to Aaron and his sons from among the children of Israel" Levi is the conduit between inside and outside, the Tent of Meeting and the encampment]

Numbers 7: In Writing

What is in a name?

Speak, echo, repeat

Reverberating voice

What I bring

What you bring

Alone and together

Forever and apart

A name, what is in?

Echo, repeat, speak

Voice reverberating

I bring what

You bring what

Alone together and

Apart and forever

In a name, what?

Echo, speak, recall

Voice reverberating

Bring what I?

Bring what you?

And alone together

Apart forever, and…

A name in what is?

Echo, speak, repeat

Voices reverberating

Bring what I

You bring what?

Alone together forever

Apart and linked

Tomorrow, yesterday, today

Numbers: Chapter 7

A canon of connection


Distinct


Yet one















[For full chapter, click here"And it was on the day"--we find ourselves suddenly back on that fateful day that closes the Book of Exodus "when Moses established the Dwelling." The chapter draws attention to the intertextual link by using the same key words: the dramatic "vayehi"--"and it was"; "vayakem", --establish; and "vayikal / khalot" completed, finished.
Yet even as it draws attention to the previous presentation of this day in Exodus, it places it firmly within the context of this book that revolves around the Israelite encampment, according to tribe and "father's house". The focus this time is on "the princes of Israel / the heads of their father's house / these are the princes of the tribes / these are they in charge of the count." The anaphora of hem / hem ("they" "they) draws attention to the fact that this version of the story has different heroes: The tribal leaders who do not even appear in Exodus 40, which is the story of how Moses, the liminal figure linking heaven and earth, brings together the disparate parts of the Dwelling.
Now we here of a side drama. Rather than the relationship of Moses and the priests, the focus is on the tribes and Levi: the tribal leaders offer a gift to Levi, which is accepted, and then begin a twelve day dedication of the altar.
The dedication of the altar is a complex literary game, exemplifying the power of repetition and change.The chapter opens by revisiting the fateful day of consecration,, while offering a new perspective;  it closes with a description of the 12 day dedication of the altar, repeating the description, word for word, 12 times, while only changing the name of the prince and  tribe. Sometimes the same event cam seem completely different; sometimes different events can seem the same. On a deeper level, the chapter is exemplifying the cumulative power of repetition. The same words do not have the same impact. The 12-time repetition creates an effect of a canon, the voices overlapping and gaining force. The chapter emphasizes that the whole is different than the parts alone, by summing up all the gifts together, as though they had no just been enumerated separately.
More importantly, the closing of the dedication leads to the appearance of  God's voice: "And when Moses came to the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the Ark of Testimony, from between the two keruvim: and He spoke unto him." Exodus's scene of a lone Moses erecting the Dwelling creates a space of utter aloness, with no sharing possible--"And Moses was not able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud dwelled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Dwelling". Here, the communal gifts create a space of communication. Reptition and change create room--and the root speak (d'b'r) is repeated 3 times]

Numbers 6: In Writing

Entwined in my curls

Locked in my locks

Curled in you

Alone together

Running in each other's veins

Winedark and heady

Eternal doorways

Scrabbling mirrors 

For a glimpse of your face

Numbers: Chapter 6

Curling locks

and vines

Concentrated 

set apart

The wild card

[For full chapter, click here

The chapter centers on the laws of the nazir (nazarite), a laden word that means "set aside," "consecrated" "crowned" "separated". The chapter plays with all aspect of the word, as the Nazarite is both "set aside" from wine, even as his / her hair is "consecrated"  to God. 

We continue here with the translation of the laws of Leviticus into the world of the Israelite encampment. "If a man or a woman set aside with a vow to separate (n'z'r) themselves,  they shall be nazarites/separated (n'z'r) to God." This unusual root takes us back to Leviticus 22: "Speak to Aaron and his sons and let them separate (n'z'r) themselves from the holy things of Israel" --and indeed, many of the laws of the Nazarite echo the laws limiting the High Priests: The prohibition of coming into contact with the dead; the definition of the Nazarite as "consecrated to God"--which is the very inscription the High Priest wears on his head. 

The Nazarite, like the priests at their consecration, stands at the liminal space of the "doorway," bringing the outside in, allowing anybody, male or female, to take on the status of the High Priest. It is a strange position, that is defined by holding back (from grapes) and by growing wild (the hair). Like Joseph, who is defined as "the apex, the set aside (n'z'r) of his brothers," the Nazarite remains separate, a wild card. He or she is not part of the system of consecration set into place  in Leviticus. They are driven from within, "going beyond" (yafli). Their hair "grows wild" (pereh)--a clear echo of the wayward wife (sotah) of the previous chapter, whose hair is made "wild" (parah). At the closing of the period of consecration, the Nazarite must bring a "sin offering" implying a dangerous position.

There are laden lexical links between the neighboring  sections of the wayward wife (sota) and the nazir ( both focus on hair, both use the word "wild", both hold out their hands to hold their offering (natan...kaf) ). This highlights the ambiguity of the status of the Nazir, but also open the question of the place of the wild and unconstrained within the encampment. The chapter closes with the priestly blessing: "God will bless you and guard you; May God light his face towards you and grace you (huneka--another clear echo of Joseph); God will turn his face to you and give you peace." Perhaps blessing requires the wild card, like Joseph who brings "the blessings of the waters above and the deeps lurking below."]

Numbers 5: In Writing

The rot within

Sinking intimacy

Swelling billow-bellied

Out to the wind

Sailing out out out

Beyond hearth or harbor

Beyond tented waves

Beyond you

Rest in shifting sand

That bears without traces

Exposed to the pitiless sun

after the night winds pass away

Numbers: Chapter 5

Unfaithfulness

The things we take

The things we steal

Can there be restitution

 within and without?

[For full chapter, click here

Having set up the encampment "around the Dwelling," this chapter returns to reiterate Leviticus' law of the encampment. If before, the laws of leprosy and ritual impurity were presented from the "inside" perspective of the priests, we now focus on the extended" space of Israel. It is they who are to "send out" (shlakh--a key word of the chapter) the ritually impure to preserve the Dwelling within.

The focus on redemption and restitution (geula) that closed Leviticus is also reiterated and brought down to earth. Geula is now not an absolute right on the land, but rather restitution for  money that was unlawfully taken (maal, lit: unfaithfulness, sin, treachery). 

The  concept of meila--a breakdown of holiness, de-consecration--introduces the final section: the laws of a wife suspected of adultery, who was moel in her husband. The betrayal of the husband directly echoes the betrayal of God. The priest is the one who must settle the marital dispute. This strange section of the Sotah (the wayward woman) creates the basis for the Prophets' central metaphor of the relationship of God-Israel as that of Husband-Wife. Sin is presented as unfaithfulness; the woman's reiteration of her innocence echoes Israel's acceptance of the curses that come from breaking the covenant. The woman is tested within the Dwelling itself.

Yet there is a bitter aftertaste to these "bitter waters," a feel that regardless, the woman will always be in a worse position: "the man shall be clear from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity."]