Numbers: Chapter 17

What remains

in the ashes

What flowers 

in the night

Standing between 
life and death

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, 
and  tomorrow









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We continue the leitmotif of "complaints" (tlunah, melenim), and explosive anger. The key words of this chapter continue seamlessly from  the last.
In a recreation of death of Nadav and Avihu, "consumed" for bringing "alien fire", Kora'sh250 men are consumed. They have come too "close" (k'r'v) and pay the price; only the remains of their "fire pans" achieve the consecration (k'd'sh) they sought, as they are made an eternal "sign" (ot) on the altar.
If until this point, Moses has been the calming voice, with God "flaring" in anger, Korach's personal attach led Moses to "flare" in anger himself. The people seem to sense the personal nature of Moses' anger, and blame him for "bringing death" to "God's nation". Once again, God's anger flares, are the entire nation is in danger of being "consumed / finished" (akhale, which plays on akhl, eaten) as teh 250 men were. Moses returns to playing the calming role. If before, he mixed death and life by having Korah descend "living into the underworld"; he now commands Aaron to "stand between the living and the dead."
The chapter closes with God commanding the princes (nesiim) of the tribes (mateh) --who until now have been  the source of discord-- to bring their staffs(mateh)  to the Tent of Meeting. In a play on words, the "congregation" (edah) bring the staffs to the Tend of Meeting (mo'ed) to stand before the testimony (edut). At last there is an attempt--if only lexical--to bridge the gap between the problematic mob/congregation and the Dwelling. The final "sign" (ot) of God's choice of Aaron is far more hopeful than the first: a flowering budding staff, hinting at life and rebirth.] 

Numbers: Chapter 10

Sound the trumpets 

Of motion

Of memory

Of meeting

And the moment of leave-taking

When eyes close

In the vortex

Don't leave me now

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After all the planning and counting and appointing, the encampment is finally ready to travel. This new unity is announced by the command to create the trumpets "of a single solid"--an echo of the previous chapter's opening description of the Manorah, hammered of "a single solid." But whereas the Menorah belongs to the "inside", to Aaron and the Sanctuary; these trumpets are "for you" and serve to call the people. They are the harbingers of "memory" for Israel as a whole, whether in war or in festival.
The joyfulness of this first travel is broken by the description of Hovav/Jethro's leave taking. At the moment of triumphant travel, he prepares to leave. "Come with us" Moses begs.
"No" says Hovav, "I will return to my homeland and my birthplace" --a precise inverted parallel of Abraham's original journey "away from you homeland and your birthplace" to the unknown "land that will be shown." This is an ominous inversion, indicating that travel "to the land that God promised to give us" might not be so simple as Moses thinks. Indeed, Moses, in a rare moment of vulnerability, reveals the pain and anxiety of the journey through the unknown: "Do not leave us. You know how we are to encamp in the wilderness. You have been our eyes!"
Hovav does not answer, and we return to the story of travel]

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: 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

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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: Chapter 1

What is carried

And what carries you

How do you make it count?

Set, established, 

Called by name

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From the pointilistic Leviticus-space of "the Tent of Meeting" and "Mount Sinai",  we pan outwards to the "wilderness of Sinai". The broadening space reflects a broadened audience. No longer do we speak only to the priests. Now the words are addressed to the "entire congregation of Israel," and the first act is to appoint "those called by the congregation" to act along with Moses and Aaron. 

The new focus on nationality is reflected in the fact that this is a military census, "all who go out to the army." Yet even in establishing a military, the underlying conception of the congregation is familial. This is an extended family. "The children of Israel" are numbered by "their families," by "their father's house." The tribes are listed not by size or importance, but by their position in the family: Leah's children, then Rachel's (the children of the maidservants are the wild cards, changing order in the listing. As in the closing of Genesis, they are the glue holding the two sides of Israel's family together.) People are called by name; the focus is on "the head", the face, not the militarized body.  

Yet even as we establish this cohesion of distinct families, one tribe is set apart. Levi is not "counted" (p'k'd) or "carried" (in's'a). In a series of word-plays, Levi is instead "appointed" (p'k's) to carry (n's'a) the Dwelling. 

The focus on inside/outside and the liminal space between that so dominated Leviticus here becomes embodied within the very fabric of the nation, that encamps around the inner core of Levi]

Goodbye to Leviticus

Sigh of relief. I admit it. It was a hard one.

The transition from the grand themes of Exodus to the arcane nitty-gritty of Leviticus was jarring. And yes, there were many reasons for the multiple breaks—travel, work, road trips, family responsibility, and that wonderful thing called summer—but still, when I’m honest, can I truly say the subject matter had nothing to do with it?

Leviticus was hard. Reading the intricacies of each chapter was hard; finding an image was hard; being inspired was hard. Animal dissections, strange (and many no longer practiced) rules of ritual purity and impurity, leprosy, the altar, the limitations on permitted food, and limitations on sexuality…

Yet strewn between are also some of the greatest biblical landmarks: “Do not bear a grudge… love your neighbor as yourself”  “Do not hate your brother in your heart”; “do not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block before the blind”; the care for justice; the active command to protect the weak and vulnerable;  the repeated injunctions to make space for the stranger.  A mix of high and low; animal body parts and love for your neighbor. It’s a discordant mix to the modern ear. Grand themes wrapped in the language of ritual, tying together vicera and spirit. There is no Cartesian duality here, no way to separate the body and the “soul/ life spirit” (nefesh) that so dominates this book/

Having slogged through the laws of sacrifice, I’ve come to realize that on its own terms, Leviticus is unified, and a logical stage to follow Exodus. Genesis revolved  around the creation of the self, with how the self “reaches forth [its] hand” to handle the world. It is the story of developing individual, wrapped in oedipal themes, sibling rivalry, and the sparks of connection between man and woman.

In Exodus, we more from the formation of the self, to the formation of the community. The book deals with the creation of a collective identity around the relationship to God. It closes with the establishment of the Dwelling, the shared space of God and humanity.

In   Leviticus, we move into the Dwelling itself, into this consecrated space of relationship. All the rituals revolve around the creation of boundaries. We define what can be ingested into the body; what must be left outside. Who enters, who is outside, and what happens in the liminal space of connection.  Relationship is a dangerous space: come too close, and one is ingested by the fire; go too far, and one is “cut off” from one’s people.  Intimacy requires the liminal space, the dividing waters, in order to survive. When the divider disappears,  the “soul revolts” in existential nausea.

The ritualistic definition of relationship in turn reflects back on Genesis’ presentation of the self in formation. If Genesis revolves around questions of possession, money and value, Leviticus closes by redefining the limits of possession. Land and humanity cannot be truly owned; only valued. Yet there is a level of connection so deep—“for the Land is Mine”—that it breaks all local bonds of connection. In “devotion” to God, we can no loner speak of value or money. Ther e is only the object itself. In the end, the space of relationship redefines the self.

Leviticus: Chapter 24

Always, continuously

Who is left outside?

Held within the guarding 

What can be restored,

And what cannot

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The chapter opens by continuing the focus on time, this time intertwining it with space. From sanctified moments, we move to the service in the Tent of Meeting that must be "continuous/ eternal" (tamid). The pointillist present tense becomes the unchanging perfect: the eternal flame; the always-present shewbread.

Yet this focus on the serene perfection is abruptly broken by the story of the "son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian man," who "blasphemed the Name and cursed." The specific trigger is left purposely ambiguous. The key word is "go out" (ve-yetze). This book has revolved around places within and without. Until now, we have focused on the high price payed by those within, who cannot "go out." Now we turn to the toll on those who are "outside" (bahutz) and find no place "within the children of Israel." The "guardianship (mishmeret) of God's decrees" becomes here a prison (mishmeret), from which the blasphemer is once again "taken out" (va-yotziu'hu) to death.

The chapter closes by setting up to levels of reality--the redeemable and nonredeemable. "whoever curses his god shall bear his sin; but whoever curses God's name shall surly die" " "he who smites the soul (nefesh) of a person, shall surly die. And whoever smites the soul of an animal shall pay it, a soul for a soul." The eternal space that opens the chapter creates an unbreakable, crushing framework in which forgiveness is not possible. ]

Leviticus: Chapter 22

The limits within

What cane be ingested

set forth

The hollows within

the hallowed bread

Give perfection

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This chapter continues seamlessly from the last, expanding on the special laws for the priests, The key words remain teh sme: "Hallowed" (kadosh), "Hollowed / desecrated" (halal); protect / guardianship (mishmeret; shamor); and, of course, teh leiwort of this entire book: closeness/ close/ offering (root k'r'b).

In a reflection of the previous laws defining the relationship to the Dwelling, this chapter moves from defining the limitations on the priest's contact with others, to his relationship with his own body and its excretions. As before, entering the space of Meeting demands a containment from the self. In counterpoint, as in the case of Israel, the relationship to the Dwelling is intimately related to questions of food: what can and should be ingested. 

In a return to the fateful "eighth day" which saw the death of the two sons of Aaron, once again there is an ominous parallel between the priests and the offerings they bring to the altar. If the previous chapter demanded physical perfection of the priests--any disfigurement makes them unfit for service--this chapter demands (in almost identical terms) physical perfection from animals. Any animal that is disfigured is disqualified from the altar. The "daughter of a kohen-man" who "desecrates" her father is "to be burned by fire"--a clear echo of the "fire that God burned," which destroyed the "two sons of Aaron." The priests who "come close" are intertwined with the animals they "bring close:" And closeness is dangerous.  ]  

Leviticus: Chapter 21

The limits of closeness

Where can you connect

When you can't go outside

The limits of perfection

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The laws limiting the kohanim (priests). Having defined the space "inside," the connection to the "outside
 of the Tend of Meeting becomes more circumscribed."Bringing close" the "offerings" (korban) means that the priests cannot be close (k'r'b) to as many people. They can only come into contact with the dead for blood relations who are "close" (karev, karov. These relationships are male-centric. Bonds to sisters exist only so long as no man has entered the equation, breaking the bonds of blood ). 

 The "filling" (milui) of the high-priest leaves no room for other connections. He cannot "go outside" (lo yetze) the Dwelling, not even to mourn his own family. The woman he marries must also have never come into contact with the outside: "A woman in her virginity must he take."

The priests themselves must  be perfect--any physical flaws limits their ability to go "inside"]

Leviticus: Chapter 20

Divisions

What is set apart
To be mine
Unadulterated





















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This chapter reiterates and reinforces the themes of the previous chapters--the prohibition on child sacrifice to the Molekh; the prohibition against divination and augury; the need for sexual morality, which here becomes one and the same as idolatry--both are defined through a single root: z'n't (lewdness, lust), The leitwords remain "holy" "keep" "do."
Yet the reiteration is done within the context of a key concept that connects all the laws taught since that pivotal "eighth day." The chapter closes with a four-time repetition of the root b'd'l (havdala, hivdil, hivdaltem): "division," "separation," "differentiation."  These laws are long term manifestations of that liminal space of the "gate of the Tent of Meeting." They define the inside, the outside and the crevice between.
In becoming separated, you enter the "meeting", becoming "Mine." It is a fraught space. God's "face" can turn against you. And in defining the shared space "inside," the chapter also introduces the idea of collective responsibility. If in the previous chapter, we are commanded to "love your friend as yourself" here, we become responsible for another's sin: if someone does not stop a sacrifice to the Molekh, he too is punished. The separation creates links.
 The space of belonging also spreads outward, to the liminal doorway, embracing the "alien who sojourns in Israel."]

Leviticus: Chapter 17

For the blood
is the life force



The bond of consanguinity


















[For full chapter, click here
This chapter finally delves into the central motif of this book: blood. Once again, we return to primordial roots, echoing the primal definition of the relationship to animal after the Deluge: "But flesh with the life... which is the blood, you shall not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man." As in Genesis, humanity and animal are tied together in bonds of blood. Man is given rights of eat, but not to the life force. 
Here, the limitations seems tighter. The opening verse seems to imply that any taking of animal life outside the context of the Dwelling borders on murder: "Any man of the house of Israel that kills an ox, or lamb or goat in the camp...and brings it not to the doorway of the Dwelling...blood shall be imputed to that man, he has shed blood". This supposition is contradicted by later references to hunting--the killing is allowed, but the blood must be treated with respect. 
Life force/soul (nefesh) becomes embodied in blood. The river that ties together all life force, it also allows for atonement].

Leviticus: Chapter 16

Inside

Outside

Between

The veils of concealment

of closeness

The moment in time 

and what follows

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After the various laws creating a correlation between human body and the Dwelling, we return to the death of the "two sons of Aaron". The leitwords are the same: "closeness" (k'r'v), "fire," "face/presence" (lifnei/ pnei).  Yet this is a return that is informed by the laws that followed. Once again, a doubled sacrifice (an echo, perhaps, of the two lost sons?) that holds within it life and death--here, the scapegoat sent "out" deep into the desert. The focus is still  inner and outer spaces (ve-yetze "to go out", "vayavo" "to come") and the liminal space  between them--the "doorway" of the Dwelling becomes the "veil" setting apart the "holy of holies."

 The ritual that allows for the very "coming close" that destroyed the two children of Aaron also distills and encapsulation the laws that introduce it. By clarifying the inner, the outer, and the liminal, it for the first time allows the Dwelling "to dwell with you within your impurity"--a contrast to the previous chapter's deadly  "Let them not die in their impurity, when they make impure my Dwelling which is within them."

We also introduce a motif of time, a counterpoint to the emphasis on space: "any moment (et) he comes to the holy" "send it with a man of the moment (ish eti)"; an intimation of the future, where a different priest will serve "in the place of his father." Time seems to provide the missing link between  the inner and outer spaces]

Leviticus: Chapter 15

What is inside

seeping outside

extended         circles

touching

Inner and outer temples

Contain                            yourself

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We continue with the laws of tumah and Tahara, ritual purity and impurity, this time focusing on male and female bodily discharges, what "seeps" (zav) out of the body.
Again, the Temple-consecration pattern of seven-days-and-eighth-day-transition; again a duality (two birds in each of the offerings; male/ female; two categories of discharge ). And throughout, the focus on the tension between inner and outer spaces. The zav represents an inner space seeping outwards, contaminating in widening circles, an inversion of the "tent of meeting," whose holiness seeps from the center out. Once again, there seems a strange correlation between the human body and the Dwelling. The human spaces must be contained, in order for the tend to "dwell within you."] 

Leviticus: Chapter 13

See

Be seen

Make manifest

When did flesh

become you?

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The world of the divine  resonates throughout the human encampment, as the chapter continues to discuss the theme of human tumah and tahara (loosely translated as ritual purity and impurity) with the laws of tzaraat (a skin disfigurement sometimes identified as leprosy). 

The key word is "seeing" and "eyes"--the root r'a'a (roe, mar'e, yirah-e) repeats over twenty times. This is a chapter of stripping away, removing what is covered, exposing rot. 

The strange correlation between the human body and the Dwelling persists. We return to the primal language that opened the Book of Leviticus: "Adam," human, earth-creature, rather than the more conman "man"; followed by "nefesh," soul--mirroring the initial description of the Temple service. There is a focus on clothing--the defining characteristic of the priest. Interwoven is also the motif of  fire and burning--an echo of the death of Nadav and Avihu "on the eighth day."  Like the Dwelling, the skin lesion is defined through a seven day process of enclosure. But in contrast to the dedication of the Mishkan--and the purification of a woman after birth-- here, there is no concluding "eighth day", no transition between inside and out, no death and rebirth. Instead there is a trapping within a system of repeated cycles of sevens.

As the chapter enumerates the various ways of diagnosing the skin lesion, there is a continous interplay between the person and the flesh-disease. In the opening section, the subject is "adam"--the person; in the second section, the subject is "tzarrat" --the disease itself. In the closing, the person is defined by the disease. He is a metzorah, an embodiment of tzarrat. It is no longer the lesion that is "tameh--impure" but he. The person has becomes his flesh]

Leviticus: Chapter 12

The human dwelling

dedication

blood

small deaths

To hold multiplicity

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From the laws of food and animals, we move seamlessly into the laws of human purity and impurity. There is a slippage of meaning, with the key words remaining the same, but changing context: tahor (kosher, pure) ta'me (not-kosher, impure); the plant seeds here become human gametes: "a woman who gives forth seed".

In this extension of the holiness of the Dwelling into the human realm, there is a strange confluence between birth and consecration; the woman's body and the Mishkan. Like the Mishkan, dedicated in a seven day ceremony that is completed "on the eighth day," the impurity after birth follows a seven day cycle followed by "on the eighth day". As in the case of the consecration of the Mishkan, the focus is on blood. Here too, there is a focus on duality and separations: the doubling of the days in the case of a female baby; the double offering brought at the end of the birth period.]

Leviticus: Chapter 10

Come bring
and be consumed
the eating fire


the thin line
alien and belong
inside and out
















[For full chapter, click here
This chapter continues seamlessly from the last, sharing all its key words: "fire", "closeness/offering" (the root k'r'v), "face" (pnei), "holy" (kodesh). But what a transformation. The hidden menace in the complete integration of kohen and altar comes into the open. The same fire that "came forth" to "consume the ascension offering on the altar" now "comes forth" to "consume them," killing the two sons of Aaron. Another key word enters: "die" temutrun.  It is shocking--and yet feels inevitable. Moses "brought close" (hekriv) Aaron and his sons--the exact same language used for "bringing close" (hekriv) an offering (korban)--a pattern which is emphasized by Moses statement: "this is what God meant when he said I will be sanctified by those closest (bi-krovai) to Me." Aaron's remaining sons become notar, "left over"--the same language used to describe the leftovers of the meal offering.
The fact that the high priest is aligned with  "the entire congregation" in regards to the sin offering takes on a new overtone. The priests stand at the "doorway" because they are the buffer. "Do not die, and on all the congregation He will be wroth."  "Your brothers, the entire congregation of Israel" will "cry over the burning that God has burned." The two sons of Aaron become the embodiment of the sin offering of the nation. The priests are the altar, with all the danger that implies. The fire that was greeted with joy must now be mourned with the same intensity.
We return to the tension between closeness and distance that animated the entire creation of the Dwelling. Aaron's sons run to greet the divine fire with "alien fire," and are consumed by the very fire to which  they respond. Now comes a splitting. "you must differentiate (lehavdil)." The dead and the living; inside and outside; the doorway between.]

Leviticus: Chapter 9

On this day

Today

Come close

See and make seen

Fire flows forth

Burning blessing

[For full chapter, click here

"And it was on the eighth day"... After all the laws and preparation, the seven liminal "days of filling" we finally arrive back on the day of consecration that closed the Book of Exodus. After standing "in the doorway" Aaron at last "goes out," (vayetze) connecting the inner world of the sanctuary and the outer world of the people in a "blessing" which causes "a fire to go forth (vayetze) from God.

They leitwords are "close, to approach" (karev, korban), to see (vayar, veyeru), and "face" (pani, lifnim). This is a day of intimacy, and of God making Himself visible. 

The priests continue to function as a living element of the Dwelling. They are the connecting pieces between the people and the altar, "coming close" (karev) to bring the offerings of closeness (korban).  ]

Leviticus: Chapter 8

At the portal

Dedicated in blood

Fill me

Clothe me in glory

Atone and consecrate

Altar and man made one

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The dedication. The link between kohen and dwelling becomes even more intense, as they are consecrated in a single ceremony. Aaron is dressed; the alter is consecrated;  Aaron's children are dressed; both are consecrated with the oil and blood from the altar, so that priest and altar become a single unit. The priests here are utterly passive, dressed and moved by Moses--just another component of the many-faceted Dwelling. The offerings are measured by "the filling of their hands": they are the measurement of the altar.

As in the case of the sin offering, the kohen stands in for the nation as a whole, brought by "the entire congregation."  

This time of dedication centers on the limen, placed between two worlds. "The whole nation" congregates "to the door"; Aaron and his sons are to be "at the doorway of the Dwelling for the Days of Filling."  We are at the transitional stage]

Leviticus: Chapter 7

Bound together

or cut off

Divine and human eating

That which you bring 

becomes yours

[For full chapter, click here

This chapter expands and intensifies the themes of the previous chapter. The connection between kohen and offering becomes tighter. If in the previous chapter, the priests were given general rights to certain offerings, here an intense one on one relation is established between the offering and the priest that offers it: "The one who atones with it, to him it shall be" "The skin of the ascension offering shall go to the kohen who offered it, to him shall it be" "and the kohen who throws the blood of the sin offering it shall be".

Countering this intense bond between the priest and the offering is the threat of a broken bond to those who disrespect the offerings, to those who overstep the bounds of the holy: "and he shall be cut off (karet) from his people."

The sharing of the offering between the human and the divine is accompanied by limitations to protect the boundaries of the divine. The chapter closes with a reiteration of the prohibition of taking the blood or the fat--the two parts of the sacrifice consecrated for the altar. Those who do so shall be "cut off"]