Numbers 21: In Writing

After

After the loss

lament

the dry desire 

of want

After goodbye

And goodbye

the crashing carcass

of fleeing faith

After no

and nakedness

milk-blue

in bleached light

After  strike

and silence

not-listen

after the  bitter

salt plaint

Can you look

And see it

Wavering above?

Can you stop

And speak

"I have sinned"?

Mine the scalding venom

Mine the sibilant sob

Mine the bitter waters

Dig my own hands

scepter in dust

to bring the surge

That carries me past

the breadth

where I stretch

promise

and sing

Numbers: Chapter 21

Go back to the beginning

and try again

From the desert, a gift

From the depths, the summit

When can you say, 

I have sinned ?

[For full chapter, click here

The chapter continues the last, continuing and intensifying both its central strands:  the perilous approach to the Promised Land on the one hand. and the replay of the desert experience on the other.

In the previous chapter, the generation of the Exodus --as exemplified by Miriam and Aaron--are dying out. Yet the the rise of a new generation does not seem to promise renewal. What we have is rather a replay the aftermath of the Exodus, with the constant complaints about the lack of food and water. Here, though, we seem to go further back. The serpent that played so central a role in Moses' initial interaction with Pharaoh reappears,  In a hermetic, highly poetic section, mysterious "fiery snakes" come and attack the nation (in Hebrew, the language is musically alliterative: "nahash saraf ye-nash-hu""). Echoing Pharaoh's own language, the people beg Moses to "remove" the plague. Here, we return to the aftermath of the first time Moses brought forth water from a stone, in Exodus 27. Echoing the keyword of nes (trial, banner), Moses must make a "nahash nehoshet", a copper serpent, which will play the part of Moses' heavy hands in Exodus. The upraised serpent, like the upraised arms, offers salvation from attack. One change has taken place though: for the first time, Israel admit wrongdoing, seeing a "sin" in the complaints (tluna) that have played so central apart in this book: "We have sinned, in what we spoke about God and about you." (here, we perhaps are going even further back, touching on the primal sin in Eden itself...)

The other strand is the continued approach  to the Promised Land. After being rebuffed by Edom, the Israelites "circle" to avoid Edmoite land, and are attacked, first by the --first by the King of Canaan, then by Sihon and by Og. Here, we do see growth and new beginnings. Initially defeated by the King of Canaan, the Israelites bond together, and for the first time function as a single entity, rather than  a mob that "gathers" (k'h'l). "And Israel vowed to God... and God listened to Israel..." From that point out, Israel is victorious in battle. 

The new independence and cohesion of the nation is perhaps best exemplified by the Song Israel sings. This is the most explicit recreation of the exodus, the language directly echoing the Song of the Sea--except this time, it is the nation rather than Moses that leads the Song: "And then Israel sang this song".  

The preponderance of poetry in this chapter returns us to the previous chapter's focus on speech and narrative. If Moses was unable to "speak to the stone" and could not persuade Edom through narrative, here,  victory  is framed by  growing complexity of speech. The victory over Canaan is dependent on a vow; The battle with Sihon is introduced by the recitative from "the book of God's wars" and the Song, and is followed by the song of the moshlim, which also serves to to introduce the battle with Og.

If the mouth was venomous at the opening of the chapter, it is transformed into the key to salvation.]

Numbers 20: In Writing

Finger the cliff
for cracks and fissures
search, research
the implacable face

speak to stone
and plea for answer
for rushing water
in a world of gray

lick the dust
for bitter moisture
seeping through the
closing lids
cry against
coming nakedness

Numbers: Chapter 20

Speak to stone

And beg for water

Call out

"I mean no harm"

Wait for answer

Can you force it

from the rock?

[For full chapter, click here

A time of closings. In the aftermath of the spies, the entire generation was condemned to die in the desert in the course of 40 years. Now, at this first month of an unspecified year,  the full implications become clear. Miriam and Aaron die, and Moses' death is announced. He too shall die in the desert. Indeed only Joshua and Caleb will enter the Land from the previous generation. 

Again, we seem caught in a re-run of Exodus, but with more deadly implications. As happened before, there is no water; as before, God commands Moses to "take his staff" and bring water from the stone. This time, the command is to "Speak  to the stone." Moses instead "smites" it twice, in language that hearkens back to his role as redeemer in Egypt, when he "smote" the Nile to bring the plagues.

But the use of the staff is a fatal mistake. "Because you didn't believe in Me, to sanctify Me before the eyes of Israel, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I am giving them" God declares. The water was to have come through asking, not through force. The role of the staff has changed--a indicated by the sudden flowering of Aaron's staff after the battle with Korach. Moses' return to his old role indicates that he can no longer lead the nation.

The limitation on force is highlighted in the next section, where Moses send to the King of Edom to ask for permission to pass through his lands of Edom. There are two attempts at persuasion, reiterating the narratives of Genesis ("Your brother") and Exodus. Yet  speech does not work here, Edom threatens violence, and the Israelites must "turn". What does it mean to ask for something from implacable stone?

We seem to have come to the non-negotiable. Solid stone, death and endings.]

Numbers 19: In Writing

Scrub me

cleanse me

turn me

outside in

inside out

expose my guts

to the waiting wind 

in spells of entails

dot the night

that encroaches on

blinding brightness

behind flames

dwells darkness

the living waters

swim in ash

you I keep

in the losing

Numbers: Chapter 19

What is left 
from the conflagration

bone
sinew
blood

Gather and guard

To bring life to death

the outside in

theinterweaved opposites

[For full chapter, click here

After 4 chapters revolving around the position of the priests, we seem to come back to Leviticus, with a detailed description of the ritual for purification after contact with death.

This seems to continue the recreation of the death of Nadab and Avihu during the consecration of the Dwelling. Just as Aaron's two sons were "consumed" for "coming close" and "bringing alien fire" into the sanctuary, Korah's 250 men were "consumed" for "coming close" and "bringing alien fire." What followed in Leviticus was a series of rituals designed to define how one "come close" without being consumed. One cannot "come in" to the inner sanctum casually. There must always be a careful  definition of what is outside, what is in, and how one traverses that dangerous doorway. 

The ritual of the Red Heifer also revolves around "going outside" the camp; and around how one can be "in the presence (nohah)  of the Tent of Meeting" even when one is outside. As in the case of Leviticus, there must be a passage before coming back in: "he must wash his clothes and await the evening."

Here though, it is not only closeness that is being addressed, but also the dangerous mix between death and life that has dominated these chapters: Korah "descends living to the underworld, while Aaron must use the incense to "stand between the living and the dead." ""Behold, we are dying! We are lost, we are all lost," cry the children of Israel. 

Here,the ritual promises purification from contact with death. Yet it also hints that death and life are always touching. The ashes of the Red Heifer, "consumed by fire" as were Korah's men and Nadab and Avihu, is mixed with "living waters"--fiery death intermixing  with watery life. Word games highlight this paradoxical intertwining. "Hatat"--which until now has indicated "sin", or "sin offering" here refers to "cleansing" "purification"; Nidda,  which until now has referred to ritual impurity, now becomes the name of the water that grants purity.

In a final closing for these terriblechapters, the ashes of the Red Heifer, what is left of the fire, are here given to the children of Israel for keeping (mishmeret). If the priests were given the guardianship (mishmeret) of the altar; and the Levites guard (mishmeret) the Tent of Meeting, the children of Israel are here given to guard the ashes of what has been lost. Yet it is these ashes that allow entrance into the Tent from "outside."]

Numbers 18: In Writing

Where you go,  I follow
Where you are,  I am 

When you drift,  I support
Your supine body 

through wandering waves
and bear your dreams in the dark

Mine the rising smoke
mine the  bitter-tang
of first bite

Mine the milk squirt
the tannened wine
the waxy gold
of plucked honey
with its sting

Given and taken
Tangled on your hair
I open your womb
and root myself
in you

Numbers: Chapter 18

All that rises

All that is first

A gift and gifted

Given and giving

Placed only in You

[For full chapter, click here

After all the battles and controversy, this chapter comes to both consolidate and redefine the position of Aaron , while subtly answering some of Korah's contentions. The change is encapsulated in the chapter's two  key words roots: sh'm'r, to guard, protect, keep; and n't'n, to give, given, a gift. 

The priesthood is now defined primarily as protection. In contrast to Korah's assertion that Moses and Aaron are "carrying themselves" (n's'a) over the rest of Israel, God defines the priesthood as "carrying (n's'a) the sin of the sanctuary". The kohanim guard Israel from the dangers of too much closeness and are the guardians of the holy. 

Levi  is also redefined. Their role as connector here becomes "accompaniment" (l'v'i--the literal meaning of the tribe's name).  "Your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring them close with you, let them accompany you, and minister to you..." Levi here becomes the extension of Aaron,the brother who walk along with him. They too are guardians, offering a wider circle of protection. Yet simultaneously, they remain "from within the Children of Israel", keeping the priests connected to the people.

In answer to Karah's questioning of Aaron's deserving, the priesthood is defined as a "gift": "a gift service". Freely given, it cannot be questioned, and asks no deserving. Yet even as they are given gifts, the priests and Levites are also "given"--netunim. It is a mutual giving and taking. 

What is more, every gifts excludes others. In being gifted the service, the kohanim are not given the "land that God gave" to the Israel. They're only placement is God Himself. "I am their part and inheritance within the children of Israel".

Apart, but not truly separate, Levi and the priests are the part of Israel that has been given a different, more dangerous, inheritance. They, like the gifts given to them, are what "rises" (teruma, commonly translated as "heave offering")--a part of the while, yet set aside. ]

Numbers 17: In Writing

Gather the remnants
the costly coming close
all difference ingested

hallow the hollows
the gaping graveswithin the dust 

In the still silence flowers bloom

Numbers: Chapter 17

What remains

in the ashes

What flowers 

in the night

Standing between 
life and death

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, 
and  tomorrow









[For full chapter, click here

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.]