Embracing Our Beautiful Human Messiness
Rabbi Tom Samuels
“Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, each person at the entrance of his tent. The Lord was very angry, and Moses was distressed. And Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this people, did I bear them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that You have promised on oath to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people, when they whine before me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these this people by myself, for it is too much for me. If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!” (Numbers 11: 10-15)
...and Moses was distressed…
This is Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our Teacher, our Master. The greatest of the greatest. The only human to lehetabek, to intimate with God. And yet he was distressed…
The Psalmist wrote: Karov Adonai L’nishberai Lev, God is close to the brokenhearted. (Psalm 34:18) And Moses was indeed brokenhearted. Broken-down. Steeped in self-hatred and hopelessness.
Where was that soft, still voice, deep within him, when he willfully noticed a bush aflame that was not consumed? Where was the Moses who responded with, Heneini, Here I am, fully present. (Rabbi Irwin Kula)
“Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me?”
We can all certainly empathize with Moses’ frustrations. His disappointment that this stubborn people did not live up to the aspirational hopes and dreams God had for them. To become a Goy Kadosh, a Holy Nation. A Mamlechet Kohanim, a Nation of Priests. Instead, they become a nation of complainers, Mitlonenim, and worse, idol worshipers, the Egel Hazahav, the Golden Calf.
But, this is the same Moses who learns to embrace the inherent messiness of his humanness. At the Burning Bush, Moses asks God for two things (Exodus 33). First, he asks, Hareini na et derachecha, show me Your ways. God answers that He will teach Moses everything there is about this world. All the laws of nature. And further, how all these laws are connect and are in harmony with each other. The Grand United Theory.
And then Moses asks God, Hareini na et kevodecha, show me Your essence, Your glory. Moses asks to know God, to become God, to break all human boundaries, to escape his humanity. And God’s answer, is no, Lo tuchal lirot et panai, ki lo yirani adam v'chai, I will not allow you to see My Face and to live. That humans have limitations, boundaries. That you cannot escape your humanity. Transcend that boundary between the finite and the infinite. You must accept your human limitations. (Micha Goodman)
The Midrash tells of the angels on high frustrated with God’s decision to give the imperfect Children of Israel the Torah. Moses confronts the angels: Who then will observe it (the Torah)? You angels? Only man can assume the Law and live by its precepts.
Ultimately, Moses fully embraces his complicated, human self.
And, how wonderfully human that our Torah shows a radically honest depiction of his humanity: both his shortcomings and his virtues. Nothing is concealed or assuaged. He is never transformed in to a semi-god. (Unknown)
Lo tuchal lirot et panai, ki lo yirani adam v'chai, I will not allow you to see My Face and to live. Moses is human. If you prick him, he will bleed.
The prophet is human, after all.
Rabbi Tom Samuels
“Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, each person at the entrance of his tent. The Lord was very angry, and Moses was distressed. And Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this people, did I bear them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that You have promised on oath to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people, when they whine before me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these this people by myself, for it is too much for me. If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!” (Numbers 11: 10-15)
...and Moses was distressed…
This is Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our Teacher, our Master. The greatest of the greatest. The only human to lehetabek, to intimate with God. And yet he was distressed…
The Psalmist wrote: Karov Adonai L’nishberai Lev, God is close to the brokenhearted. (Psalm 34:18) And Moses was indeed brokenhearted. Broken-down. Steeped in self-hatred and hopelessness.
Where was that soft, still voice, deep within him, when he willfully noticed a bush aflame that was not consumed? Where was the Moses who responded with, Heneini, Here I am, fully present. (Rabbi Irwin Kula)
“Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me?”
We can all certainly empathize with Moses’ frustrations. His disappointment that this stubborn people did not live up to the aspirational hopes and dreams God had for them. To become a Goy Kadosh, a Holy Nation. A Mamlechet Kohanim, a Nation of Priests. Instead, they become a nation of complainers, Mitlonenim, and worse, idol worshipers, the Egel Hazahav, the Golden Calf.
But, this is the same Moses who learns to embrace the inherent messiness of his humanness. At the Burning Bush, Moses asks God for two things (Exodus 33). First, he asks, Hareini na et derachecha, show me Your ways. God answers that He will teach Moses everything there is about this world. All the laws of nature. And further, how all these laws are connect and are in harmony with each other. The Grand United Theory.
And then Moses asks God, Hareini na et kevodecha, show me Your essence, Your glory. Moses asks to know God, to become God, to break all human boundaries, to escape his humanity. And God’s answer, is no, Lo tuchal lirot et panai, ki lo yirani adam v'chai, I will not allow you to see My Face and to live. That humans have limitations, boundaries. That you cannot escape your humanity. Transcend that boundary between the finite and the infinite. You must accept your human limitations. (Micha Goodman)
The Midrash tells of the angels on high frustrated with God’s decision to give the imperfect Children of Israel the Torah. Moses confronts the angels: Who then will observe it (the Torah)? You angels? Only man can assume the Law and live by its precepts.
Ultimately, Moses fully embraces his complicated, human self.
And, how wonderfully human that our Torah shows a radically honest depiction of his humanity: both his shortcomings and his virtues. Nothing is concealed or assuaged. He is never transformed in to a semi-god. (Unknown)
Lo tuchal lirot et panai, ki lo yirani adam v'chai, I will not allow you to see My Face and to live. Moses is human. If you prick him, he will bleed.
The prophet is human, after all.