The Midianites and our Present Crisis

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Several years ago Rabbi Marc Gellman spoke in our community, with his partner on the God Squad, Monsignor Tom Hartman. For many years they appeared regularly on Good Morning America and their segments were made into an HBO special, “How Do You Spell God?”

Not being a big tv person, I know Rabbi Gellman better from his stories in which he blends ancient midrashim to answer the questions of our times. Back in 1997 Rabbi Gellman published a story based on our Torah portion which he called “Moses v Joshua” and which I felt spoke to me this year.

Moses and Joshua were both important leaders of the Jewish people but they were very different individuals. Moses was strong and brave, but also stubborn and even mean sometimes. Moses was good at fighting, at standing up to power, and the people would walk through fire at his command. At first, Joshua was Moses’s young assistant. He was more gentle. He was funny and cooperative and good at getting people to live and work together, and the people loved Joshua. They much preferred him to Pinchas, Moses’s nephew, who with his own sword, killed Israelites who had gone astray.

Most of the time Moses and Joshua worked well together, even though they were different. They helped each other getting the Israelites through the desert. When Moses got stubborn, Joshua told him to lighten up and when Joshua got too emotional, Moses told him to get a grip.

Then came the last battle Moses would fight with the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land, the battle with the Midianites. And it was about this battle that Moses and Joshua had a big fight.

The Children of Israel had come to the land of Midian which was just east of the Jordan river. There were five kings in the area at that time and Moses went to each one, and asked, politely, if the Israelites could cross their land, sticking only to the highway, paying for everything they ate and even the water they drank, but the kings said no. Now avoiding their land would mean thousands of extra miles of walking and Moses was mad. “There is no reason for us to walk that far. We will be neat and pick up all our garbage. We won’t write anything on the walls and won’t steal from the fields.” But still the kings said no.

So Moses called his army leaders and said: Attack these kings and conquer them. Kill all their soldiers, gather all their women and children. Kill all the adults and all the boy children.

But Joshua interrupted. He grabbed Moses by the collar and said: “What are you doing? Are you nuts? You are becoming just like Pharoah. God would never have commanded you to do this. This is all your idea and I am not going to have anything to do with it. God did not bring us all this way to do to other people exactly what the Egyptians did to us.”

Moses stepped back. The people were amazed to witness this fight. Then Moses spoke: Joshua will lead us in this battle. Pinchas you will step down, you are too much of a fanatic, and Joshua will be my successor.

Moses spoke to Joshua: Joshua, we are done running away. This is the time for us to enter the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Every people has a land and that protects them. We can’t wander in the desert forever, fighting off the Amalekites. We need a land as well. We need a place to settle down and be safe. You are a wonderful person Joshua but you can’t always run away. Sometimes you have to fight.” Then Moses walked away and Joshua had to think about his words.

After the battle with the Midianites, in which the Israelites were lead by Joshua, there were other battles, and still more battles, until all the children of Israel got into the Promised Land, all except Moses.

God said to Moses after the battle with the Midianites: “You can’t go into the land with the people.”

Moses asked God, “why?” And God said, “You were too cruel. What you did to the Midianites I didn’t command you. It was like the time at Meribah when the people were thirsty and I told you to speak to the rock, but no, you had to hit the rock. I wanted you to learn that I always want talking to come before hitting. Sometimes the talking can stop the hitting.”

“And what if the talking does not stop the hitting?” Moses asked. “What if you need to fight for your land and your family?”

After a while God answered: “Well then at least you tried.”

Moses said: “I worry that Joshua is too soft to lead the people.”

And God said: “Sometimes I worried that you were too hard.“ So Joshua took the people into the land of Israel. Whenever Joshua encountered another leader, he always sent ahead milk and honey as a gift of peacefulness. Sometimes it worked but sometimes it didn’t work and Joshua had to fight. . (Learn Torah With …Parashat Mattot Volume 3 Number 42 August 2, 1997- adapted)

This week’s Torah portion, as the boys described, includes some harsh commands, commands that were unacceptable to later generations, who reinterpreted them and limited their power. (The rabbis of the Talmud, 2,000 years ago insisted that the seven Canaanites nations were gone, and instituted much more limited rules of engagement.) And this week’s Torah portion, in its own words, attempted to limit the cycle of violence, of killing and reprisal, of loss and vengence, in the establishment of the cities of refuge, a way out of the dilemma of endless death. The juxtaposition of these two stories, that of the Midianites and that of the cities of refuge, does not have to be viewed as coincidence, but can be seen as purposeful so that one would reflect on the other. ( See Naomi Seidman, Learn Torah With…. Volume 5 Number 43).

There is a time for sending delegations of milk and honey and there are times when one’s people must be protected. The model is not Pinchas, a fanatic who picked up his sword with delight but Joshua who accepted the necessity of fighting only with reluctance.