{"id":47023,"date":"2019-01-06T22:59:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T20:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47023"},"modified":"2022-07-31T16:22:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T13:22:26","slug":"saga-of-love-and-hate-good-and-evil-in-the-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/saga-of-love-and-hate-good-and-evil-in-the-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"Saga Of Love And Hate, Good And Evil In The Wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[466,598,381],"acf":{"old_id":"47023","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34004,"related_cahpter":"127","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Ambivalent people who struggle with their own volatile relations with God, with Moses, and with themselves","content":"

At the beginning of the book, all the signs indicate that the people are preparing for imminent arrival in the Land of Israel. According to the midrash, this journey was to have been extremely brief: a three-day journey. <\/span><\/p>\n

At this moment, sin has not yet happened, the people have not yet been punished with years in the desert, and Moses still believes he will enter the land. Hence, Moses speaks innocently, unsuspectingly of desire and fulfillment. His sense of plenitude is reflected in his speech to Jethro:<\/span><\/p>\n

Moses said to Chovav son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses\u2019 father-in-law, \u201cWe are traveling to the place… Come with us and we will be good to you; for God has promised goodness to Israel.\u201d And he replied, \u201cI will not go; but will return to my native land.\u201d He said, \u201cPlease do not leave us… if you come with us, the goodness that God grants to us we will extend [lit., \u201cdo good\u201d] to you\u201d (Num. 10:29-32). <\/span><\/p>\n

Four times, Moses utters the word <\/span>tov<\/span><\/em>–<\/span><\/i>-good. But as though deaf to Moses\u2019 blandishments, Jethro simply says, \u201cI\u2019m going home\u201d and vanishes from the biblical record.<\/span><\/p>\n

From this scene, we understand that the appeal to \u201cgoodness\u201d ultimately expresses a subjective sense of things. By repeating the word <\/span>tov<\/span><\/em> so often, Moses evokes an ecstatic sense of God\u2019s bounty. But Jethro does not share Moses\u2019 perspective, so he simply acts on his own desire and goes home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGoodness,\u201d then, lies in the eyes of the beholder. It is striking that in his infancy Moses is described as \u201cgood.\u201d (\u201cAnd his mother saw that he was good….\u201d [Exod. 2:2].) And at the Burning Bush, God promises to bring the people to \u201ca good and spacious land….\u201d (Exod. 3:8). The foundational experiences of Moses\u2019 life are permeated by a sense of <\/span>tov<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the book of Numbers the words <\/span>tov<\/span><\/em> and <\/span>ra<\/span><\/em>, good and evil, are used to express the subjective consciousness of \u201clove\u201d and \u201chate.\u201d Moses\u2019 eyes are trained on that good destination that beckons so alluringly. He is full of love. But since love is not always contagious, Jethro remains unaffected by Moses\u2019 enthusiasm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here begins the saga of love and hate in the wilderness. Here begins the subjective narrative of an ambivalent people who, through a series of wilderness narratives, struggle with their own volatile relations with God, with Moses, and, ultimately, with themselves. In the end, their loves and hates will postpone for an entire generation their entry into the land.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":84019,"id":84019,"title":"ps52-good evil","filename":"ps52-good-evil.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps52-good-evil.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/evil-v-good-falsehood-v-righteousness\/ps52-good-evil\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps52-good-evil","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84018,"date":"2020-11-24 13:31:43","modified":"2023-07-17 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