Walking toward bliss

This week’s Torah portion is B’haalotecha, which means, when you raise or light. It speaks about kindling the menorah, and the consecration of the Levites. It describes the journeying of the camp; and there are two regrettable incidents: one about the people who complained about their diet of manna, and another in which Miriam and Aaron were gossiping about Moses.
The Torah describes the incident of the manna this way, as translated by Rashi: the people were like those who seek pretexts of evil in the ears of God, and God heard and God’s wrath flared. And also later, The rabble that was among them cultivated a craving and the Children of Israel also turned and wept, and said, Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish we ate in Egypt free of charge, the cucumbers and melons, the leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our life is parched, we have nothing before our eyes but the manna. The people had just begun to journey, having only recently left Sinai and set forth for their first three day trip away from the site of the revelation. Nachmanides writes that the Israelites were feeling sorry for themselves. Perhaps the trip was arduous; perhaps, as Rashi claims, they were seeking an excuse to evade the commandments, or the trip itself, as if, Nachmanides writes, they were acting under duress or compulsion. The truth was that they had freely chosen to leave Egypt, and freely chosen to accept the commandments of the Torah, and yet, here they were, complaining and making excuses in order to rebel against God, either out of boredom or fear. They even go so far as to wish they were back in Egypt. God is portrayed here as a God who cares passionately about their moral life: God sends a fire to consume the edge of the camp, and later sends meat: so much quail that they will eat it for a month, but God also sends a plague to those who developed the craving and led others to wish for more than the manna. This section prompts the question, does God punish? The Torah clearly sets forth the principle of reward and correction, or perhaps, expiation. My teacher, Rabbi Gelberman, feels that God does not punish. He says that God wants to bless us, but that we choose the wrong things. We do it to ourselves. I feel that God sends corrections to teach us and also to expiate our transgressions. But in another sense, I have come to feel that everything that happens, occurs to draw us nearer to the Divine Presence. There are no bounds to the respect our Creator has for us. God truly respects us: our ability to learn and to serve at a higher level than what we are comfortable with. When we, metaphorically, desire to return to Egypt: to practices we have left behind, or to practices we should have left behind, the Eternal will show us that we must return to a higher path; to walk the path that leads to God.
There is a story in the commentary Sifre: A king put a tutor in charge of his child and gave the tutor orders and said: I do not want the child to eat harmful food or drink harmful drink.” The child fumed against his father and said, “It is not because he loves me; he only wants to deny these things to me.” Of course, the child cannot have the wisdom to see how much the father loves the child. The child only sees the negative. We also, sometimes see the glass half empty rather than half full. It is our perspective that is lacking. We easily mislead ourselves that what we interpret as negative in our lives is really negative. Often the intended learning or correction, sent by the Eternal One who is full of goodness, is missed.
Rashi ascribes a wonderful statement to God, when the Israelites are in the midst of their complaints about the journey and the food. Rashi imagines that God says to the Children of Israel, I had intended it for your benefit, so that you would enter the land of Israel immediately. This statement reinforces my strong feeling that everything that happens, tends toward the good, because God is goodness and goodness flows from God. The Divine Presence sends us experiences that lead us to harmony with that Presence: through correction or, we hope, blessings. If we only had the vision, we would see the radiance ahead. We would see that we are being guided toward holiness and away from wrong paths. The world cannot move toward harmony without transgression being cleared. That was the meaning of Noah and the flood. Because God is perfection, there must be justice, as well as mercy. Mercy alone will not allow the perfection of our world. Sin must be cleared in some fashion. All that happens allows us and consequently, the world to move, even if slightly, toward God’s nature, which is goodness. We, being so far from God, cannot see the bliss toward which we are walking. May each of us come to realize that the Eternal is guiding us toward goodness, and may we be attentive, curious, and grateful for such a marvelous journey.