One of the gifts of having a fixed lectionary cycle is that with each rereading we have the opportunity to explore different facets of a text. While the words and letters before us remain the same year to year, we change, and with this change come new insights and questions. What will we discover about God, ourselves or the world as we return to our sacred sources?
In revisiting the Torah portion of Pinhas this year (Numbers 25:10-30:1) -- a portion rich with both narrative and legal material -- I am drawn to the brief, but dramatic episode in Chapter 27 in which Joshua is invested as the incoming leader of the Israelite people (verses 12-23). Of particular interest to me is the depiction of Moses -- the outgoing leader -- in this story and in post-biblical Jewish commentaries.
I am generally intrigued by the complex presentation of Moses in the TaNaKH and the ways in which Jewish exegetes throughout time reshape this ancient hero in light of their values and experiences. This text is particularly poignant because it invites the reader to reflect on the complicated and timeless issues of succession and mortality through both a private exchange between God and Moses and a public ceremony involving the entire community of Israel.
After years of sojourning in the wilderness, the Children of Israel approach the Promised Land. Our scene opens with God instructing Moses to ascend to Mount Abarim to view the land. Tragically, the Israelite leader will not enter Canaan with his people because of an earlier transgression (the infamous striking of the rock at Kadesh, Numbers 20:11). Like his brother Aaron before him (Numbers 20:24), Moses will soon be "gathered" to his kin, and the Children of Israel will continue their march to the Promised Land.
Immediately following these instructions, Moses says to God:
Let the Lord, God of the spirits for all flesh, appoint a man over the community, who will go out before them and to come in before them and who will lead them in and out on the march so that the Lord's community may not be like a flock that has no shepherd (Numbers 27: 15-17, translation by Robert Alter, "The Five Books of Moses").
Surprisingly, Moses does not respond directly to what God has just said about the prophet's future; instead, he focuses his attention exclusively on the welfare of people of Israel. Is this simply a sign of Moses' virtuosity -- placing the needs of others above his own -- or might it also be the response of a leader who is unwilling or not yet ready to engage in an open discussion with God about his own destiny? (Moses does later plead with the Divine to allow him to enter Canaan, see Deuteronomy 3:23-25.)
Whatever personal issues Moses may be feeling (several post-biblical commentaries speculate on this matter), his ability to voice his concern for his community is most commendable. The aging prophet, whom God first called on to redeem Israel from Egyptian bondage when Moses was a young shepherd (Exodus 3), now calls on the Divine to provide the Israelite flock with a capable leader.
In one rabbinic commentary (Yalkut Shimoni; see the English translation in "The Book of Legends," p. 101, #134) Moses' expression of compassion for his people is magnified further through a depiction of the prophet standing before God wrapped in a prayer shawl calling on the Divine -- "God of the spirits of all flesh" -- to appoint a successor who is capable of addressing the needs of each and every member of the Israelite community.
After decades of leadership service, including both great success and significant failure, Moses turns to God in this liminal moment and prays that his heir will be more adept than he at bearing all of the spirits of the "sixty myriads" (a number commonly used in rabbinic literature to include the whole house of Israel).
Interestingly, in this rabbinic commentary God responds to Moses by showing him successive generations of prophets and judges, beginning with Joshua and including all other Jewish leaders throughout time. The Divine explains to Moses that each of these individuals has but one "disposition and one spirit." Only at the end of time will there arise a leader who will be able to carry the weight of the spirits of all the people. That individual will be the Messiah. While it is laudable that Moses petitions the Divine to appoint such a godly figure over Israel, God knows that this is impossible within the bounds of human history.
This response adds greater texture to the more dispassionate presentation of God in this biblical episode. The Divine emerges here as both a realist and a compassionate guide, who reminds Moses that no human leader can possibly meet the needs of every individual in a community. Further, this text implicitly affirms the need for cooperation among leaders -- both within and across generations -- since no one person can carry this awesome burden alone. This is a particularly important lesson for God to deliver to Moses, since the latter played so many different roles -- perhaps too many -- in his tenure as the leader of Israel.
This interpretation also strengthens God's response to Moses in the biblical text. The Almighty instructs the prophet to commission Joshua son of Nun as the next leader of Israel (27:18). In doing so, the Divine refers to the incoming leader as a person who has "spirit within him." Like Moses, Joshua is a charismatic leader with great skill and experience, but he too is limited. In fact, in verse 21, God explains to Moses that Joshua will need to rely on Eleazar the High Priest and the oracular device known as the Urim and Thumim to discern God's word. As the contemporary scholar Robert Alter indicates, the new leader will be dependent on an "institutionalized intermediary" (The Five Books of Moses, p. 830) in a manner that Moses was not.
This brief biblical episode closes with Moses and Eleazar the High Priest (Aaron's son and successor) standing together with Joshua atop the mountain. At God's command, the elder prophet and young priest install Joshua as Moses' successor before the entire assembly of Israel. In a powerful gesture of continuity and interdependence, Moses lays his hands on his protégé (27:23), thus bestowing some of his "grandeur" (hod) upon Joshua. Eleazar stands at Joshua's side as a sign of their partnership as national leader and High Priest.
In this brief vignette, Moses models for us how an outgoing leader can serve a constructive and gracious role in passing the mantle to a successor. We all know how complicated it can be for a community to deal with such transitions and the power the outgoing and incoming leaders have in shaping this experience. Here, Moses rises to the challenge and with dignity and care installs Joshua as his successor. In so doing, he demonstrates one of the many reasons why he is remembered in Jewish tradition as Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our rabbi, our teacher (see Norman J. Cohen, "Moses and the Journey to Leadership," p. 172-176).
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