Behaalotcha

All were labeled as prostitutes except Lot’s daughter, who was a criminal.

What is the male perception of a very attractive woman?

Watch for “and she got up.” Tamar got up from mourning. [We are already on the lookout for people who “go up” and “go down.” This language describes psychological states. When the Chumash speaks about having a child, it is talking about bringing people to their potential. This is what Tamar did with Yehuda.

Ruth’s former gilgul died from the crime of giving bread to an old man. Ruth needed to go to another place, where she attracted help by giving bread to an old lady (Naomi).

The goal is to not play the game as oppressor or victim—they are one unit. The person cooperates by defining himself as a victim. We must have non-cooperation, not non-violence because we’re not battling Nazis, we’re battling Amalek, discouragement, self-image. Do you see yourself as the son or daughter of the King (King David) or as the crucified Jesus? Being killed as a scapegoat is not a mitzvah.

Jesus was constantly looking to validate himself. Jesus is an image of the Jewish people. When you feel illegitimate, you are already a victim, playing into the scapegoat concept, and over-achieving.

Once you feel illegitimate, there is no way to win.

King David represents a different model.

Boaz died on his wedding night, which the rabbis took to mean that he should not have married a Moab woman. This cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the marriage, so that Oved, the son and Boaz and Ruth and the grandfather of David, was not considered legitimate.

David’s father, Ee-shy, began to doubt his own legitimacy, meaning the way he viewed himself, his self-image.

How do we know who we are? The Chumash has stories about people in bed not recognizing each other (Yaakov with Leah, Yehuda with Tamar, Ee-shy with his wife). Come to think of it, the Chumash has stories about men not recognizing their bedmates.

Because Ee-shy was doubting himself, he stopped having relations with his wife, although he didn’t divorce her, and instead made arrangements to have the Canaanite maid conceive a child with him. If Oved was not recognized as having a legitimate birth, he should not have married a Hebrew woman, because all his descendants would illegitimate and would be permitted to marry only their own kind. However, the child of a Canaanite woman would be allowed to convert and resume the status of a Jew. No discussion here about all those sons who were already born to Ee-shy and his wife. The Canaanite maid, who was friends with her mistress, switched places, so that Ee-shy impregnated his wife. Everyone assumed that the wife had committed adultery when she turned up pregnant, and we have not heard about what happened with the maid.

Every Jew has to decide whether to be the tortured victim or the son/daughter of the King.

David learned to be the son of the king from his mother, who learned from Tamar to be silent and not humiliate Ee-shy. [I’m not comfortable with this one. The “righteous” father and sons humiliated David constantly, treating him like a servant, not permitting him to eat with the family. When Samuel came around looking for the son to anoint as king, he said “You must have another son,” and they looked at him blankly, having totally forgotten David. Even worse, they sent him, a defenseless boy, to places where there were wild beasts, hoping he would be killed. This is righteous? Had David’s mother spoken up, far from humiliating Ee-shy, she would have given him the opportunity to prevent a great evil, she would have saved her older sons from sinning, and she would have saved David a lot of pain.]

In the incident where Michel, David’s wife, chastises David for dancing in front of the Mishkan, David replies that her father, King Saul, was always playing to the crowd, but he, David, had the courage to be himself.

Each of the major religions believes that it is the favored child of Abraham and tries to prove its legitimacy.

The purpose of the world is to promote choices. Difficulties force us to make choices. People, however, prefer smooth sailing. HaShem does not prefer smooth sailing. G*d likes giving us tests.

Being a victim is seeing ourselves as victims or proving that we are not.

Page 354 Stone Chumash: two upside down nuns (the letter nun).

Yitro was responsible for the Torah being revealed. When he gave Moses the opportunity to see how he was setting himself up as the replacement for Pharaoh, he was able to change the situation and that gave the opening for the Torah to be brought down. Yitro was important to the well being of the Israelites because he knew the desert topography and knew where to find water.

Abandonment is a key issue. Every Jew in the Holocaust felt abandoned by G*d. When two men are davening in the shul in the morning, and one man finishes and leaves, the last person left davening could feel abandoned.

The theme of abandonment is found in the story about the Tower of Babel. The post-flood people reasoned that they had to hold up the sky. Aristotle also reasoned this way, and the formation of Israel’s army was based on this premise.

Chaim Weizman gave the British a way to vulcanize rubber and got the Balfour Declaration in exchange. He reasoned that the British would be so thankful they would create Israel. The Balfour Declaration did not create Israel.

Fear of G*d is the beginning of courage. The Aish Kodesh is not offering a pistol, but a way of building people up inside.

Page 108, 188, 189

The Aish Kodesh does not say we should ignore our fears. He is not dismissive of our pain. He says we can use our fears.

Aaron is Hod (strength, splendor, yielding). Aaron doesn’t deviate, even when life is as bitter as gall (when his sons died). The message of the Aish Kodesh is that G*d ahs not abandoned us and w take the place of Aaron. We have to learn from our suffering TO GET UP. The Aish Kodesh does not say that our suffering is an illusion.

He’s not telling the story of Aaron, but hinting – his power is in his silence. When Aaron’s sons died, he still lit the menorah.

Our premise is that suffering is from G*d’s love and suffering is not gratuitous – it comes to put a limit on our ego.

Any time we’re suffering and feeling abandoned, G*d’s hidden face.

The word “Hod” was written on the yellow star in the concentration camps.

When people held silence: Miriam, when she was put outside the camp, Aaron on the death of his sons, Tamar when she was not married to Yehuda’s youngest son, and David’s mother.

Moses has to learn about Miriam’s silence or the Torah ends here (page 797). The Aish Kodesh is teaching about the courage of silence.

When Moses struck the rock, he was angry that his sister, whom he idolized, who had saved his life twice, was dead. He knew that striking the rock was the wrong thing to do. By doing the wrong thing at the right time, he was accepting Miriam’s torah. When he did this, he stepped off his pedestal and joined the rest of the schlubs. Further, for this action he was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, which meant that he died in the desert with the rest of the men of that generation. He took himself from the inside and put himself on the outside, with everyone else.