Bamidbar and the Temptation of Holy War
On Mt. Sinai God tells Moses: You cannot see My face (panai); you can only see my back (achorai). Or, as many of us translate it: You cannot see God’s essence. You can only see God’s aftereffects (Exod. 33:20, 23).
That sounds limiting, but really it’s not. All creation is an aftereffect.
If you see the world with spiritual perception, you see God reflected in it. Anything you experience can become a metaphor for the divine.
When you’re standing in the woods on balmy spring day, listening to the ravens trill, smelling the damp pine floor, this is an amazing teaching. God is in the calm of the air, the welcome of the trees, the smell of sap and new plants, the fierce family love of the birds.
But when you’re standing in the middle of the book of Bamidbar-Numbers, seeing God in your surroundings can be a difficult experience.
Rashi tells us that the book of Bamidbar used to be called “The Book of the Wars of the Lord” (Rashi on Num. 21:14). Bamidbar is primarily a book about war.
This should be obvious from the beginning. Moses and Aaron take a census, counting all men of military age. For the coming war, the tribes must stand together. They must act as one nation. The tribal leaders must stand with Moses and Aaron.
At a public ceremony, Moses and Aaron recite the names of the leaders. And what names they are!
Translated into English—with just a bit of grammatical tinkering—they become an inspirational poem.
God is my fort, my light, my protector
God is my peace and my stronghold.
The future is clear, my people unselfish
Sharing the gifts God gave.
God is my father, a hero in war
who heard of our people so splendid.
Then rescued us with loving kindness
And sheltered us in safety.
The harshest judge undercut me
But my brother helped and my people cared.
God found us, stirred up the plagues
Then more of us came to know the divine
Family and friends, we all found our source. (Num. 1:5-15, translation mine).
The names of the leaders re-tell the story of the Book of Shemot-Exodus. Pharaoh oppresses the people. God battles Pharaoh and saves the people. They donate generously to the mishkan (sanctuary). And thus they become a community.
If you are mobilizing people for war, as Moses and Aaron are doing here, it’s helpful to retell the national story. To reassure people: Our history has a direction. Things will end well. The upcoming wars will have a meaning.
Not just any meaning, but a spiritual one. God is at work in the world, arranging things for our benefit. How do we know? The Exodus told us. And our success in the coming war will tell us again.
The reassurance speaks to people’s hearts. Their leaders have called them together for battle. Every adult male serves. Shepherds, farmers, weavers, traders—everyone takes time off work to fight. Diverse people now share a purpose. Working together, they create a new culture, around the work of war.
War is what they do and what they know together. And so, in their religious culture, war is where they see God. They fight for God’s favour and God’s honour. They believe that God craves victory.
But, for much of the book of Bamidbar, this attitude is absolutely disastrous. People who want to please God storm an Amorite fortress and all of them die (Num. 14:40-45). A foreigner desecrates the sanctuary, so Moses orders the massacre of an entire community (Num. 25:6; 31). When Pinḥas the priest is dramatically and publicly violent, he is honoured with the grimly ironic title “priest of peace” (Num. 25:8,13).
Bamidbar’s message seems clear to me: holy war is not a good thing.
Holy War is an easy mindset to fall into, when war stirs up huge existential feelings, and God is part of the national story. But it is important to remember that “warrior” is not the divine essence.
In fact, Bamidbar says: If the divine has a face—a panim—or pnimiut—an essence—it is peace.
You’ll find that teaching in the blessing offered by Aaron the peacemaking priest: Yisa Adonai panav eleikha v’yasem likha shalom. May God turn the divine face towards you, and place upon you peace (Num 6:26).
Keyn Yehi Ratzon. May it be so.
Photo: Boundary Bay, BC, Canada by Laura Duhan-Kaplan. Thanks to: the ALEPH Seminary Parshat Hashavua study group and the Or Shalom Synagogue community.
