Pemikiran Yahudi Keluaran 32:32: Akeidat Yitzchak & Guide for the Perplexed

(7)(3) The Midrash illustrates Moses' quest for relief by using the parable of an orchard whose owner had hired a general manager. During the term of the contract, said manager requests additional staff from the owner. The owner, while acceding to the request, refuses to pay the additional staff out of his own pocket, but deducts the wages for the additional staff from the salary of the general manager. The fact that G'd provided assistants indicates that basically, G'd was in agreement with Moses' request. Regarding the matter of the meat however, G'd seems to disagree with Moses, since He does provide it, even though Moses had not even relayed the people's demand. G'd considered it vital that the people not continue to view their situation as inferior to what their situation had been while they had still been in Egypt. For that reason, He provided such an enormous amount of meat. The fact that the people continued gorging themselves on the meat even while they had observed many dying as a result of their meat intake on the very first day already, seems to prove that they were thoroughly dissatisfied with their present situation, when compared to their former situation in Egypt. Had their real concern been the meat, their desire would have petered out as soon as they saw people die from eating meat. It was exactly these people who died for their unpardonable sin. The revulsion the people would ultimately feel for that meat, is punishment fitting the crime. (chapter 11, 20) They who had pretended that it was the meat they wanted, whereas in fact it was the moral strictures of Torah law that irked them, would see the object of their professed desire turn into something that revolted them. In this manner G'ds justice was displayed, since He did not have to devise a means to punish them, seeing their punishment was the natural result of being allowed to gratify their desires. The name kivrot hata-avah, given to that place does not refer to the original desire, but to the ultimate greed which raged until it had burned itself out, i.e. "buried itself." Ta-avah, greed, lust, is self consuming. This is the lesson taught in this chapter. Even the rationalisation that those who did not die from the meat were apparently immune to it, teaches volumes about the grip the ta-avah, had on the people. "Now you will see if indeed My word is dear to you or not." (11,23) The elders I have asked you to select, will indeed help you carry the burden. G'd implies that Moses had been somewhat hasty in rejecting the role of sole leadership of the people. Even at this time, when some of the worst traits of the Jewish people have been publicly displayed, it was easy to find seventy elders capable of providing leadership. Among them were such humble prophets as Eldod and Meydod who, though of the seventy two selected for potential leadership, drew blanks in the lottery that determined which seventy men were to fill these positions. Since they had been selected for potential leadership roles, their prophetic powers were not now curtailed. Joshua thought it strange that they could use their gift outside the holy tabernacle, just anywhere within the confines of the encampment. Moses, in his reply, expressed the wish that all of Israel would receive the gift of prophecy directly from Heaven, not like the seventy who had received their inspiration through him, since in the final analysis all of the people, being Moses' students had received their inspiration through him. From here we learn the source of the dictum in the Talmud that though most other things are the subject of envy and jealousy, a father or teacher is not jealous of his respective sons or pupils. (Sanhedrin 105) (5) Upon the seventy elders having been selected, G'd supplied the promised meat, the people not heeding the warning that it would be zarah, for them, i.e. loathsome. Otherwise, they would not have eaten from it in the manner described. Spending forty eight consecutive hours collecting fowl, (verse 32) shows us what a burning desire for meat there must have been. G'd demonstrated then that granting the people their own desire in abundance, led to tragic results, whereas nothing that G'd had provided for them, had ever proved harmful to them.

Concerning the traditional view that on Rosh Hashanah the righteous are inscribed for life, the wicked for death, and the ones whose conduct is in balance are given grace until Yom Kippur, (based on Yuma 16) the author rejects the usual answers to the vexing problem of "the wicked seem to enjoy a good life, while many of the righteous frequently suffer greatly." The problem is highlighted by our judging from visual observations from the outside only.

And these figures are very frequent in the books of the prophets. Some are easily recognised by the ordinary reader as figures, others with some difficulty. Thus nobody doubts that the blessing, “May the Lord open to thee his good treasure, the heavens,” must be taken figuratively; for God has no treasure in which He keeps the rain. The same is the case with the following passage—“He opened the doors of heaven, he rained upon them manna to eat” (Ps. 78:23, 24). No person assumes that there is a door or gate in heaven, but every one understands that this is a simile and a figurative expression. In the same way must be understood the following passages—“The heavens were opened” (Ezek. 1:1); “If not, blot me out from thy book which thou hast written” (Exod. 32:32); “I will blot him out from the book of life” (ibid. ver. 33). All these phrases are figurative: and we must not assume that God has a book in which He writes, or from which He blots out, as those generally believe that do not find figurative speech in these passages.