Beha'alotkha - Numbers 8:1-12:16

In this week's portion, both Moses and Yahweh have emotional meltdowns which I summarized with the following graphic:

Here's what happens in a nutshell:

The people are fed up with this manna falling from the sky. They want real food like the had in Egypt, such as fish with leeks, garlic, cucumbers, melons, and onions (11:5). You know, real food! And Moses is walking through the camp one night, and hears their crying about the crappy food (11:10).

Moses has had it with their complaints and basically asks God to kill him rather than having to deal with such a burden.

Speaking of burdens, this graphic is also appropriate:

Moses could not figure out how he was ever going to get enough meat for 600,000+ families (11:13, 11:21). Yahweh tells Moses to assemble some elders, and then He tells Moses that He is going to get meat to those ungrateful whiners (11:18). Not only is He going to give them some meat, He is going to give them more meat than they could ever hope for, until it comes out of their nostrils! (11:20), and Moses ends with an evil side comment, "You despised/rejected Yahweh, who dwells among you and you have bothered Him with your crying..."

That should have been a clue for them to distance themselves away from Yahweh's "gift".

Moses then proceeds to tell Yahweh that it cannot be done. It's too much. (11:22) Yahweh counters that He can do anything (11:23), and Moses leaves Him to talk with the people (11:24)

Verse 25 introduces us to a supernatural expression of God, known as a ruach. This is often translated as "spirit", but this spirit affects the physical world. We read of it in Genesis 1:2, hovering over the Deep, waiting for orders. It is what drove the flood from the land. It is what parted the Sea of Reeds. It sometimes will be put into one or more humans to control them (an evil ruach, a lying ruach, a jealous ruach, etc.). It is also a device used by God to communicate with His prophets, as we read in 11:25.

Now that the ruach is introduced, Yahweh uses it to bring a whole lot of birds to the camp for people to grab and eat (11:31). Dead birds where everywhere and piled up two cubits high (11:31). The hungry ungrateful ones of the people gathered up the food and ate, and ate. And while the meat was still not completely eaten, and was between their teeth...(11:33)

...Yahweh sent out a plague to kill them, a severe death.

One can almost hear Him shout, "Does anybody else have any complaints about the food?!", and see the people shaking their heads and mumbling, "No...no...we're good...thanks..."

Now, who were the ones who died?

Verse 11:4 calls them the "mixed multitude" (אספסף). As I noted in an earlier commentary, this refers to those who came out of Egypt with the Hebrew, but did not have a Hebrew father, and so had no tribal affiliation. Some were perhaps fully Egyptian, and others may have had an Egyptian father, but a Hebrew mother. In any case, they were outsiders who were dwelling with the Hebrews.

At least, that is how the term is traditionally understood, especially since Scripture doesn't directly address those without a tribal affiliation, but only addresses those with one.

And this may be why, when the counts are taken again, we really don't see any expected decrease in the numbers from a vast plague affecting the majority of the people, because those without a tribal affiliation were never counted.

Yahweh's reaction, however, is still a bit over the top, even for Him.