D’var Torah June 13
Shabbat Shalom!
I pray this finds you all well.
I remember it like it was yesterday – I was in the ER about 20 years ago with a pretty bad case of food poisoning and needed a couple of IV’s. In the next room, there was this man, screaming, yelling, and verbally abusing the nurses. When the nurse came in, my Mom (z”l) and I asked if everything was ok. “Oh yes, everything’s fine. The patient in the next room is detoxing and this is just part of it.”
I’m so proud of what Mom said next: “He might not be in a place to appreciate what you’re doing for him, so I’m going to thank you for taking care of him.”
That nurse’s care for that patient and my late Mom’s beautiful words were two of the most important lessons I’ve ever taken with me.
In this week’s parsha of Behaalotecha (Numbers 8:1–12:16) God punishes Miriam for attempting to subvert Moses’ leadership and for speaking ill of him and his wife (l’shon hara) by afflicting her with leprosy. Instead of accepting God’s judgement or gloating that his sister has received her just desserts, Moses cries out: “El na r’fah nah la – Oh God, I beseech you, heal her now!” (Numbers 12:13)
Despite Miriam’s cruelty to him, Moses still prays and pleads for her recovery. At the end of the day, no matter how much she has tried to hurt him, she is still his sister and he loves her.
We see this stoic, selfless, and compassionate legacy of Moses all around us. We see Moses in the teacher who continues to buy school supplies with her own money and spends extra time after hours tutoring struggling students even after those same students’ parents blame her for their kids’ bad grades; we see Moses in the police officer who puts his life on the line even though daily he is the brunt of every insult imaginable from those he is protecting; we see Moses in the Soldier who deploys again and again to foreign lands to protect this great country, only to be a called a baby killer by a privileged and cruel few when he comes home; and we see Moses in that nurse who continued to treat that patient in the ER in the middle of the night no matter what cruel words he threw at her.
Bizrat HaShem, with God’s strength, love, help, and guiding hand, may we all strive to act like Moshe Rabeinu did with Miriam, like that ER nurse, and like my Mother of blessed memory.
Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.
Bivrakha,
Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky
Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601
(540) 667-1889 (office)