Beha’ahlotekha

Why have you dealt ill with your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you have laid this burden of all this people upon me? I am not able to bear all this people myself alone, because it is too heavy for me. If you deal this way with me, kill me, please…

11:11-14-15

This parsha offers us a window into the mind and heart of Moses, the leader, and Moses, the man. The ambiguous blessings of leadership is a theme running through our text. First, we hear Moses venting emotion. He cannot withstand the complaints of the masses. He deplores their childish fantasies which transform the slave pits of Egypt into memories of delicious free food. Moses is overwhelmed by the loneliness of his burden…he has the capacity to inspire because he is indeed in communication with the Source of All. He envisions a direction toward freedom, a promised land and a holy existence as a people. Moses is exhausted and near desperation however, because he cannot consistently inspire a similar commitment to his vision to his followers.

Sheila Peltz Weinberg (Contemporary)

The Torah is at pains to present both sides of the Biblical heroes, not concealing their but human faults. Even Moses is not described as the perfect man, but we see him also in his moments of impatience and weakness. Though he displayed these in reaction to the provocation of the generation of the wilderness, their grumblings and lack of faith, the Torah does not excuse them or gloss over them. (Here) Moses is depicted in a mood of impatience, descending as it were from his perfection, denouncing the rebelliousness of the people and protesting, as it were, against the Almighty’s treatment of him.

Nechama Leibowitz (20^th Century)

See how far removed these words of Moses are from those he uttered after the deed of the Golden Calf? When he said “You must forgive their sin – and if not, blot me out of your book which you have written…” Here Moses’ anger brought Him to sin in that he spurned his mission and office over the people of the Lord with which he had been entrusted…

Yitzchak Arama (15^th Century)

Moses by himself would have handled even a more numerous Jewish people, if only the attitude of the people towards their judges had been one in which they accepted a judge’s verdict. Another consideration…raised is that the quality of a shepherd reflects itself in his flock. Since Moses was primarily a man of the spirit, all he could provide for the people by means of his personal merit was manna, a spiritually oriented food. Not being an earthly person, it could not be expected of him that he provide the people with food of an earthy nature such as meat…

Moshe Alshich (16^th Century)

Moses asks, “Am I their mother the one who has given birth to them?” Moses is asking if he, a man, should really be expected to relate to the Jewish people as a mother is expected to relate to them, carry them a mother carries her baby.

Yaakov ben Asher (14^th Century)

In principle, God is not angry at people who complain when they have a good cause for doing so. God was not angered even when the complaint was voiced with the most strident words…

Pinchas Peli (20^th Century)