Chukat; Numbers 19:1-22:1
This weeks portion includes the death of both of Moses siblingsMiriam the prophetess and Aaron the High Priest. We learn that Miriam dies at Kadesh and was buried there. But there was no period of mourning described. And yet Aaron dies soon after at Mount Hor and the Children of Israel mourned for Aaron for thirty days.
One can only imagine Moses grief at the death of his siblings. A generation is leaving and beginning to hand the reins of leadership and power over to the next. Miriam who saved Moses life by getting him placed in the home of Pharoahs daughter, who was instrumental in Moses life and provided leadership to the Children of Israel through her prophecy and dancing represented the generation of Egypt. She remembered servitude and her death brings a certain discomfort to the people.
The Midrash teaches that Miriams well followed the Children of Israel throughout their desert wanderings providing water to quench their thirst. Immediately following Miriams death, the Children of Israel turn to Moses and Aaron clamoring for water to drink as the well runs dry. Their mini-rebellion causes Moses and Aaron to strike the rock at Meribah, instead of speaking to it and bringing forth copious waters to the Children of Israel but bringing misfortune to Moses and Aaron. God informs the two brothers that because of the way they chose to handle this occasionby not following Gods plan exactly as God had commanded they will not lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land. God foreshadows their deaths as well.
And then it is Aarons turn. At Mt. Hor God informs Moses and Aaron that Aaron is to be gathered to his kin. And so the vestments of the priesthood are removed from Aaron and transferred to his son Eleazar. With each death, the new leadership begins to take its place.
Moses must have felt the weight of his duties and the weight of the long years of leadership without his siblings with whom he shared so much. They were all a part of the family business. But now Moses must go it alone. Sure his nephew Eleazar is the new High Priest. But Aaron his brother and he had a special bond as all brothers do. They remembered slavery, they remembered standing before Pharoah-demanding freedom for the Israelites, together they had seen and gone through so much. One can only imagine Moses grief because the text is silent about how Moses felt. We only know that the house of Israel bewailed Aaron thirty days.
Death comes to us all eventually. Some of us sooner and some of us later. The memories that Moses had of his brother and sister and their many journeys from Egypt through the wilderness had to be at the forefront of his being.
When we remember our loved ones, the memories of those days stay with us. The good memories and the memories of difficulty exist side by side within us. And those memories continue to inform us and guide us and shape us. Surely Moses memories of his sister Miriam and brother, Aaron continued to shape him in the final months of his life until he too was gathered to his kin on Mt. Nebo.
May the memories of all of our loved ones be with us as we journey into the future.
Posted by Lee at June 22, 2004 10:08 AM
