Rabbi Malkah Binah Klein
Parshat Bha’alotecha
There is a curious passage in Parshat Bha’alotecha — two verses enclosed by upside-down nuns. These verses are well-known to those of us who attend Shabbat morning services, as they are woven into the traditional liturgy of the Torah service.
When the ark is opened, the community rises and chants together in full voice the first of these two verses, Numbers 10:35: “Vayehi binsoa ha’aron vayomer Moshe: Kuma adonai v’yafutzu oyvecha … When the ark was to set out, Moses would say: Rise up, oh YAH. May Your enemies be scattered, and may Your foes flee before You!”
Who are these enemies of God whom we pray will be scattered?
Who are these foes whom we pray will flee?
I am troubled by the concept that God has enemies. The God I choose to believe in is the unity, the oneness, the love, that underlies the fabric of the universe and that is everpresent among us. Our prayers speak of God’s great love for us (ahava rabba) and the Shema declares God’s oneness. How, then, does God have enemies?
The Reconstructionist Prayer Book, Kol Haneshamah (1994), offers an alternative to Numbers 10:35 for opening of the ark, namely: “Pitchu li sha’arey Tzedek … open for me the gates of justice, that I may enter and give thanks to YAH.” (Psalm 118:19)
When I lead a Torah service, I often sing this alternative verse to avoid praying for the scattering of God’s enemies. Yet liturgical change is complicated. The tune for vayehi binsoa is so familiar. It’s a tune of my childhood, it’s a tune my son learned for his bar mitzvah and I have worked to reclaim this prayer and to make some sense for myself of who these enemies are.
How might we understand God’s enemies?
In Exodus 23, we read: “I am sending a messenger before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have made ready … if you obey [this messenger] and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies (v’ayavti et-oyvecha).” The God of Torah sets up a conditional relationship with the Israelites — if you obey and behave according to my will, I will be an enemy to your enemies. If not, you may become my enemy, as we read in Isaiah 1:
“Your rulers are rogues and cronies of thieves … They do not judge the case of the orphan and the widow’s cause never reaches them … I will wreak vengeance on My enemies! I will turn my hand against you.” In interpreting this passage from Isaiah, we can conclude that God’s enemies are those who become corrupt and do not care for the vulnerable and, sometimes, this is the Israelites.
How then do we avoid becoming God’s enemies?
This is an ongoing challenge, particularly when our fears and anger and unhealed traumas pull us away from acting from our highest selves. I have come to embrace the chanting of “veyafutzu oyvecha” — “may your enemies be scattered” — as a personal call to uprightness and compassion.
May we learn to act with love and cultivate our capacity to protect ourselves and others and all life.
Rabbi Malkah Binah Klein is a community leader and ritual artist. She is the founder of Merkava: Spiritual Healing through Creative Ritual. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.
