Coveting

“When you raise” is the meaning of the next Torah Portion called Beha’alotecha, found in Numbers 8:1-12:16. God commands Aaron, the High Priest, to raise the light in the lamps of the menorah. There is a second Passover instituted in this portion, and the Israelites begin their journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land. The enemy I will focus on in this part of scripture is that of lusting after the flesh.

In the beginning, the Holy One took the dust of the earth to form humanity, and then He breathed His breath, the Holy Spirit, into the earthly vessel. Therefore, there are two parts to humanity. Our flesh or earthly nature and our spirit or divine nature. In the wilderness, the Israelites intensely craved meat to feed their flesh even though God had miraculously provided heavenly manna to feed their spirits. All meat comes from the earth, according to Genesis 1:24-25. Even though quail are also heavenly beings, these came from the sea, according to Numbers 11:31, which tells me that the quail symbolizes the sustenance of the nations that the seas often symbolize. I see the quail as the goodness of God on the nations, as the scriptures tell us that he sends the rain on the Godly and ungodly and provides for all of humanity. Still, the manna is unique to the covenant people in that it requires complete reliance on the Holy One for our daily bread. Maybe the quail is the goodness of the Holy One that the nations manipulate into something earthly.

The manna came from the heavens as a divine, spiritual food, symbolic of the word of God that sustains us. The quail would be the worldly idea of beauty, success, fame, intelligence, and influence, which has a heavenly counterpart. The Bible tells us that a peaceful, humble, and gentle spirit is beautiful (1 Pt 3.4). Success, according to the Bible, is obtaining and leaving a Godly inheritance; intelligence is equal to wisdom or applicable knowledge that turns into good works.

The word ava in Numbers 11:4 means to desire, lust, covet, be greedy for, crave, or long for. When the mixed multitude, which I assume to be Egyptians and Israelites, complained and lusted, a plague broke out and killed them, leading the area to be called Kivrot Hataavah in Numbers 11:34, which means Graves of Lust.

Numbers 11:4: Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?”

In my book, Eneme: Understanding Satan From a Hebraic Perspective, I quoted an indigenous folk tale called A Tale of Two Wolves. It goes like this;

“In this Indigenous Parable, we read of a man telling his grandchild that there is a daily fight inside of him: “It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One is evil-he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continues, “The other is good-he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside of you and every other person, too.” Then the child asks his Grandpa, “Who wins?” He responds with, “The one you feed.” (link)

Little did I know that the Talmud had a similar narrative written to explain the very same internal struggle.

“The body is called a “small city”: as two kings wage war over a city, each wishing to capture it and rule over it—that is to say, to govern its inhabitants according to his will, so that they obey him in all that he decrees for them—so do the two souls (the G‑dly [soul] and the vitalizing animal [soul] that derives from kelipah (shell, peel, or husk, or flesh)) wage war against each other over the body and all its organs and limbs.” (Tanya)(link)

The spiritual nature, also called the Godly soul, is the internal drive to live our lives through wisdom, understanding, counsel, truth, power, knowledge, and the fear of God. The fleshly or earthly nature, also known as the animal soul, will inspire us to live according to our physical desires and survival instincts driven by pride. The ultimate goal of the Torah is to nourish the spiritual nature so that it rules over our animalistic nature. The goal is to harness our drive and survival instincts to pursue a holy life.

This Torah Portion gives us some insight into how these two natures inside of each one of us fight. For starters, Numbers 11:4 tells us that it was a mixed multitude that instigated the complaints. This wording suggests that maintaining company with those who have not relinquished Egypt’s identity as a nation that embodies human empire and ego will eventually influence us, even if we are also amid good company. It is like the saying, “Bad company corrupts good character.” (Menander) The people we do life with influence us. They are the ones we learn from, depend on, and reflect.

The second noticeable thing is that the Israelites had false memories. Misremembering our past can be harmful because when we remember our past with a fuzzy filter, we can repeat it. The Israelites said, “We ate fish freely.” I doubt this big time! They were slaves in Egypt and most likely had to work for anything they ate; nothing was free. I have first-hand experience with this type of thought process. I most likely could have passed for an alcoholic in my twenties as I spent most of my days drinking myself into a stupor. Sometimes, I remember those times and think, I used to be so much fun! I was wild, free, and feisty. It makes me miss those days until I correct my memories. I have to honestly remind myself that hardly one day passed that I didn’t wake up steeped in shame over something I said or did the night before. I spent all my money on partying and had nothing to show for a decade of my life. I hurt people I deeply love and care for with my words and actions. I was not free; I was a slave to substances. I was feisty and also not a very good friend. The Israelites needed to remember their time in bondage correctly by auditing their memories.

The next thing the Israelites did was complain. Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschutz believed that the complaining stemmed from coveting. The Israelites could not enjoy the divine manna because they coveted what the surrounding nations had.

“A person derives pleasure from material things only by comparing what he has to what his neighbors have. So although they could enjoy every taste in the world in the manna, they derived no pleasure from it, since everyone had it . . .”

Gratitude is the antidote to many of our human struggles. Gratitude fights depression, anxiety, insecurities, and worthlessness, which is most likely the reason that it is encouraged throughout the Bible. The last of the Ten Commandments tells us not to covet because coveting restricts gratitude and vice versa. The Israelites could not even experience the blessing of the manna because they were coveting what they did not have. We experience this type of behavior in our daily lives. You have a fantastic wife or husband, yet you find yourself lusting and coveting someone else’s partner, causing you not to be able to enjoy the company you have. You have a job that meets all your needs, but you cannot stop wishing you had a better job, a more high-paying or one with more accolades. Therefore, you are not satisfied. You have a body complete with all of its uniqueness and quirks, every part working as it should, yet you long for someone else’s lips, shape, or stature. You are frozen in longing and cannot enjoy the blessings that God has given you. When they started complaining, the Israelites were asking for the food of the nations. They said, “We don’t want wisdom and a beautiful soul; we want to be greater than others and botox beauty that fades. We don’t want a faithful partner that we are accountable to; we want to be with whomever we want whenever we want them. We don’t want to be grateful for our bodies, shapes, and sizes; we want to poke and fill and manipulate ourselves to look like someone else.”

Do we have an intense lust for meat, or are we content with heavenly manna? I’m preaching to myself today, and just to be clear, the art of contentment is challenging to master. Focusing on our blessings over needs is the first step; surrounding ourselves with good people of good character is the second, and thanking God for every blessing is the third. When we live in a state of gratitude, it hijacks our mind; we are unable to have conflicting emotions and thoughts when we are being grateful. Gratitude takes our whole mind captive and does not allow for depression, fear, anxiety, and coveting. Start a gratitude journal, or verbalize gratitude throughout your day. It will take you into the presence of the Holy One, where we are completely satisfied. Gratitude leads to contentment.

Philippians 4:11-13:  I am not saying this because I am in need—for whatever circumstance I am in, I have learned to be content. I know what it is to live with humble means, and I know what it is to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of contentment—both to be filled and to go hungry, to have abundance and to suffer need. I can do all things through Messiah, who strengthens me.

Psalms 100:4: Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.