.
Who lifts up your talents, skills, labor of love? Not just cheerleaders but also, who’s there in the world to lift up your spirits and remind me what’s the purpose of your sacred task in the world, even when we sometimes forget? And who do you lift up?
In a stunning choreography of ritual initiation, 22, 000 men are elevated - literally lifted up - from their ordinary being into being in the service to the nation and to God. The men born to the three families that constitute the Tribe of Levi, are officially brought into sacred service in the tabernacle through a ceremony that fills up chapter 8. Three times this curious action is repeated, reminiscent of the action done by the pilgrims to the tent when they are instructed to lift up their offerings - baskets of grain or first fruits. Only the ones being lifted here are grown men:
וְהֵנִיף֩ אַהֲרֹ֨ן אֶת־הַלְוִיִּ֤ם תְּנוּפָה֙ לִפְנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה מֵאֵ֖ת בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְהָי֕וּ לַעֲבֹ֖ד אֶת־עֲבֹדַ֥ת יְהֹוָֽה׃
“Aaron will lift the Levites before YHWH as an elevation offering from the Israelites, that they may perform the sacred service of YHWH” (Ba 8.11)
The purpose of this movement is to illustrate who’s working for whom and why. The Levites are there to represent the people and to be our delegates in the sacred shrine. Their position is elevated - but that doesn't make them more important or raised up from the rest of us. This is a subtle and critical distinction that elected officials and local leaders will do well to remember at all times - who lifts whom, and how?
But were the men actually lifted off the ground in this ritual gesture? The commentaries differ. The Spanish scholar, Bahya ben Asher, writing in 14th century Spain speculates that “This procedure consisted of Aaron personally lifting up each individual Levite, waving him in different directions. This reflected the fact that Aaron possessed exceptional physical strength. Lifting 22,000 people individually all in one day was certainly no mean accomplishment. Alternatively, the entire procedure took place with a heavenly assist, i.e. a miracle.” Other voices throughout history imagined this as a poetic gesture, and one suggested that the lifting up occurred as Aaron led the group of Levites into the tent - with a song that they all joined. However these men were celebrated into a life of service - their initiation ritual reminds us how to lift each other up, honor the work that we do for each other, the multiple ways with which we honor the sacred and elevate what matters in each other’s private and public lives.
#wilderness #bookofnumbers #desert #levites #liftmeup #Aaron #Bamidbar8 #bamidbar #thetorah #hebrewbible #whowrotethebible? #BahyabenAsher #initiation
#hebrewmyth #929 #torah #bible #hiddenbible #sefaria #929english #labshul #929project #myth #belowthebiblebelt #postpatriarchy