Spirit-Infused Torah
Parashat Beha’alot’cha, Numbers 8:1–12:16
Russ Resnik, UMJC Rabbinic Counsel
I spent my earliest days as a follower of Yeshua in the Charismatic-Pentecostal world, where I heard more than once the saying, “We’ve got to get out of the Book of Numbers and into the Book of Acts.” It was a good-natured way of saying that we needed to turn our attention away from counting attendance and offerings and onto the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Beyond that, though, it also reflected the old Letter vs Spirit paradigm that has plagued Christian theology for centuries. And, of course, its portrayal of the Book of Numbers is way off-base. Numbers has a lot to say about the Spirit of God, and it goes a long way toward resolving the supposed tension between Torah, or “Law,” and Spirit.
Parashat Beha’alot’cha provides a picture of Torah and Spirit dwelling together at peace.
First, it reminds us that the glory-cloud, the visible presence of God’s Spirit, was not only with the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness, but actively led them in every stage of the journey.
On the day the Tabernacle was erected, the cloud covered the Tabernacle. By evening until morning, the cloud above the Tent of Testimony had an appearance like fire. It was that way continually. The cloud covered it, and by night it appeared like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted up from above the Tent, then Bnei-Yisrael would set out, and at the place where the cloud settled, there Bnei-Yisrael would encamp. At the mouth of Adonai, Bnei-Yisrael would set out, and at the mouth of Adonai they would encamp. All the days that the cloud remained over the Tabernacle, they would remain in camp. (Num 9:15–18)
In this last verse the Israelites get their direction from “the mouth of Adonai,” and as they follow the cloud. Word and Spirit work together.
As Paul reminds us, “Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were immersed into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor 10:1–2). The cloud and the sea point to immersion by or in the Spirit (1 Cor 12:13; Mark 1:8, etc.) and immersion by or in water, and our fathers experienced both, at least in prototypical form, and they “all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink—for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the Rock was Messiah” (1 Cor 10:3–4). We don’t need to wait for the Book of Acts to get a healthy dose of the Spirit.
In this week’s parasha, after nearly a year at the foot of Mount Sinai, the cloud moves on and Israel finally begins its journey towards the Promised Land. But within a few days the people begin to complain, and keep on complaining even after the Lord sends fire upon them as chastisement. Moses hears all this kvetching and lodges a complaint of his own against Adonai: “Why have You brought trouble on Your servant? Haven’t I found favor in Your eyes—that You laid the burden of all these people on me? . . . I am not able to carry all these people by myself! The load is too heavy for me!” (Num 11:11, 14).
In response, Adonai instructs Moses to gather seventy of the elders of Israel and stand with them at the Tent of Meeting. There, the Lord says, “I will take some of the Ruach that is on you and will place it on them. They will carry with you the burden of the people, so you will not be carrying it alone” (11:17). The Spirit comes to rest on the seventy and they speak as prophets. When two men who did not go out to the Tent of Meeting with Moses begin to prophesy in the camp, Joshua urges Moses to stop them. Moses replies, “Are you jealous on my behalf? If only Adonai would make all the people prophets! If only Adonai would put the Spirit on all of them!” (11:29).
Moses in this one statement manifests both spiritual greatness and profound prophetic insight. The two men may be prophesying in the wrong place or manner, but Moses recognizes that something greater is going on. With prophetic insight, he longs for the day when all Israel – not just the seventy elders – will receive the gift of the Spirit. As a midrash comments:
The Holy One, blessed be he, said: “In Olam Hazeh, this age, only a few individuals have prophesied, but in Olam Haba, the age to come, all Israel will be made prophets,” as it says, And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men, etc. (Joel 3:1). (Numbers Rabbah 15:25)
Last week we celebrated Shavuot, the Time of the Giving of Our Torah, which is also the Time of the Outpouring of the Spirit foretold by Joel, and described in the Book of Acts, which my Pentecostal-Charismatic friends contrasted with the Book of Numbers. This outpouring of the Spirit is spectacular and awesome, and Peter delivers a sermon to explain what’s going on. Like the midrash above, he quotes Joel, telling the crowd that the resurrected Messiah has “poured out this—what you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The conclusion is inevitable: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him—this Yeshua whom you had crucified—both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:36).
Shavuot isn’t about the Torah only or about the promised Spirit only, and ultimately not even about Torah plus Spirit. Rather, for followers of Yeshua, Shavuot celebrates the Spirit-infused Torah, the fulfilment of Adonai’s promise to Israel:
I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the stony heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Ruach within you. Then I will cause you to walk in My laws, so you will keep My rulings and do them. (Ezek 36:26–27)
Today we remain in Olam Hazeh, this age, but we taste the realities of the Age to Come through the gift of the Spirit, poured out by the risen Messiah—a gift that doesn’t set aside the teachings of Torah, but empowers us to walk in them. This reality of Spirit-infused Torah is, or should be, the distinctive mark of Messianic Judaism, a reality that lifts us beyond the supposed conflict between Law and Spirit, and into the living Torah of Messiah Yeshua.
If this Torah-Spirit fusion is, or should be, the distinctive mark of the Messianic Jewish community, how do we walk it out in real life? We actively seek—and gladly depend upon—the leading and presence of the Spirit, just as our ancestors depended on the glory-cloud to lead them in all their journeys. We listen for the voice of the Spirit as we read the weekly parasha or recite the daily prayers of the Siddur. We expect the Spirit to show up in our lives in fresh and unexpected ways, even as we remain rooted in God’s Word, knowing that the two dimensions are not at odds, but mutually reinforcing.
Moses longed for the day in which we are living: “If only Adonai would make all the people prophets! If only Adonai would put the Spirit on all of them!” Let’s say Amen to that as we walk daily in the Spirit-infused Torah of the risen Messiah.
All Scripture references are from the TLV.