Beha’alotecha: ‘The Blessing of Friends’
Among the very first words God spoke to Abraham (then, his name still was Abram) — the very first divine assurance in Jewish history — was the covenantal promise that “I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3). The promise of divine blessing for the friends of the Jewish People, and dire consequences for our detractors, immediately follows God’s blessing of His own covenantal partner: us. The blessing of friends — that is, both the blessing those friends bestow upon the People Israel and the blessing with which God rewards them for their kindness to the Jewish People — is thus a foundational principle of our covenant. Appreciation for friendship is integral to our national mission and spiritual life.
It is precisely this fundamental tenet of our faith that Moses invokes when he invites his father-in-law Jethro (aka Hobab) to stay with the Israelites in the wilderness and to share their journey: “Come with us and we will bring you goodness, just as God has promised goodness to Israel” (Numbers 10:29). When Jethro/Hobab demurs, Moses presses the point: “If you come with us, we will favor you with good, just as God has brought goodness upon us” (10:32). Jethro has been a blessing to Israel and a valued and wise adviser to Moses. Here, in Parshat Beha’alotecha, Moses makes clear that blessing is now his covenantal entitlement.
Moses was not the only national leader to express faith in the divine assurance of the Genesis covenant. In a letter to the “Hebrew Congregation” of Savannah, Georgia (Congregation Mickve Israel), George Washington also recognized the blessings to be shared by friends of the People Israel. The presidential correspondence was dispatched on June 14, 1790; that’s exactly 235 years ago this Shabbat:
“May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivering the Hebrews from their Egyptian Oppressors planted them in the promised land — whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation — still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.”
Washington (who knew his Bible!) invoked God’s blessing on the Jewish People (“water them with the dews of Heaven”), and deftly sought the divine favor promised “those who bless you” — in this case, Americans “of every denomination” who related to the nascent American Jewish community with “a spirit of liberality and philanthropy … much more prevalent than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth.”
Two months later, in August 1790, Washington wrote his more celebrated letter to the “Hebrew Congregation” of Newport, Rhode Island, memorably asserting that the government of the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance” — a sometimes elusive standard of American governance. In this letter, too, the first president offers his blessing to the Jewish community: “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants.” Alas, this presidential benediction — offered in sincere good faith — also seems to be sadly elusive of late.
A careful reading of Washington’s Newport letter reveals there, too, an implicit reliance on the Genesis covenant later invoked by Moses. Having blessed American Jews, Washington subtly asserts the nation’s rightful recompense: “May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.”
This Shabbat Parshat Beha’alotecha — the anniversary of George Washington’s prayerful June 14 communique to the Jews of Savannah — is also celebrated as Flag Day. In the verses that immediately precede Moses’ invitation to his father-in-law to join and continue his support for the Israelite journey, Scripture recalls that our ancestors traveled the wilderness under tribal flags or “standards” (see Numbers 10:14, 18, 22, 25).
On this Shabbat of such rich historical significance, may we renew our faith in our founding covenant: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you” — temporary setbacks, disappointments, and losses notwithstanding.
On this Shabbat of such rich historical significance, may we renew our principled appreciation for those friends who have shared our journey, bringing us blessing even on dark days, and sustaining us through dark times. May God bless those who bless us.
On this Shabbat of such rich historical significance, may the United States continue to aspire to its own noblest ideals and standards, the only sure way to reflect true honor on its flag.
On this Shabbat of such rich historical significance, on the very heels of painful losses and dismaying, violent attacks on the Jewish community — including in the capital city that bears the honored name of our first president — may we and our friends come to realize the vision of George Washington’s favorite Hebrew Bible verse: “And every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid” (Micah 4:4).
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