Troublesome Parasha

This week's torah portion, B'haalot'cha, is troublesome to my feministic spirit. The Progressive commentaries try to make me feel better but the bottom line is that Miriam, my personal biblical hero, and her brother Aaron share in the act of challenging Moses both in his marriage to a "Cushite" woman (which may be a red herring for) and his leadership as the only one who hears G-d. Only Miriam is punished (given leprosy and cast out from the people for seven days) for this act and 70 elders are given the ability to hear G-d directly, some of whom seem to go quite mad. Aaron cowardly acts like "it wasn't me; she made me do it" while Moses whines the shortest pray known to Torah. Give me a break! Is G-d so insecure that G-d cannot handle even the weakest of challenges to leadership and is G-d so wimpy to answer the challenge by granting the demands? Miriam is not blameless in this either as she has to use prejudice to justify her challenge (she never mentioned problems with Moses' wife in the past, so why now?). Aaron too, the mouthpiece of Israel, proves himself to be childish, blaming his sister when they both get in trouble. Are we in the kingdom of G-d or on a school playground?
I suggest we are at both.

Leadership stories that bother not to be narcissistic treatises on "good to great" management tell the real story of how it is to move a people, corporation, or country forward. Everyone has the "real" or "right" solution but the leadership, even in those democratic settings where the leadership is elected by the lead. It appears we are never satisfied with our leadership, never content with their decisions. Yet, when given that role ourselves become mad and we too "begin to speak in tongues", as outlined in this Torah portion. "I would have done xyz" becomes our mantra but when we get to leadership, if we do, we become the besieged. When we tell the stories of great leaders, we leave out the petty bickering or when it is added, the leader gives some grand speech which magically dispels all disbelief and heals all wounds for then forth. Yeah right!

I've done this leadership thing now for sometime and let me let you in on dirty little secret - the minions complain all the 40 years they wandered the desert. I remember, because I used to be one of them.