Ethan Pressman

This week’s Torah portion is Bamidbar: Numbers 1:1 — 4:20

I have a challenge for you: Think of something that you really want that you don’t have but someone else has. For example, I want an airplane, but my parents told me I can’t have one yet.

What do you want? That longing for something that someone else has is called jealousy. This week’s Torah portion is not about jealousy; it is Bamidbar, where Moses assigns chieftains of each of the tribes. He names all the chieftains and tells the Israelites that the new chieftains are in charge.

This week’s Haftorah, on the other hand, is all about jealousy. This week has a special Haftorah — it is called the Haftorah of “Machar Chodesh.” The term “Machar Chodesh” means “tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh” or the “day before Rosh Chodesh.” Sunday, May 17, is Rosh Chodesh Sivan, meaning that Sunday is the first day of the month of Sivan.

In this Haftorah, Jonathan, King Saul’s son and David’s best friend, tries to speak well of David to King Saul. But “Saul flew into a rage against Jonathan” saying “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!” (Samuel 1, 20:30). So, Jonathan uses arrows as a secret code to tell David that it is not safe for him, and he needs to stay away.

A question that I have is what could be so bad about Jonathan’s actions that Saul said what he said. In this Haftorah, Saul lashes out at Jonathan because Saul is jealous of David’s rise to fame and he is worried that David will try to take his throne. To make things even worse, Saul’s son and daughter seem to like David more or just as much as they like their father. I believe that the theme of this Haftorah is jealousy. Saul is so jealous of David that he wants to kill David. Saul’s jealousy is also causing him to mistreat his own son, Jonathan.

When you are jealous it can lead to you to do bad actions.

The feeling of jealousy is one of the most dangerous feelings someone can have. Jealousy makes people want something that they don’t have, and this can lead to the person trying to steal it from the person that has it or trying to harm the person to try to get it. Jealousy is such a problem that one of the Ten Commandments is to not be jealous of other people.

Jealousy shows up a lot in the Torah. One famous story is Genesis 37:3 when Joseph gets his multicolored coat and his brothers are jealous of him. In this story, jealousy is so dangerous that after the brothers start feeling jealous of Joseph, they end up selling him into slavery Egypt, after debating whether they should just kill him.

Jealousy is still a very big problem, and you can’t stop yourself from ever being jealous. However, you can change your mindset to try to limit the amount of jealousy you feel. My advice is that you should be grateful for what you have and always remember that there are people who have less than you do.

Ethan Pressman is a seventh-grade student at Krieger Schechter Day School.