Overview
of the Weekly Reading
To be read on Shabbat Beha'alotcha -16Sivan 5773/May
25
Torah: Numbers 8:1-12:16
Haftorah: Zachariah 2:14-4:7 (The vision
of the Menorah)
Pirkei Avot:
Chapter 2
Beha'alotcha is the 3rd Reading out of
10 in Numbers and it contains 7055 letters, in 1840
words, in 136 verses
Overview: Beha’alotecha
opens with the command to Aharon to light the menorah, followed
by the inauguration and qualifications of the Levites’ Divine
service. Then, G-d’s command to the Jews to observe Passover.
Those who were impure through contact with a dead body (and
therefore forbidden to offer the Passover sacrifice) were granted
another chance to offer the Pascal lamb exactly one month after
Passover. This day is known as ‘Pesach Sheni’—second Passover.
The next section describes how a cloud resided above the Tabernacle
and signaled when the Jews were to journey and when to encamp.
The marching order of the tribes in the Jews’ desert journeys
is described. At this point, Chovev (a.k.a. Yisro, Moshe’s father-in-law)
leaves the Jews and goes back to his homeland to bring his relatives
to Judaism. Next, we encounter the famous verse we recite each
time we take out the Torah from the ark, about how the ark with
tablets would go forth before the Jews during their desert travels.
Then, the Jews began complaining about G-d. The first time,
G-d punishes them with a fire which consumes many Jews until
Moshe prays for the fire to stop. Then, the Jews complain that
they miss foods they had in Egypt and about the mannah. To this,
G-d promises an over-abundance of meat, but when it comes and
the camp is covered with quail, those who complained were punished
and died whilst consuming their improper desire. The parsha
ends with Miriam speaking slightly negatively of Moshe to their
brother, Aharon. Subsequently, they were rebuked by G-d, and
Miriam was stricken with tzara’as (“leprosy”). The Jews wait
for her to heal and only then journey forward.
 An
essay from
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter, director of Ascent (3673Beha'alotecha)
(for a free weekly email subscription, click
here)
This week’s Torah portion begins with the command
to Aharon the high priest to light the Menorah. Lighting
the Menorah was one of the most important daily services
in the Mishkan and Temple; it is also one of the main paradigms
to describe the mission of the Jewish people. Made out of one
solid piece of gold, the Menorah was miraculously formed
when thrown in a fire by Betzalel (the mishkan’s architect).
It remains an image of the unity and the spreading of light that
has defined the Jewish people as lamplighters from the very beginning
of our peoplehood.
Many Torah commentators have explained the image of the Menorah
in a way that resonates on an even more personal level. The Shlah
writes:
[Like the Menorah] a person has to be constantly vigilant
that his soul shines from [learning] Torah and [keeping] the commandments.
A person’s body is in the form of a menorah. Just
as the Menorah had a central column and three extensions on each
side, each higher extension shorter than the one below it, so
too in man there is the extension of the legs, the extension of
the arms and the extension of the ears. The torso, containing
the heart, is the central column. The height of the Menorah,
18 tefachim (about 70 inches), is [roughly] a person’s
height.
“When you raise up the candles towards the center of the
Menorah, the seven candles will shine” (8:1). Rashi
writes that the commandment, inferred by the word “raise
up” was to light the wick until you were sure that the flame
would continue to be lit on its own. On a human level this means
that a person has to work on him or herself to the point that
all talents and strengths in both body and soul naturally lean
towards serving G-d. Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berdichev writes that
when he was a young child his father would send him to deliver
“gifts for the poor” to needy families. He would never
send a servant, in order to accustom his son to doing the commandments.
The Talmud teaches (Tamid 3:8) that there was a stone placed
before the Menorah which had three steps. These represent
the three steps that enable us to illuminate our surrounding and
light the souls of those around us (in Hebrew “maalot,”,
also means positive characteristics). Modesty, compassion and
kindness, traits that are intrinsic to the Jewish people, give
us the tools to be immersed in Torah, sincere prayer, and acts
of kindness—the three pillars of the world (Talmud Yevamos
79a).
The Medrash writes: “When a person makes an effort to light
a candle before G-d, ‘I,’ says G-d, ‘will light
for them an even greater light in the world to come.’”
What is this candle? The Talmud teaches that when you struggle
to sanctify yourself even a little, the Almighty responds by sanctifying
a lot from above. Do what you can do to bring light to your surroundings—be
careful how you speak, where you look and what you hear—and
I, G-d says, will enlighten you with supernal ideas when you study
Torah or pray, ideas that are truly beyond you, and can only come
to you from on high, from the divine.
The verse says (Proverbs 20:27): “Man’s soul is G-d’s
candle.” The soul of each Jewish person shines with divine
light. Yet we see that some souls are not lit up; their shine
is hidden and concealed by many coverings. This is Aharon’s
job: to elevate and reveal the divine light in the souls of the
Jewish people, until the flame can stay lit on its own.
What is so unique about this commandment, not true of any other
aspect of the Temple service, is that it could be done by any
person, even one who was not a priest. We should never say that
only Aharon the high priest can light the Menorah, that
lighting up the souls of other Jews is just for the professionals.
Each and every one of us is commanded to be of the students of
Aharon, loving peace and chasing after peace, loving all of G-d’s
creations, bringing them closer to Jewish life—and revealing
their luminous souls. (Lubavitcher Rebbe)
Yehuda Avner, an aide to Prime Minister Rabin and later Israel’s
ambassador to the UN, once asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe at the
end of one of their meetings, “What is the purpose of a Rebbe?”
“To light up the soul of other Jews,” the Rebbe answered.
“Did you light up my soul?” Avner asked. The Rebbe answered,
“I gave you the match.”
Shabbat Shalom, Shaul
(for a free weekly email subscription,
click
here)
For last year's essay by Rabbi Leiter on this week's Reading,
see the archive.
____________________________________________
This
week's story from Yerachmiel Tilles, managing editor of ascentofsafed.com
and kabbalaonline.org
From
the Kabbalah Commentaries on the Chumash ("5
Books of Moses")
13th
century - "RambaN"
- Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman
14th
century - "Bachya"
- Rabbi Bachya ben Asher
16th
century - "Alsheich"
- Rabbi Moshe Alshech of Tsfat
17th
century - "Shelah"
- Rabbi Yeshaiya Horowitz
18th
century - "Ohr
HaChayim" - Rabbi Chaim Ben Attar
a sample for this week:
Shelah
"…G-d has spoken of good for Israel."
(Num. 10:29)
The Talmud (Berachot 5) tells us in the name of Rebbe
Shimon bar Yochai that G-d gave three precious gifts to
Israel, but that the acquisition of each one of them involved
painful experiences. The three gifts referred to are Torah,
the Land of Israel, and the World to Come. This statement
is difficult in itself, since we perceive that anyone
who gives something away is motivated by a generous impulse,
i.e. the idiom "He who gives, gives generously".
Why, then should these gifts be attainable only through
suffering?
This is not really a difficulty, since the very sufferings
a person experiences refine his body and enable him to
achieve closeness to G-d. When acquiring the above, the
type of painful experiences experienced make us appreciate
the gift even more after we have endured the suffering
leading up to it. The slavery of the Israelites in Egypt
was such a prelude. Once having endured this bondage they
would find the yoke of Torah so much easier to bear by
comparison that they would welcome it as a gift.
(Rabbi Isaiah
Horowitz was born in Prague around the year 1565. He served
as Rabbi of Cracow and other congregations before he was
appointed as the Rabbi of the community of Frankfurt on
Main in the year 1610. In 1916, Rabbi Horowitz moved to
Prague where he became the Chief Rabbi of the city. He
moved to Eretz Yisrael about 1621. He was rabbi in Jerusalem
and in Tiberias, where he died in or about 1630. In addition
to his magnus opus, Shenei Luchot HaBrit, he also compiled
an edition of the prayer-book with a comprehensive commentary.
Many of his innovations, including his formulation of
the Kol Nidrei prayer, have become part and parcel of
the Ashkenazi Siddur.)
For the rest of "The Masters of Kabbala and Chumash"
on this Weekly
Reading; and on all
the other Readings.
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FROM
THE SAGES OF TSFAT AND GALILEE ON KabbalaOnline.org
Specifically,
for an overview of the recommended articles in the columns:
Holy Zohar, Holy Ari, Mystic Classics, Chasidic Masters, Contemporary
Kabbalists, and more,
click to Beha'alotecha
one sample:
Chasidic Masters
 Receive
a Gift As It Is
By Binyomin Adilman, based on the teachings of Rabbi Avraham of
Slonim
The Torah describes the manna again here, a year after it's initial
appearance in parashat Beshalach, The Beit Avraham of Slonim comments
that the manna is the symbol of a stable livelihood. Manna came
from heaven and each individual of the Jewish nation received
a divinely allotted portion, as does one's livelihood.
The Jews in the desert invested significant effort into preparing
the manna, without any additional benefit - not financial and
not nutritional. People run after money all day long; very few
gain the benefits of emotional health and contentment from the
wealth they earn. Quite the opposite is true, the extra effort
has a negative effect since it detracts from one's time for prayer,
contemplation, mitzvot and Torah study, the currency needed to
acquire a place in the World to Come
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