Behaalotecha 5764 – Gilayon #344
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Parashat Behaalotcha
ON THE DAY THAT THE TABERNACLE
WAS SET UP, THE CLOUD COVERED THE TABERNACLE, THE TENT OF THE PACT; AND IN THE
EVENING IT RESTED OVER THE TABERNACLE IN THE LIKENESS OF FIRE UNTIL MORNING. IT
WAS ALWAYS SO: THE CLOUD COVERED IT, APPEARING AS FIRE BY NIGHT. AND WHENEVER
THE CLOUD LIFTED FROM THE TENT, THE ISRAELITES WOULD SET OUT ACCORDINGLY; AND
AT THE SPOT WHERE THE CLOUD SETTLED, THERE THE ISRAELITES WOULD MAKE CAMP.
(Bamidbar 9:15-17)
Patience, Waiting, and
Contending with Uncertainty as Expressions of Faith
But
the cloud was the Shepherd's crook by means of which God, the Shepherd of
Israel, announced His will to the People He was leading, where and when they
were to encamp, where and when to break camp. And, as is here described, the
will and the intention of this direction were absolutely unpredictable. Sometimes a long rest, sometimes just a few days. Sometimes
only a night or a day and a night, or two days, a month, year… it is not so
much the strain of lengthy wanderings as the patient endurance of the lengthy
stops which seem to be stressed as the real task of the tests. Nothing is
mentioned of the wanderings and their duration, but very definitely and
repeatedly we are told of standing fast in long rests… Clearly then their
exercising enduring patience is specially stressed. This is the more
understandable when one thinks of the inhospitality of the desert, and
remembers that the people knew quite well that the wilderness was not the end
of their wanderings, but that their goal lay beyond, and that every tarrying
anywhere in the wilderness only held them back from the Promised Land. These
were the exercises in that virtue of quiet and cheerful devoted and confident
enduring patience which the "People of God's guidance" require more
than any other in their Galut-wanderings through the "wilderness
of the nations," as the prophet calls it, during so many centuries of the
future, and which the word of the prophet so significantly renders as, Even
if it tarries, wait for it still (Habakkuk 2:3).
(R.
Shimshon Raphael Hirsch on Bamidbar
9:16-22, Levy translation)
On the Menorah
and Gratitude
Avigdor Sheinan
Our parasha
opens with a reference to the Menorah which stood in the Tabernacle, and later
in the Temple (and which eventually metamorphosed into the "Eternal Light"
of the synagogue): When you mount the lamps, let the seven lamps give light
at the front of the Menorah (Bamidbar
8:2).
The Sages grappled extensively with the issue of the Menorah's purpose. Midrash Tanhumah (Titzaveh 2) formulates the question in a sharp
tone:
The community of Israel asked God: "Lord
of the Universe…You illuminate the entire world, yet You
command us to set up an eternal light? We see light [only] through your light,
and you ask us to light lamps?"
Among the answers offered by the midrash to this question, we find "[God
answered] I did not [command you to light the Menorah] because I need its
light, rather in order that it give light for you" (Buber edition, Tetzaveh 4). Mentioning
the mechanism of human eyesight, which remains unfathomable to mortals, Rabbi Yohanan says [as if quoting God], "You do not
understand eyesight, yet you ask to understand My
ways? In order to avoid confusing you, it must be spoken of, lest you say that
He needs light" Rabbi Avin HaLevy
takes up the discussion and says, "You will find that people make windows
broad on the inside and narrow on the outside, so that they may draw in the
light. However, the Temple had windows that were wide on the outside and narrow
on the inside, so that light could exit the Temple and illuminate the world. Light
comes forth from My house, and I am in need of light! And
if you ask what the lamp is for, it is to give us [human beings] light!"
According to this view, the Menorah exists for people, and not for the Master
of the Universe; its light is the source of the whole world's illumination.
An alternative answer explains the
lighting of the Menorah in the Tabernacle as an expression of gratitude. It is
developed at length in another section of Midrash Tanhuma (Tetzaveh 1). This
relatively long drasha is constructed in an unusual
and interesting manner: it opens with a question of Jewish law. In order to
fully understand and enjoy this midrash,
a word must be said as to its style of construction. It seems that in the days
of the Sages it was customary for the preacher to sometimes begin his oratory
with the answer to a question raised by his audience. Such questions were
usually introduced with the formulaic phrase yilamdeinu
rabbeinu [teach us, our rabbi], and they could touch
upon various halakhic issues, usually drawn from
everyday life. The preacher had to somehow connect the question and its answer
in various ways to the first verse of the Torah reading which the congregation
had gathered to hear, i.e. the opening verse of the week's parasha,
of the festival's Torah reading, and so forth. The beauty of these
introductions rests in the surprising connections made between the resolution
of a halakhic question and an unrelated and
predetermined scriptural verse. Scholars disagree over the extent to which the
preacher had foreknowledge of the question to be asked. Some say that he "ordered"
the question in advance, reducing the exchange with the audience to mere
formality. Others claim – convincingly – that the question was posed to the
preacher for the first time as he stood before his audience, forcing him to
spontaneously improvise his drasha. We possess around
two hundred specimens of such drashot, which allow us
to peer beyond lifeless texts into vibrant world of the ancient beit midrash.
The drasha we
will examine opens with the query, "Teach us, our rabbi, at which age must
an infant be circumcised." It is hard to imagine that this would
constitute a genuine question for any Jewish audience. We must then say that
the real challenge of the question was not to merely answer it, but rather to
tie that answer to the first verse of the Torah reading, i.e., Command the
Israelite people to… to kindle lamps regularly (Vayikra 24:2).
The preacher spins out his words, first
responding to the question itself, and then expounding upon the basis of his
answer to it: "So learned our Rabbis: An infant is circumcised at eight [days].
What is the reason? Because our Father Isaac was circumcised
[on his eighth day]." >From this answer, the preacher moves onto speak of how beloved is the commandment of circumcision:
Rabbi Shimon bay Yohai
said: Come and see that nothing is more beloved to a person than his son, yet
he circumcises him. And why does he go to such an extreme? Rabbi Nahman bar Shmuel said: In order
to perform the will of his Creator – he sees blood flowing from his son's
circumcision, accepting it joyously. Rabbi Haninah
said: Not only that – he puts himself out to make the day a joyous celebration.
He is not actually commanded to do this, but it accords with the verse, As for me, I will hope always, and add to
the many praises of You (Tehillim
71:14).
Not only this – a man goes out and borrows money, mortgaging property in order
to celebrate the day.
These words are surprisingly down to
earth. A circumcision is a joyous occasion, and a Jew will spend his money to
celebrate it, even if it is necessary take out loans and mortgages, all out of
love for his son and in recognition of the importance of circumcision. The preacher
continues and asks a question in the name of Rabbi Yudin:
Rabbi Yudin
said: When is a son beloved to his father? When he begins to talk, as it says: Truly,
Ephraim is a dear son to Me, an entertaining child
(Jeremiah
31:20)
When is a child entertaining? At three or four years, when he
begins to speak and entertains his father.
When a child begins to talk, he begins
to repay his father for all he has invested in him up to then. As someone who
can carry on a real discussion, who asks and replies, the child can give his
parents something in return. They entered him into the covenant of our Father
Abraham, into the world of Judaism, even at some expense to them, and now they
bask in their pride of him, of his words and personality which develop before
their eyes.
The preacher contends that this type of
relationship, which holds between one who bestows favors and another who is
grateful for those favors and seeks to return them in kind, also characterizes
the relationship between Israel and its God. The preacher continues his speech
with a crucial bridging sentence: "And Rabbi Bisna
said: God told Israel: My children, do unto me as I
have done unto you." The designation of Israel as God's children moves the
parent/child relationship into the metaphysical and historical realms. The
words "do unto Me as I have done unto you"
is an explicit demand that the Jew acknowledge that which he has gained by the
grace of God. So the preacher relates a long series of examples, some of which
derive from Ezekiel's prophecy regarding the female infant who was thrown out
to the field upon the day of her birth, only to be saved by Divine providence:
I fed you in the wilderness – and so
you sacrificed to me: You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, etc. (Shemot 29:39), I bathed you in water (Ezekiel 16:9) – and
you made me a basin, I anointed you with oil (ibid), –
parallel to the oil of anointing, I clothed you in embroidered garments (16:10), –
parallel to the embroidered clothes [of the Tabernacle], and gave you
sandals of dolphin leather to wear (loc cit) – parallel to the dolphin skins
[used in the Tabernacle], and wound fine linen about your head (ibid) –parallel to the fine twisted linen, and dressed you in silk [meshi] (ibid) – these are the clouds of glory, for
it is said, the pillar of cloud did not depart [yamish]
by day (Shemot 14:22) – parallel to the cloths of goat's
hair, I decked you in finery (Ezekiel 16: 11), that
is jewelry – parallel to the ark and its golden molding, I put a nose-ring
(Ezekiel
16:12)
parallel to the brooches and rings [of gold donated for the construction of the
Tabernacle and its vessels], and a splendid crown on your head (loc cit) –
parallel to the cover and gold molding of the ark. I will rain down bread
for you (Shemot 16:4) – parallel to the show bread, the
Lord went before them by day… to give them light (Shemot 13:21) – parallel to Command the Israelite
people to… to kindle lamps regularly.
The sacrificial rite, the Tabernacle
and its parts, the show bread and the menorah – they are all means of
expression that a person living in the present may use to thank God for His past
kindnesses to His people. Upon this conception, the Menorah becomes but one of
many expressions of this idea. Today, when there is no Temple or Tabernacle or
holy vessels, when there are no sacrifices or priests performing the rites, now
prayer and the prayer book remain our way to say daily that "we thank you,"
reciting Al Ha-Nisim to recall the favors of
the past, of Purim and Hannukah.
These words are written a few days
after Yom Ha-Atzmaut and a few days before Yom Yerushalayim, and the obvious question is whether we have
found a way to properly mark these historical revelations of God's kindness in
our prayer services. I am not referring to the recitation of the Hallel on these days, or proposals to compose
special versions of Al Ha-Nisim. I am asking
simpler questions: How many congregations accepted Rabbi Goren's
suggestion, following the Six Day War, to make changes in the Nahem prayer recited in the minhah
service of Tisha Be'Av? How
many people identified with the call of several scholars and rabbis to replace
the expression "humbled soul" (aluvat
nefesh) used to refer to Jerusalem in the
blessings on the haftorah with an expression that
does not smack of ingratitude? The answer is clear and the implications are
troubling.
Prof.
Sheinan teaches in the Hebrew literature department
of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Advance, O Lord! May Your
Enemies Be Scattered, and May Your Foes Flee Before You! Who is being referred to?
Moses
recognized that this Torah from its very entry into the world would have to
expect enemies, opponents, and foes, that people would hate it. Its demands for
justice and love are so very much in opposition to the dictates of force and
selfishness the curse of which is felt so keenly by the weak and needy. The
upkeep of these dictates against the laws of justice and love guarantees the
coalition of all the people in power who form a tacitly united front in the
world, of enemies, opponents to the Torah who form a barrier to the entry of
its influence into the world in general. And its demands for self-control and
sanctification of morals are so much in contrast to the allures of ignoble
passion that one finds in the breast of the ignoble masses in all classes, not
only enemies but foes, not only hate but persecution…
(R.
Shimshon Raphael Hirsch on Bamidbar
10:35-36, Levy translation)
If
there is one among your friends whose obedience to God is greater than yours,
whose actions for His sake are purer, and his efforts to draw near to Him
stronger, the instinct will make you hate him, saying, "All the effort
this man shows in obedience to God constitutes a clear failure on you part! Were
it not for him, God, as well as man, would think you the most pious of your
generation. Therefore you should offend him be jealous of him and angry with
him! Look for his faults and failures! Watch for his stumblings!
Observe where he is negligent, publicize it as much as you can, and revile him
for it. If it is possible to slander him for nothing, just to dishonor him in
people's eyes, go ahead and do it!" Your answer to him should be the
following: "How can I scorn somebody God loves and revile somebody he
favors?"
(R.
Bahya Ibn Pakuda's Hovot Ha-Levavot, Sha'ar Yihud Ha-Ma'aseh 8. Pp. 300-1
in Mansoor's translation)
Who were the Asafsuf?
Who
were the asafsuf ["riff-raff"]?
Rabbi Shimon bar Abba and Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya [spoke of this]. One said: They were the converts
who rose up with them from Egypt, for it is said, Moreover, a mixed multitude
went up with them (Shemot 12:8).
And
one said: The Asafsuf are the Sanhedrin, for
it is said, collect [esfa] for me seventy men (Bamidbar 11:16). What is [also] written there? A
fire of the Lord broke out against them, ravaging the outskirts [beketzei] of the camp (11:1) – the
kotzim [thorns, i.e. riff-raff] of the camp. And
how do we know that those elders who ascended Mount Sinai were burned? For it
is said, a fire blazed in their party [eidah] (Tehillim 106:18), and eidah
can only mean the Sanhedrin, for it is said, if this was done through the
inadvertence of the eidah [elders] (Bamidbar 15:24).
(Bamidbar Rabba 15:24)
And You Shall Purify Them – The Holy Service can be One's Downfall
It
repeats the warning about ritual purity, for just as the Holy Service can raise up one's heart in God's paths, so too it can trip one
up through pride over other people and the desecration of the Holy Name caused
even by a minor transgression – against these we must be warned. Also, the
greater someone is compared to his fellows, the greater is his inclination to
sin in unusual ways. So we find that proximity to holiness causes impurity, as
the prophet Haggai said, whatever they bring near is defiled (2:14)… Later
this actually happened to Korah and his followers
from the Levites – their greatness was their downfall – that is why they are
warned after they served in the Tent of Meeting, so that they will be warned
regarding purity in accordance with their rank.
(Ha-Emek Davar Bamidbar 8:15)
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