NOW THIS IS HOW THE

MENORAH WAS MADE: IT WAS HAMMERED WORK OF GOLD, HAMMERED FROM BASE TO PETAL.

ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN THAT THE LORD HAD SHOWN MOSES, SO WAS THE MENORAH

MADE.

(Bamidbar 8:4)

It was hammered

When you mount the lamps – You find that Moses had more

difficulty with the making of the Menorah than with any other of the Tabernacle's

vessels, so much so that the Holy One blessed be He pointed to [its image] for

him with His finger; Moses found three things to be difficult…

Hammered work of gold – What does mikshah

finished making it, as it says, you shall make the Menorah mikshah (Shemot 25)? Since he

found it difficult, the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: Take some gold

and throw it into the fire, and take it out, and it will form itself, it's

calyxes, petals, cups, and branches came from it [mimenah]. You would hit [it] with a hammer, and it would form itself.

That is why it says mikshah teiyaseh hamenorah: it is

written teiyaseh with a letter yod [it shall make itself], and not ta'aseh

[you shall make].

What did Moses do? He

took the basin, threw it into the fire, and said: Master of the Universe, the

block has been thrown into the fire – do with it as You

wish. The Menorah immediately came out, perfectly formed. That is why it is written,

According to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses, so was

the Menorah made. Moses is not mentioned, rather it baldly

states, so was the

Menorah made. Who made it? The Holy One blessed be

He. That is why the Holy One blessed be He told him to warn Aaron to light it,

as it is said, When you mount the lamps – the Holy One blessed be he

said to Israel: If you are careful to light [them] before Me, I shall preserve

your souls from all bad things, for your souls have been compared to lamps, for

it is said, Man's soul is the Lord's lamp. (Mishlei 20)

(Tanhumah BeHa'alotkha

3)

There

shall be one law for you, whether stranger or citizen of the country

Pinchas Leiser

In memory of

my rabbi and teacher of blessed memory,

HaRav HaGaon Moshe Yonah HaLevy Zweig,

ZTz"L,

who passed away

in the prime of his life on

Motza'ei Shabbat Kodesh of Parashat BeHa'alotkha, 5723.

And in

memory of a dear man, a lover of humanity,

Torah, and

the Land, a pursuer of peace,

Professor Yosef Walk, z"l, who left us

at a good old age,

on 18 of Iyyar 5765.

The

concept of the ger

connection with the paschal sacrifice and the "second" Pesah, is ambiguous. The plain meaning of Scripture does

not make it clear whether it refers to a ger

tzedek [convert to Judaism] or to a ger toshav

observance of a minimal number of commandments (the seven Noahide

commandments, or, according to a differing opinion, the avoidance of idolatry).

The

Sages, together with the majority of traditional exegetes, understand the ger mentioned in our parasha

to be a ger tzedek,

making it obvious that he would be required to celebrate the paschal sacrifice

and even the second Pesah if some justified reason

kept him from bringing the paschal sacrifice in its proper time.

This

explanation does create a certain difficulty for our understanding of

Scripture: it is all too obvious! A convert is in all things like a Jew and a citizen

of the land. Why would it be necessary to make a special point of his

obligation to make the paschal sacrifice?

Furthermore,

the Torah makes numerous mentions of the stranger living amongst us in various contexts,

and it seems that the plain meaning of the text does not refer to a convert,

but rather to a stranger who lives in our midst.

The

word ger first appears in the Covenant

of the Pieces [Brit ben ha'betarim],

when the Holy One blessed be He says to Abram, Know verily that your

offspring shall be a ger in a land not their own (Bereishit 15:13).

When

Abraham turns to the Hittites to ask them to apportion some land for Sarah's

grave, he says: I am a ger and resident with you, give me a burial site

among you, and I shall bury my dead from before me (Bereishit

23:4).

The ger mentioned in Bereishit

is certainly a stranger who continues to preserve his ethnic and cultural

identity.

When

Moses' oldest son, Gershom, was born, the Torah

explicates his name's meaning: She bore a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, "I have been a ger in a strange land" (Shemot

2:22). Here too we see the word ger referring

to alienation, and not to some process of conversion. Neither have we heard of

any earlier process of conversion.

For

the first time, in parashat Bo, in the section in

which the Israelites are commanded to perform the paschal sacrifice, we find

mention of the ger who must undergo

circumcision in order to offer the paschal sacrifice: If a ger who dwells with you would offer the Passover to the

uncircumcised person may eat of it

(Shemot 12:48)

Despite

this, in parashat Kedoshim

the Torah uses the following formulation to warn us against cheating a ger: When a ger resides with you in your land,

your God (Vayikra

19:33-34).

Here

it seems clear from the language of the passage that it refers to a stranger

living in our midst, similar to the Israelites who were gerim

interpretation of the passage seems to imply such a reading:

When a ger

resides with you: He is mentioned after the elderly person, and the

reason is that just as I warned you to respect the aged Israelite because he is

powerless, so too I have warned you to respect the ger,

for your power is greater than his, our since he has no power at all, since he

resides in your land by your permission. (Ibn Ezra on Vayikra 19:33)

In parashat Behar, the Torah speaks

explicitly of the ger and the resident:

If

let him live by your side. (Vayikra 25:35)

If

a ger's family. (Vayikra 25:47)

Indeed,

the RaMBaM rules that we must sustain the ger toshav:

It

is forbidden to an Israelite to give a free-gift to an idolater, but he may

give it to a ger toshav,

for it says, give it to the ger within your gates

and he shall eat it, or sell it to a foreigner – as a sale, not as a gift. But

it may be given to a ger toshav either through sale or as a gift because you are

commanded to sustain him, for it is sad, a ger and

resident, let him live by your side. (Mishneh Torah Hilkhot Zekhiyah U'Matanah 3:11)

R. Hayyim ben Atar

explains the importance of this commandment in his commentary on the Torah, Or

HaHayyim:

A ger and a

resident…: The point of his claim is based upon what the RaMBaM wrote in chapter three of Hilkhot

Zekhiyah U'Matanah: "He may give it to a ger toshav, for it

says, give it to the ger within your gates and he

shall eat it, or sell it to a foreigner." You must know that all of

our holy Torah is rational, particularly in connection to matters of earthly

governance. Rationality requires that the residents of the land sustain a

person who is a ger and resident among

them, giving him a free gift, just as we do. That is [the point of] Abraham's

claim, I am a ger and resident, give me. He was

careful to specify ger, and not merely

resident, in order to say, "Even though I am a ger

and not one of you, even so, I am still a resident…" (Or HaHayyim 23:4)

The ger is mentioned twice in the book of Bamidbar in connection with the sacrifices. In our parasha:

And

of the Passover sacrifice. There shall be one law for you, whether ger or citizen of the country. (Bamidbar 9:14)

And

in the parasha of Shelah:

And

offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord – as you do, so shall he do. (Bamibar 15:14)

The

Sages and most of the commentators say that our parasha

and Shelah both refer to a ger

tzedek. On the other hand, R. Saadya

Gaon writes:

A ger who has taken up residence :

A ger who has converted and entered the

religion, or who lives among you throughout their generations, and he comes to

make an offering, wanting it to be acceptable and desirable before the Lord. (R. Saadya Gaon on Bamidbar 15:14)

It

seems, therefore, that understanding the notion of the biblical ger is a complex affair.

On

the one hand, it is clear that we owe moral and religious duties towards the ger who dwells among us, who is known to the Sages

as a ger toshav.

We are commanded to sustain him, to treat him justly, and it is prohibited to

cheat him.

This

command is rooted in the memory of the exodus from Egypt: We have experienced

slavery and the life of the stranger, and so we can understand the ger's sensitivities and vulnerability. That

historical memory demands of us ethical and just behavior towards the members

of other nations who dwell among us. True, there is some problem in the halakhic literature regarding the technical definition of a

ger toshav. However,

HaRav Herzog produced an interesting responsa calling for a renewed discussion of the topic. Since

we are not presently engaged in a halakhic

investigation, there is no need to enter into those details.

On

the other hand, when it is a matter of the ger's

participation in the paschal sacrifice, he is required to enter the covenant,

since no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

The RaMBaN's offers an especially interesting comment on the

verse from our parasha dealing with the ger and the paschal sacrifice:

The

point of a ger who has taken up residence is

to command the gerim regarding the Passover

taking place in the wilderness when the Israelites were commanded about it. It

could be that the passage in the parasha of Bo and

offering (Shemot

12:48) refers to the Passover of Egypt, as I explained there (verse 43), and it meant that the gerim who were leaving Egypt as part of the

mixed multitude should make the Passover since they were also involved in that

miracle, but [it would seem,] those who converted afterwards in the desert or

in the Land of Israel would not be required to make the Passover offering,

since neither they or their fathers belong to the category of [those who can

say] and you took us out from there (Devarim 6:23). That is why it was necessary to

the Land. (RaMBaN on Bamidbar 9:14)

The RaMBaN understands that the mixed multitude, that is

to say, the gentiles who left Egypt together with the Israelites, were

obligated to perform the make the first Passover offering, because they were

participants in the experience of redemption together with the Israelites.

A

shared lot allows members of another nation feel that they are partners in the

same process. Afterwards, when later generations had not personally experienced

the exodus from Egypt, the sharing of collective memory was no longer based

upon biology, but rather upon voluntary entry into the covenant.

The

complicated realities of the State of Israel and the Land of Israel require us

to deal with the issue of historical memories and narratives which are not

jointly held by Jewish and gentile residents, together with the demand of

morality and Torah for equality and justice that do not discriminate between

Jew and stranger. Perhaps this is the challenge of a society aspiring to be Jewish

and democratic.

Pinchas Leiser, editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist.

Love Bends the Rules

And so Aaron did – this is said in praise of Aaron,

for not deviating [from the Lord's instructions].

(Rashi

Bamidbar 8:3)

Rabbi Baruch of Mezhibozh (a

Chassidic master, grandson of the BeShT) was asked: When

God told Aaron through Moshe how to light up the lamps, the Torah says And so Aaron did. Rashi

explains that this is said in praise of Aaron, for his not having deviated from

His instructions. What does this come to teach us? Can we even imagine for a

moment that Aaron – sanctified of the Lord – would deviate from His command!?

Why, then, the special commendation for faithful execution?

Replied the Rebbi:… It is told of a holy person who served in the

synagogue, that when he set up the lamps and poured in the oil, because of his

great enthusiasm he was unable to fulfill his task properly, and some of the

oil was poured outside the lamp. Therefore was it said in praise of Aaron that

despite all his devotion to the Creator, he arranged the lamps with all his

heart, but he lit them as prescribed.

 (Or Haganuz,

Martin Buber).

In order to properly execute a certain work, enthusiasm and

good will are not enough. There is also need for patience and exactness.

 (From Abraham Stahl: Shabbat BeShabbato, Vol. II, p. 183)

…This is to say that Aaron did all that he was commanded

not as one who acts with enthusiasm and wonder, but as one who directs his

consciousness and awareness to the daily service of God. The great significance

of the service of God lies not in man's giving release to his religious

enthusiasm – indeed it is doubtful whether such behavior is pure, uninterested,

service of God. Perhaps it is but satisfaction of man's psychological needs.

(Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim Shel Sihot al Parashat

HaShavua, p. 648)

Take the

Levites… and cleanse them – Senior Officials Require Purification

The high standing of Man uplifts his heart in the ways of

God – but one must be careful that this merit add no obstacles, such as pride

and desecration of the Name; whoever is greater than his fellow, his

inclination is also greater – and so the closeness to holiness can lead to

impurity, just as in the case of Korah and his Levite

followers – their greatness led to their downfall. Those who rise up to the

holy service are in need of extra caution lest they stumble. . . this is why

they were admonished to be scrupulous in preserving their purity – each

according to his status – after their service in the Tent of Appointment. And

so we have already learned that all this holds true for the study of Torah. One

who accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah lifts his heart up to the paths of

the Lord, but he must be careful that it does not become an impediment. When he

has merited success with Torah, and has studied with the necessary caution,

this is reason to further elevate the mind towards the love of God. But all

this is accomplished only if he consciously intends by this to attain love of

God. Without such awareness, this benefit will be lost, leaving only the

mitzvah of Torah study. Torah, too, is a high and exalted matter, but only if

it has not turned into an obstacle, as the Sages pointed out: "If he has

not merited, it [the Torah] becomes potion of death" (Yoma 64).

(HaAmek

Davar, Bamidbar 8:15)

…We must remember that the above was written by the head

of the Volozhin Yeshiva, who knew intimately the

world of those who devote their lives exclusively to the study of Torah, and he

was well aware of the danger facing them and all generations, lest they dare

perceive themselves and refer to themselves as Gedolei

Torah – Torah giants.

 (Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim Shel Sihot al Parashat

HaShavua, p. 649)

The "External Sciences" are

Necessary for Understanding the Torah

It has already been

made clear in the beginning of parashat Tetzaveh that the Menorah alludes to the illumination of

the wisdom of the Torah through the sharp analysis of the Torah, through

investigation and study. The six braches of the menorah together with the

central lamp are the seven sciences "external" to the Torah. The Torah

needs them in order to be

interpreted through them regarding all of the details of measurements and the

like that come to be explicated in the Torah…the cups represent the giving of

drink; the Torah gives the drink of the sciences, and the sciences give the

drink of knowledge – to know and understand the details of God's word.

 (The NeTziV of Volozhin's Ha'Amek Davar)

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