Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parashat Behaalotcha NOW THE PEOPLE WERE LIKE THOSE WHO GRIEVE OVER ILL-FORTUNE, IN THE EARS OF GOD. WHEN GOD HEARD, HIS ANGER FLARED UP; THERE BLAZED UP AGAINST THEM A FIRE OF GOD AND ATE UP THE EDGE OF THE CAMP. THE PEOPLE CRIED OUT TO MOSHE, AND MOSHE INTERCEDED TO GOD AND THE FIRE ABATED. (Bemidbar 11:1-3)   A Place's Character Is Determined By Its Inhabitants "For there had blazed against them the fire of...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parashat Behaalotcha THE RIFFRAFF IN THEIR MIDST FELT A GLUTTONOUS CRAVING; AND THEN THE ISRAELITES WEPT AND SAID, "IF ONLY WE HAD MEAT TO EAT!"… THE MEAT WAS STILL BETWEEN THEIR TEETH, NOT YET CHEWED, WHEN THE ANGER OF THE LORD BLAZED FORTH AGAINST THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD STUCK THE PEOPLE WITH A VERY SEVERE PLAGUE. THAT PLACE WAS NAMED KIBROTH-HATAAVAH , BECAUSE THERE WERE BURIED THE PEOPLE WHO HAD THE CRAVING.  (Bemidbar 11)     Envy, Lust, and Vainglory Shorten a Person's...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Behaalotcha “We recall the fish that we used to eat in Egypt for free” – Is it plausible that the Egyptians gave fish for free? It is written: “So now go – work; no straw will be given to you”? If straw was not given them free of charge, fish were given for free?! What, then, is the meaning “for free”? Free of the mitzvot. (Sifri, Behaalotcha, 87) Love for the Land is related to obligations imposed upon its inhabitants. For this reason people hated the...