Dvar Torah: Parshat Beha'alotcha
by Lily Snyder, 8G
It was just another ordinary summer day. I was bored and cranky and had not been outside at all yet. Then, all of a sudden, a brilliant idea popped into my little head. “Why don’t I learn to ride a bike?!” I thought. I ran to my dad and asked him to teach me and he thought it was a great idea. We walked the bike to the playground across the street and I hopped on knowing that my training wheels wouldn’t let me go down without a fight. I started to pedal away leaving my dad running after me trying to make sure I didn’t crash into anything or anyone. That day I rode my bike home proudly with my head held as high as it could go. A few years later, I realized that those training wheels would never let me fall or really learn how to ride on my own, so my dad and I went to the park, dismantled the training wheels, I hopped on my bike, started to ride off… and I fell. Total chaos. There was crying and screaming and if that bike could have cried, it would have.
Like my biking experience, Parshat Beha’alotcha begins with a nice orderly presentation of laws with everything going just fine. But then there is a transition where Yitro, Moshe Rabbeinu’s father-in- law, who has been traveling with Bnei Yisrael since just after the escape from the Yam Suf, decides to leave Moshe and Bnei Yisrael to go back to his land.
From the time that Yitro leaves, it’s as if the training wheels have been taken off and B”Y are left to swerve and crash on their own. It’s a difficult time. Let’s review in detail:
First we start with order. Hashem tells Aharon to light the Menorah in the Mishkan every day. Hashem then tells Moshe to sanctify the Levi’im. Bnei Yisrael are told to offer a Korban Pesach, on the first anniversary of Yetziat MItzrayim. Some people are not allowed to do this korban because they are impure. These people complain to Moshe, who passes it on to Hashem. Hashem makes a second Pesach (Pesach Sheini) for the people who could not participate in the first one.
From the day the Mishkan was built, a cloud covers it during the day and a fire in the nighttime. When the cloud lifts, the Bnei Yisrael know it is time to travel. They go where the cloud leads them. Hashem commands Moshe to make two silver trumpets which he uses for many different occasions.
So much for the order. Now comes the disorder. A year after the Bnei Yisrael first camp at Har Sinai, the cloud lifts, signaling a move. Yitro announces that he is leaving the mission. Moshe begs him not to go. We aren’t told exactly what the outcome is, but it appears that Yitro leaves. And after this happens, disaster strikes. It’s as if the training wheels have just come off the bike.
The Bnei Yisrael start to complain about the lack of real food in the Midbar.
Hashem punishes them by sending them so much S’lav (Artscroll translates “pheasant”) that it comes out of their noses, and many people die. Moshe’s sister Miriam says Lashon Harah about Moshe, and is punished with tza’arat for a week.
That’s the end of the Parshah, but it’s just the beginning of the disasters that will happen to Bnei Yisrael in the midbar before sefer Bamidbar is done. There will be the chait of the m’raglim in Parshat Shlach, the rebellion of Korach in Parshat Korach, Moshe sinning by hitting the rock in Parshat Chukat, and B”Y sinning with the daughters of Midian and Moab in Parshat Balak. Many bruises and broken bones on the way to Eretz C’naan.
Sometimes our lives seem orderly, like the beginning of Parshat Beha’alotcha. And sometimes we can’t see this order, and all seems chaos. It is our challenge as Jews to understand that even though we can’t always see Hashem’s full plan, we have to know that he will help us stay on the right track if we do our best.
Questions:
Dr Tali Loewenthal, in her article, “Lessons from the Menorah,” offers several examples of symbolism from the Menorah as described in this week’s Parsha. The Menorah is made of one block of gold, but has seven branches. This shows that although there is tremendous diversity among the Jews (seven branches), there is a fundamental unity that we all believe in mitzvot, we all descend from Avraham Avinu, and we are all one nation (one block).
The flames of the menorah are fed by fuel, the oil. The oil or fuel for a Jew is the observance of Torah. Without Torah observance, she writes, the Jewish spirit cannot shine brightly. When we observe the flames of the menorah, we are reminded of how we are more than material substance, and that we are ignited by acts of faith.
Continuing the idea of light and fuel, she describes how the Kohen would light each lamp of the Menorah until it could burn on its own. In spiritual matters “the goal is to ignite the flame of the person’s ‘lamp’ so that he or she can then ignite and inspire others.” For instance, our teachers and rebbeim work every day to light the spark of Torah in our souls, and someday we will do the same with our children.
Why is there a special service for the Levi’im and not for the other tribes? One answer might be that the Levi’im were the only tribe that did not participate in the chait of the Eygel HaZahav. After the Eygel, Hashem took care of the Mishkan instead of the firstborn who had been originally intended for this honor. The special service seems to be intended to officially designate the Levi’im to replace the firstborn, and to sanctify (to make them ritually separate) for this purpose. Since the other Bnei Yisrael are not to take care of the Mishkan, no such ceremony is required for them.
I also stumbled over the question, why was Moshe instructed to have made two silver trumpets, and why were they silver? According to Rav Elie Munk in his Kol Hatorah (p. 104), the trumpets were made of silver and not gold because silver represented the quality of Chesed in the Beis Hamikdash. The trumpets were used only during Moshe Rabbeinu’s lifetime. They were like the trumpets that were sounded for a king, since Moshe’s status was almost kinglike in the midbar. At the time the commandment to use two silver trumpets was given, it was expected that the Bnei Yisrael would shortly be in C’naan. The chait of the m’raglim had not yet occurred. It was expected that the trumpets would be needed to assemble and organize the people during the upcoming conquest of Eretz C’naan (Rav Elie Munk, Kol HaTorah, p, 103).