PARSHAT BEHAALOTECHA, NUMBERS 8:1-12:16

 PARSHAT BEHAALOTECHA, NUMBERS 8:1-12:16

In part, Behaalotecha is about us, a disgruntled people:  We do not want manna; we crave meat.  And so we grumble and bellyache.  And it is not only the people at large, but even so with Moses’ brother and sister.  They find fault with their brother through disparaging his wife, Tziporah.  At this point it is difficult to ascertain how we will ever be a light unto the Gentiles.

 

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There is a disconnect between us and Hashem.  Hashem through His servant Moshe is endeavoring to transform us into an exalted kingdom of Priests, giving us His Torah, the Shabbat and a chance at redemption in the Land of Israel.  But consider our level of spirituality?  what do we long for instead?

At 11:4-5:

זָכַרְנוּ, אֶת-הַדָּגָה, אֲשֶׁר-נֹאכַל בְּמִצְרַיִם, חִנָּם; אֵת הַקִּשֻּׁאִים, וְאֵת הָאֲבַטִּחִים וְאֶת-הֶחָצִיר וְאֶת-הַבְּצָלִים, וְאֶת-הַשּׁוּמִים

“We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge, the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic”.

וַיֹּאמְרוּ, מִי יַאֲכִלֵנוּ בָּשָׂר

“And they said: Who will feed us meat?’

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Consider Three Passages from Parshat Behaalotecha:

11:1

The people were looking to complain, and it was evil in the ears of the Lord. The Lord heard and His anger flared, and a fire from the Lord burned among them, consuming the extremes of the camp.

11:33-34

The meat was still between their teeth; it was not yet finished, and the anger of the Lord flared against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very mighty blow. He named that place Kivroth Hata'avah [Graves of Craving], for there they buried the people who craved.

12:8-10

… So why were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses ?  The wrath of the Lord flared against them and He left… behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow;

What is the message here?  Is it a lesson in anger management or something else?

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Both the Parashah and the Haftarah discuss the seven branched Menorah. The Haftarah portion is from Zechariah: The lights of the Menorah symbolize God's eyes, keeping watch on the earth. At 4:10 –

“These seven, are the eyes of the LORD, that roam throughout the entire earth.”

שִׁבְעָה-אֵלֶּה; עֵינֵי יְהוָה, הֵמָּה מְשׁוֹטְטִים בְּכָל-הָאָרֶ

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In this week's Parshat we have the mystery of the inverted letter nun, ׆.

This phenomenon appears as brackets at 10:35, before and after the familiar verse that is read on Shabbat when the Ark is opened and the Torah is taken out:

 וַיְהִי בִּנְסֹעַ הָאָרֹן, וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה:  קוּמָה יְהוָה, וְיָפֻצוּ אֹיְבֶיךָ, וְיָנֻסוּ מְשַׂנְאֶי מִפָּנֶיךָ

"It was when the Ark traveled, Moses said, Rise up Hashem, Your enemies they be scattered and they who hated You, flee from You".

In the Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 115b-116a there is a discussion on the implication of the inverted nun brackets.  There are two opposing views: Rabbi Judah the Prince says that the brackets show the passage to be a separate book of the Torah.  Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel says that the brackets are there to show that the passage has been dislocated and belongs in another place.

Go figure.

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Reflections on the Land of Milk and Honey, Israel:

This Shabbos I was thinking about my family and the negative impact of assimilation on our numbers. I became kind of glum, but it being Shabbos I had to work my way out of the doldrums.

I came across a passage from the Book of Numbers, chapter 23, verse 9. It is a response from the gentile prophet Bilam to the king of Moab in which Bilaam visualizes a future Jewish Nation. Bilam says that the Jewish Nation will be a nation alone, and that it will not consider itself to be like the nations of the world.

Literally [my translation] -

“…they are a people who will live alone and it will not consider itself within the nations.”

הֶן-עָם לְבָדָד יִשְׁכֹּן, וּבַגּוֹיִם לֹא יִתְחַשָּׁב.

Despite President Biden's wishes, Israel will not be a vassal state of the USA.

And it is true: Israel is a place for Jews to be Jewish

In many ways, Israel is unique. We are one of a kind.

We do not belong to any bloc of nations.

Israel is the only country in which Hebrew is the spoken language.

Israel is the world’s only Jewish State.

Israel is unique in that it is partly religious and partly secular, yet it is a liberal democracy with an ideological mission called Zionism.

In the Book of Leviticus, 19:2, HaShem says: “You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.” The Hebrew word for “holy” is Kodesh which has as its root kdsh. Implied in this root is something that has been separated. So old Bilam got it right.

It was a good Shabbos.

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Reflections on the influence of journalist Caroline Glick: 

In June, 2017 when President Trump signed a waiver whose effect was not to move the USA Embassy to Jerusalem Caroline wrote:

“I am appalled by President Trump's decision to sign the waiver and not move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

What I find particularly disgusting is this sentence in the White House announcement: “[N]o one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the President’s strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance."

Why should no one consider it to be a retreat from the President's strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance?

I mean it is a retreat -- a major retreat. It is also a betrayal of Trump's promise to his voters.

Talk is cheap”.

However, on May 14, 2018 the Embassy opened in Jerusalem.  Some of us think that in making the historic move to Jerusalem, President Trump must have heeded Caroline’s words.

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Reflections of a Muslim journalist’s musings on the “Palestinian situation” from 2015:

As excerpt from an Opinion Piece published by Aljazeera, analyst Sharif Nashashibi sums up where the Israeli government stood in 2015:

“Arguably the most right-wing, extremist government in Israel's history - and that is saying something - consists of five parties: Likud, Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism, Shas and Kulanu.

Between them, they either explicitly rule out a Palestinian state, or accept one with conditions that make the likelihood of its establishment, let alone its viability, impossible.

These conditions include:

Israel keeping East Jerusalem,

Israel being recognized as a Jewish state,

Israel keeping the largest settlement blocs,

which are built on the West Bank's water aquifers and most fertile land, and hinder the territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state.

That [Palestinian] state, meanwhile, would have to be demilitarized and renounce the rights of Palestinian refugees.”

I THINK SHARIF HAS NAILED IT: ALL THIS SOUNDED PRETTY GOOD TO ME THEN AND NOW!