This Week’s Torah Portion: B’haalot’cha – בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ (Numbers 8:1−12:16)
“May all יהוה’s people were prophets, that יהוה put [the divine] spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29)
Moses is not afraid of competition, of others having a connection to God, and of being able to be prophets like him. In the country, he wants competition, he wants pluralism, and he strives for diversity.
This Week’s Torah Portion: B’haalot’cha – בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ (Numbers 8:1−12:16)
This week’s Torah Portion, B’haalot’cha, contains a description of the famous pillar of fire and pillar of cloud which led the people of Israel through the wilderness on their journey to the Promised Land.
“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.” (Numbers 9:15)
Wait a minute! Were there two pillars or just one? “A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night,” or just one pillar that encompassed them both? An earlier passage from the Torah may shed some light on this question. When the Children of Israel were fleeing from Egypt it says:
“The pillar of cloud shifted from in front of them and took up a place behind them, and it came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Israel. Thus there was the cloud with the darkness, and it illumined the night, so that the one could not come near the other all through the night.” (Exodus 14:19–20)
In this case, we seem to be faced with a pillar of cloud that operated like a pillar of fire, illuminating the night. Rashi, in his commentary, insists that the pillar of cloud remained during the night only this one time – at all other times each pillar had its distinct function.
However, if there was only one pillar – fire surrounded by cloud – then all this makes much better sense. During the day, we see the pillar of cloud, and during the night, the light of the fire shines through. And, there is a lesson on our relationship with God. The pillar is a symbol of God’s presence in our lives, in light and in darkness God is with us through it all.
This Week’s Torah Portion: B’haalot’cha – בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ (Numbers 8:1−12:16)
Ten times in this week’s Torah Portion B’haalot’cha we find different versions of the same Hebrew root א-ס-פ asaf, which means “to gather.” It is not that common a word. Having it appear so many times, so closely together, teaches us that the Torah is playing with the word, drawing our attention to its meaning, teaching us a lesson hidden between the lines. So what can we learn from the word asaf, how can we “gather” its wisdom?
Well, depending on the form of the word and how it is used in the text, asaf can have positive or negative meanings, from the self-absorbed concerns of complaining troublemakers to the embracing generosity of a concerned community. But the first and the last time which the word appears, we gather not in strife but for blessing.
The first time we meet asaf in the text it refers to the tribe of Dan who is the rear guard, following along behind the Children of Israel as they marched their way through the wilderness. It was their job to “gather up” any stragglers, returning them to their family, and to “gather up” any stray objects, lost along the way, returning them to their rightful owners.
The last time we meet asaf, we are gathering Miriam back into the community after she is punished for rebelling against Moses, after Moses prays to God on her behalf. There is a lot of complaining along this journey, but the first and the last time we meet the word asaf, it teaches us a lesson about caring for our family no matter what.
In The Book of Words, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner defines Yisrael as “Family.” He says:
“Home is where they have to let you in simply because you’re you. And family are the people who live there. The power of congregational life comes precisely from this involuntariness of association. These members of our community, just like the people in our family literally make us who we are. For this reason, the place where you grew up with your ‘family,’ where you became who you are, is called ‘home.’”
May our congregation always be a home for us all, and may we be the family who lives there.
This Week’s Torah Portion: B’haalot’cha (Numbers 8:1−12:16)
Hidden within this week’s Torah portion, B’haalot’cha, lies a tiny blessing set apart in a way found nowhere else in the Torah. Bracketed on either side by two upside down Hebrew-letter nuns we find a tiny, two verse prayer that asks God for help in overcoming the obstacles we face along our journey through the wilderness in search of our Promised Land. It reads:
As the Ark journeyed forth, Moses would say:
“Rise up Adonai, let Your enemies scatter, and Your foes flee before You!”
And when the Ark came to rest, he would say:
“Come back Adonai to Israel’s teeming myriads.” (Numbers 10:35-36)
We say just such a prayer in our prayerbook still today. It reads:
Standing on the parted shores of history
we still believe what we were taught
before ever we stood at Sinai’s foot;
that wherever we go, it is eternally Egypt
that there is a better place, a promised land;
that the winding way to that promise
passes through the wilderness.
That there is no way to get from here to there
except by joining hands and marching
together.
May we travel forth in safety on our journey to the promised land, May we settle their together in a world of justice and of peace.
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