Preparation of the Mishkan for Worship Continues in This Week's Reading

Beha’alotcha Torah Reading Numbers 8:1-12:16 Preparation of the mishkan for worship continues in this week’s reading. The parasha begins with a description of the menorah or lampstand. It is to be fashioned from hammered gold, with seven branches. The menorah was a major symbol of the Israelite religion both in the mishkan and in the First and Second Temples. Prior to 2009, the oldest known rendering of the Temple Menorah was on the Arch of Titus, in Rome, which shows Roman soldiers taking the Menorah away after destroying the Temple. However, a synagogue dating from 50 BCE – 100 CE was excavated at Migdal in Israel in 2009. Its stone relief of the Temple Menorah may well have been fashioned by someone who saw the actual golden lampstand in the Second Temple. The parasha goes on to discuss the preparations the Levites must undergo to serve in the mishkan. This week’s text says that they serve from age 30 to age 50, at which point they retire from service. The reading then moves on to the establishment of Pesach Sheni (Second Passover). This alternate time to celebrate the Passover, one month after the main celebration, is established for those who were impure because of corpse contamination or who were on a long journey at the time of the main celebration. The narrative moves on to describe how the Israelites will move from one encampment to another. As they encamp a cloud covers the mishkan by day and mar’eh esh – the appearance of fire – stands over it by night. When the cloud rises up from the mishkan it is the signal to leave and when it settles again, that’s where they camp. The text tells us that they camp vimakom asher yishkan heanan – in the place that the cloud abided. The Hebrew word for “abided” is yishkan, which has the same root at mishkan. It’s also the root of Shekhinah – the indwelling aspect of G-d. The chapter ends with the well-known phrase al pi adoshem b’yad Moshe – from the mouth of G-d to the hand of Moses. We sing that verse fragment during hagbah - when the open Torah scroll is lifted for the congregation to see at the end of the Torah reading. Chapter 10 begins with G-d telling Moses to make for himself two silver trumpets to serve as a kind of public address system for the Israelites. If both are blown together, it is a signal for the whole congregation to assemble at the Tent of Meeting. If only one is blown, then the leaders only should assemble at the Tent of Meeting. Different kinds of blasts indicate time to travel and time to assemble. The trumpets are also to be blown during war and on festivals and Rosh Chodesh. The cohanim are given the task of blowing the trumpets. The narrative then moves to describe the first journey under the conditions that had been laid out. The Israelites travel from the Wilderness of Sinai towards the Wilderness of Paran. Moses seeks help from his father-in-law to guide them on the journey. Moses’ father-in-law is here identified as Hobab, son of Reuel the Midianite. Elsewhere Moses’ father-in-law is identified as Reuel himself, and still elsewhere as Jethro. Robert Alter says the name discrepancies are traditionally resolved by “rather contorted harmonizing explanations.” Rashi, for example, says that Jethro had many names and that the strangeness of sometimes seeming to be his own father is because people call their grandfather “father” as well. As the second triennial portion ends, we are told that the cloud rose and was above them as they traveled, just as the previous chapter had foretold. We then encounter another text familiar from our Torah service. “Vayehi binsoa haaron, vayomer Moshe: Kumah Adoshem, v'yafutzu oyvecha, v'yanusu m'sanecha, mipanecha” –“And it happened when the Ark was going forward, and Moses said, Arise, G-d and let your enemies scatter, and those who hate you flee before you.” These words are sung during the Torah service when the Ark in the synagogue is opened preparatory to taking out the Torah. The following line, relating what was said when the Ark was set down, is sung when the Torah is returned to its place in the Ark. In this way, our synagogue arks with Torah scrolls in them become reminiscent of the original Ark of the Covenant, as described in the Torah. The narrative then tells us that the people complained about manna, the food they were provided with in the wilderness. They reminisce about all the great things they got to eat in Egypt, conveniently forgetting that they were slaves. They particularly want meat. Moses can’t take the grumbling. Sounding like a parent at the end of his patience with misbehaving children, he asks G-d to kill him so he doesn’t have to deal with the people anymore. But G-d has another plan. They will have so much meat they can’t stand it. Huge amounts of quail appear and the people gather them, but are struck with a plague as they eat the quail. It is perhaps a good cautionary tale to relate to children who complain about recurrent menu items in family dinners. This week’s reading also has the famous statement that Moses was anav meod mikol ha-adam asher al pnei ha adamah- the most humble man on the face of the earth. Traditionally the whole Torah is said to have been handwritten by Moses at G-d’s direction. The mental picture of him writing this statement about himself is incongruous, and perhaps even amusing. Did he blush? Or perhaps pat himself on the back as he wrote it? The parasha ends with an episode often cited when cautioning against lashon harah – evil speech or gossip. Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses for marrying a Cushite woman and Miriam is punished with tzara’at, the biblical skin disease. Moses prays to G-d to cure her, in an elegantly simple plea: El nah refah nah lah – Please G-d please heal her. Why is only Miriam punished when the text says that both she and Aaron spoke against Moses? Rabbi Akiva insists that Aaron also was punished with the same disease. Other sages say that he was not, and that Miriam was the ringleader and got the punishment because of that. Haftarah Zechariah 2:14-4:7 This week’s haftarah describes a vision from the book of Zechariah, one of the Minor Prophets. Its connection to the Torah reading is obvious: he sees a menorah like the one described in the parashah. Prophesying after the destruction of the First Temple, he foresees the reestablishment of this golden lampstand in his vision, foreshadowing the building of the Second Temple. The seven branched menorah not only later becomes a major feature of the Second Temple but an enduring symbol of the Jewish people. Its image was included in the official emblem of the State of Israel, established close to 2000 years after the destruction of the Temple menorah. The menorah perhaps had origins in nature. The plant salvia palaestina bears a striking resemblance. What is the significance of the menorah? In an oft quoted passage from this week’s haftarah, Zechariah tells us that the meaning of the menorah is “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” .

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