Devrei Torah Presented Weekly in Loving Memory of Rabbi Leonard S
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BS”D June 12, 2020 Potomac Torah Study Center Vol. 7 #33, June 12, 2020; Behaalotecha 5780 NOTE: Devrei Torah presented weekly in Loving Memory of Rabbi Leonard S. Cahan z”l, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Har Shalom, who started me on my road to learning almost 50 years ago and was our family Rebbe and close friend until his recent untimely death. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Devrei Torah are now Available for Download (normally by noon on Fridays) from www.PotomacTorah.org. Thanks to Bill Landau for hosting the Devrei Torah. __________________________________________________________________________________ Behaalotecha would seem to me to be one of the most significant Torah portions, even if it were not my Bar Mitzvah parsha. Behaalotecha opens with tremendous hope. B’Nai Yisrael are in their second year at the foot of Har Sinai, where they accepted and heard God’s Ten Statements, where Moshe spent countless hours teaching them God’s mitzvot, and where they built and dedicated the Mishkan. Now the people prepare to travel the short journey to Eretz Yisrael, marching with the Mishkan in the center, with God’s presence reinforcing the Sinai experience at all times. Moshe is so excited that he tells his father-in-law all that God had done for B’Nai Yisrael and invites him to join them. (Yitro declines. Rashi states that Yitro returned to have his family convert to Judaism.) The sixth alleyah opens with two verses surrounded by inverted nuns. When the Ark would journey, Moshe would say, “Arise, Hashem, and scatter your foes. And when it rested, he would say, ‘Reside tranquilly among B’Nai Yisrael. .’” (10:35-36). Immediately, with no transition, the people look for reasons to complain. Rav Soloveitchik, in one of his most famous Devrei Torah (attached by E-mail), interprets verse 36 as indicating that the people desire a desire – that is, they want something but do not know what. This unspecified desire represents a want that could never be fulfilled. Moshe and God immediately recognize this desire for some unspecified thing to be evil. Moshe, who in the past had always defended B’Nai Yisrael to God no matter how they sinned, this time wants to resign. Moshe says that he never agreed to be a mother and wet nurse to babies. People who want something that they cannot specify, a desire that could not ever be satisfied, are babies who need wet nurses, not a leader. Although God is also furious with the people, He comes forward with a solution when Moshe states that he needs help. God says that Moshe should gather 70 elders and that He will give them some of Moshe’s ruach (spirit) so they can take some of Moshe’s burden. (If Moshe had felt unable by himself to cope with an earlier crisis, such as Egel Zahav, would God have come forward with a solution then to save the people?) Moshe and God had put up with previous sins. In each case, Moshe had found a way to convince God to forgive the people and keep on track with a plan to take them to Israel. This time, both Moshe and God lose patience with the generation of the Exodus and soon (after the Meraglim) focus on their children as the ones to carry forward the plan to enter the promised land. Indeed, by the end of this parsha, the Torah concludes the story of the generation of the Exodus after only one more week. A careful sorting of evidence in the Torah leads the Torah Anthology to conclude that Miriam’s punishment for speaking lashon horah against Moshe and his wife (chapter 12), the departure of the Meraglim, and the uprising of Korach and members of the tribe of Reuven all take place during the same week (between 22 and 29 Iyar) during the summer of the second year in the Midbar (13:33-34). After the stories of these three events, we have the law of the red heifer (chapter 19). The Torah then, with no transition, continues at 20:1 with the events of the 40th year, 38 years later! In his classic Devar, Rav Soloveitchik argues that Moshe has a crisis of leadership once the complaints start, immediately upon the departure for Israel. More traditional scholars dispute any thought that Moshe stops fighting for the people or that he is less effective as an advocate before Hashem. For example, Moshe saves the people from the fiery serpents (21:5-9) and leads them in various battles. However, the focus on leadership does seem to involve members of the younger generation and children of the leaders of the Exodus more and more after Behaalotecha. Moshe was 80 years old at the time of the Exodus, and both Aharon and Miriam were older. Increasingly after Behaalotecha, much younger Jews take increasingly significant leadership roles. For example, when ten of the twelve Meraglim argue that the Jews 1 could not conquer the land, Caleb and Yehoshua lead the arguments against their evil message (chapter 14). When many of the men start sinning with the daughters of Moab at Baal Peor, Pinchas takes the initiative to kill the leaders and stop the plague (chapter 25). In parshat Balak, God Himself saves the Jews, none of whom are aware of the plotting of Midian and Moab. In reading Bamidbar again, one message comes through clearly to me. In the first half of Bamidbar, the generation of the Exodus largely complains and leaves leadership roles to Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam. The next generation, in contrast, children of the adults from the time of the Exodus, produces a number of leaders – Yehoshua, Caleb, Pinchas, and the daughters of Zelophehad, to name the most obvious ones. These leaders aare all significantly younger than Moshe and his siblings. God’s decision to change His focus to the children of the generation of the Exodus is very sensible. That generation shows leadership qualities that B’Nai Yisrael will need once they enter the land and live under the laws of nature (with God operating hester panim, with His face hidden, operating behind the scenes rather than with obvious miracles). My beloved Rebbe, Rabbi Leonard Cahan, z”l, and I shared the same Bar Mitzvah Haftorah. Since his Bar Mitzvah was Shabbat Hanukkah, his Haftorah was the same as that for Behaalotecha. I’ll miss listening to someone with a nice voice (such as Jonny Charnoff, who also shares this Haftorah) chanting the Haftorah in shul. Hopefully by next June we can all be back at our shuls as often as we wish. Note: Rabbi Yehoshua Singer’s insightful comments helped me improve this message significantly, even though he does not agree with all my interpretations. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Please daven for a Refuah Shlemah for Hershel Tzvi ben Chana, Gedalya ben Sarah, Mordechai ben Chaya, Baruch Yitzhak ben Perl, David Leib HaKohen ben Sheina Reizel, Zev ben Sara Chaya, Uzi Yehuda ben Mirda Behla, HaRav Dovid Meir ben Chaya Tzippa; Eliav Yerachmiel ben Sara Dina, Amoz ben Tziviah, Reuven ben Masha, Moshe David ben Hannah, Meir ben Sara, Yitzhok Tzvi ben Yehudit Miriam, Yaakov Naphtali ben Michal Leah, Rivka Chaya bat Leah, Chaya Tova bat Narges, Zissel Bat Mazal, Chana Bracha bas Rochel Leah, Leah Fruma bat Musa Devorah, Hinda Behla bat Chaya Leah, Nechama bas Tikva Rachel, Miriam Chava bat Yachid, and Ruth bat Sarah, all of whom greatly need our prayers. Note: Beth Sholom has additional names, including coronavirus victims, on a Tehillim list. _____________________________________________________________________________ Hannah & Alan _____________________________________________________________________________ Drasha: Behaloscha: It’s the Real Thing by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky © 1999 [Please remember Mordechai ben Chaya for a Mishebarach!] In this week’s portion, there is a brief conversation that may get lost in the myriad activity of some of its more fascinating stories and commands. Moshe beseeches his father-in-law, Yisro, to continue travelling with the Jewish nation. “We are travelling to the place of which Hashem has said, ‘I shall give to you.’ Go with us, and we shall treat you well” (Numbers 10:29). Yisro replies by saying that he would like to return to his land and family. Moshe implores Yisro by telling him that he must accompany the Jews. After all, he knows the encampments and would be eyes for the Jewish people. Whether Yisro was influenced by his son-in-law’s arguments is debated by the commentaries. The Torah does not refer to the outcome. What interests me, however, is that Moshe never tells Yisro where the Jews are going. He just tells him that “we are travelling to the place of which Hashem has said, ‘I shall give to you.'” 2 It is reminiscent of Hashem commanding Avraham to travel to Canaan with the petition “go from your land and your birthplace to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). But Moshe is not the Almighty, and the entire nation knew of the land where they would be going. After all, the land of Canaan was the focal point of the Exodus. Why, then, does Moshe describe it to Yisro in a mysterious manner, not by defining its location, longitude or latitude, but rather identifying it as “the land that Hashem has promised to give us”? Would it not have been easier for Moshe to tell Yisro, “We are travelling to the Land of Canaan and we want you to accompany us”? New York Times columnist Ralph de Toledano had a different view of the world than that of his editors. Despite protestations of the editorial board of the Times would always capitalize the words Heaven and Hell in any context.