Questions & Commentary on Parashat Beha‘alotekha
1. Why does the lighting of the Menora and its service occur again here in Parashat Beha‘alotekha (Numbers 8:1-4) after the dedication of the
altar by the heads of each tribe?
Rabbi Jason Sobel
Midrash Rabba answers this question as
follows:
"WHEN YOU LIGHT THE LAMPS" (Numbers 8:2). You find that
twelve tribes presented offerings at the dedication of the altar, while the
tribe of Levi did not offer anything. They were very grieved and said: ‘Why
were we prevented from bringing an offering for the dedication of the altar?'
This may be compared to the case of a king who made a feast and invited the
various craftsmen. There was a certain friend whom he loved exceedingly, yet he
did not invite him with the others. The man was distressed, thinking, ‘Perhaps
the king harbors some grievance in his heart against me, seeing that he has not
invited me to any of these feasts.' When the days of feasting were over the
king called that friend and spoke to him as follows, ‘I made a feast for all
the citizens of the province. For you, however, I shall make a feast just for
you. The reason is that you are my friend.'
So it was with the Supreme King of kings, the blessed Holy
One. You find that twelve tribes brought offerings for the dedication of the
altar and that the blessed Holy One,
accepted them; for it says, "Take it of them" (Numbers 7:5).
The tribe of Levi, however, did not bring any offering. When the dedication
ceremony of the altar was over, the blessed Holy One said to Aaron and his
sons: ‘All the tribes have celebrated the dedication and your tribe has not.
Accordingly, ‘SPEAK UNTO AARON, AND SAY UNTO HIM: WHEN YOU LIGHT' (Numbers
8:1-2), and after that, ‘Take the Levites' (Numbers 8:6).
Numbers Rabba 25:3
Based on this midrash, the reason for recounting the
lighting the Menora at this point was to comfort and honor Aaron and the
tribe of Levy.
There however is also a deeper spiritual answer to
this question according to Jewish mysticism and Chassidic thought. In the Zohar,
Rabbi Eleazer also asks why the details of the Menora and its lighting
are mentioned here after it was already mentioned in greater detail in Exodus.
He goes on to explain that it is mentioned here in order to underscore the
point that it was Aaron who helped bring forth the spiritual light of God to Israel.
But how did Aaron go about doing this? Pirke Avot
sheds light on this question:
Hillel used to say: Be disciples of Aaron loving peace,
pursuing peace, loving all people (literally all creatures) and bringing them
close to the Torah.
Pirke
Avot 1:12
Based on this mishna, the primary means
through which Aaron brought the light of God to Israel
was through facilitating reconciliation between individuals and between God and
Israel and by
drawing them near to Torah which is the foundation of shalom. Thus Aaron is
portrayed as a qiruv-expert (outreach/inreach) who performs these duties
out of deep love for God and every Jew.
Commenting on Hillel's statement above, Rabbi
Schneur Zalman makes the following application:
Those who are far from God's Torah and service . . . one must
draw close with strong cords of love-perhaps one might succeed in bringing them
to the Torah and the service of God. And even if one fails, one has still
fulfilled the precept "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Tanya, chapter
32
Thus according to Chabad Chassidut, the lighting of
the Menora refers to outreach.
Proverbs teaches us that "The soul of a person is
the lamp of the LORD" (Proverbs 20:27).
But in order for the light to shine it must be kindled. Thus Aaron's lighting
of the Menora, at the beginning of this parasha, is meant to
teach that we are meant to help ignite the spiritual spark within every
soul. Like Aaron our job is to kindle
the lamp of people's souls through the light of Torah and Messiah. Both of
which are referred to as lights:
For the commandment is a lamp, and the Torah is a light.
Proverbs 6:23
When Yeshua spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the
light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life."
John 8:12 (cf.
Revelation 21:23)
Like Aaron and Messiah Yeshua, we must become
masters of outreach motivated by a genuine love for the physical, emotional,
and spiritual well-being of all people, who can only be made whole and find
lasting shalom through faith in Messiah and faithfulness to his teaching which
includes fidelity to Torah for Jews.
2. This week's parasha,
begins with the complaint brought before Moses: "Who is going to give us some
meat to eat?" (11:4). We find two similar accounts in Exodus 16:2-35 and
Deuteronomy 12:13-25 which seem to
parallel our parasha. Why do both God
and Moses respond angrily (v. 10) to the "complainers" in our parasha? How do we make sense of God's
seeming contradictory responses in the other passages?
Nick Amic
Let's begin with a quick review to better understand
our question. In Exodus Israel
complains about the lack of meat and God responds by gladly supplying them with
meat (Exodus 16:11-13). Later, in
Deuteronomy, God even volunteers to let Israel
eat meat "to [their] heart's desire" (Deuteronomy 12:20). This last passage is in stark contrast with our parasha
when we examine a pivotal word: ta‘aveh, translated "craving" or "lust."
Both accounts center on the people's ta‘aveh to eat meat; yet in Numbers
it angers God.
Each of these accounts takes place at a different
stage of Israel's
spiritual development as a nation. In Exodus we find the nation as spiritual
infants. Here God provides for the spiritually immature nation so they would
"know that I am LORD your God" (v. 12), giving them the security they need to
know that God will now sustain them. In Deuteronomy we find a people settled in
the land living a life centered on God's Torah. We easily infer this from the
fact that the allowance to eat meat is based on the factor that the people live
too far to come to the Temple and
provide an offering.
So what of our passage? Why is God so incensed in
Numbers? Rashi informs us that "there was [actually] no shortage of meat; the
tribes of Reuben and Gad had enormous flocks (see Numbers 32:1). The talk of
meat was only a pretext for them to complain about the manna." So why the
complaint? The Talmud (b. Yoma 75a) describes manna as spiritual food
that "pulls one toward an interest in spirituality," and informs that the manna
was delivered to three different places and ways. A tzaddiq (righteous
person) would open his door and find it at the entrance to this tent. A benoni
(intermediate person) would have to leave the camp to find his share. A rasha
(wicked person) would have to travel a great distance. Israel was tired of the
high level of spiritual intensity and scrutiny that the manna brought, which
left no room for neither spiritual mediocrity nor hypocrisy, wishing instead to
return to the spiritual enslavement and infant state of Egypt.
The desert
builds a perfect picture of our spiritual infancy, adolescence and adulthood.
In the Exodus account our base desires for physical security (like the rasha,
one who is a spiritual infant) are met with God's providence of meat, and only
after does God introduce the spiritual experience of manna. The Deuteronomy
account paints a picture of the tzaddiq (the spiritual adult) who takes
all of his base desires and transforms them into righteousness (symbolized by
the ritual of separating the blood which contains the nefesh, or "animal
soul" Deuteronomy 12:23-25). The Numbers account gives us a picture of one who
is tired of the fight, and drawn back to the "childish ease" of following our
baser desires. We too have a choice to cling to the spiritual intensity of
manna, or be left to be buried by our base desires as Israel
was (11:35). May we all draw closer
to the everlasting manna-Yeshua who declared "I am the bread of life. He who
comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst"
(John 6:35).
Benjamin Ehrenfeld
Mark 14:1-11 - The Anointing of Yeshua
A title that is often given for this particular
excerpt of the Besora of Mark is, Jesus Anointed at Bethany.
I am choosing to construct my comments about this section from the framework of
what that title means in regards to the content, and form, of the narrative. I
feel that this title presents not only a description of the text, but can serve
to open our minds and hearts to even deeper understandings of Yeshua as the
Anointed One of God.
The narrative begins with the plot to kill Yeshua,
by certain Jewish leaders of the time, and ends with Judah
going to these leaders to participate in the plot. Placed in between these
accounts, which cradle the center of the narrative, is the recounting of
Yeshua's anointing with oil by a woman in the home of Shimon the leper. The
account tells of Yeshua's talmidim being angry with this woman because they
felt that the oil could have been sold for better use, such as feeding the
poor. Yeshua tells them to stop harassing the woman, and reminds them that
there will always be poor to feed, but that he will not always be there in this
way. One aspect of this lesson is similar to a lesson that we can learn from
this week's parasha. While the emphasis on Israel's using its material
resources to serve one another is profound all throughout the Torah, there were
also times when our people were called to utilize our material means to honor
God, and just as this Torah portion focuses on the Israelites' need to use
their material means (in addition to their spiritual means) to prepare the
Tabernacle for its purpose, so too the woman who anointed Yeshua used her material
means to prepare him for realization of his purpose.
In a profound way, this event allowed Yeshua to
reflect to his talmidim the reality of what was about to occur, namely
that he would be crucified not too long from that time. The placement of the
incident with the woman between the accounts of the plot to kill Yeshua is a
literary tool to inform the reader of the dramatic backdrop of this event. I am
reminded of a particular verse from Psalm 92: "But, You have greatly exalted
me, I am anointed as with fragrant oil." This verse, in the literary structure
of the psalm is placed between two verses of the psalmist's acknowledgment of
attackers who seek his downfall. While in the context of the Besora
passage, Yeshua's being anointed is symbolic of preparation for burial, there
is another sense in which this "anointing" can be seen in the light of the
perspective of the psalmist, whose anointing is an ultimate declaration of his
knowledge of triumph over the impending doom.
The other significance is that of Yeshua being
the Anointed One of God. The theological "anointing" of Yeshua is intimately
connected with his vocation. The fulfillment of prophecy about the destiny of
Messiah is the implementation of that vocation. In this way, the reality of his
suffering by the hands of some of his own is also an expression of his being
"anointed"; in the sense that it is a preparation for his death, and his
ultimate triumph over that death in fulfillment of God's promise to Israel and all people.
Parashat Beha‘alotekha
1. Why
does the lighting of the Menora and its service occur again here in Parashat
Beha‘alotekha (Numbers 8:1-4) after the dedication of the altar by the
heads of each tribe?
2. This week's parasha, begins with the complaint
brought before Moses: "Who is going to give us some meat to eat?" (11:4). We
find two similar accounts in Exodus 16:2-35 and Deuteronomy 12:13-25 which seem to parallel our parasha. Why do both God and Moses respond angrily (v. 10) to the
"complainers" in our parasha? How do
we make sense of God's seeming contradictory responses in the other passages?
NEXT WEEK'S READINGS
- PARASHAT SHELACH LEKHA
Numbers 13:1-15:41
Judges 2:1-24
Matthew 26:17-30
UPCOMING YACHAD NETWORK EVENTS
3rd Annual Young Leaders Shabbaton
Beverly Hills, CA ● June 8-9, 2007
6th Annual Young Messianic Jewish Scholars Conference
Beverly Hills, CA ● June 10-11, 2007
Learning 
