The gemarra (Shabbos 116a) cites an opinion that the 2-pasuk portion in our sedra (10:35-36) of vayehi binso’a ha’aron… is considered as a Chumash in its own right. According to this view, we have not five, but seven Chumashim (Bamidbar has three; one before 10:35, one after 10:36, and 10:35-36 itself). The Kli Yakar (10:35) asks the vital question here; why should this portion be a Chumash in its own right? After all, it has no mitzvos in it - it just tells of the journeying of Bnei Yisrael? The Kli Yakar answers that since pasuk 36 hints to us that the Shechinah will only reside amongst Klal Yisrael if we have 22,000 members, there is a reference to the first mitzvah in the Torah here; pru u’revu (having kids). This is one of the most important mitzvos, which is why these two psukim are dubbed a Chumash in their own right. The Nesivas Shalom offers a different approach. These two psukim tell of the closeness between us and HaShem; that He makes our enemies scatter and constantly protects us. Thus, since the end goal of the mitzvos is ‘to rejoice in HaShem and to enjoy His Shechinah’ (first line of Mesillas Yesharim), these two psukim remind us of the goal of the mitzvos - building a relationship with HaShem. This is why they are considered their own Chumash.
Being out of order has never been so peaceful...
The gemarra (Pesachim 6b) learns an important principle from the first pasuk of perek 9 of our sedra. Noting that this perek occurred in Nissan - a month before the opening of parshas Bamidbar - the gemarra essentially comments ‘this shows us that there is no chronological order in the Torah.’ In other words, the Torah does not always follow chronological order - sometimes events in later sedra actually occurred before events in earlier sedras. [Incidentally, there is an important machlokes between the Ramban (Vayikra 16:1, Bamidbar 16:1) and Rashi as to how freely we are allowed to use this rule to dub events ‘out of place;’ the Ramban is much more reluctant to use this dictum than Rashi seems to be.] Anyway, why is it like this; why did the Torah not present its events in chronological order? For the answer to this question, here’s an absolute peach of a Midrash, cited by the Rav Yosef Engel’s Gilyonei HaShas on Pesachim 6b. The Midrash writes that the Torah mixed up the order in order to prevent destructive arguments. How? For if one person gets called up to the Torah for shlishi, the next guy who gets called up might be annoyed that he was lower down the order than Mr shlishi. Thus, the Torah wrote its events out of order, so that Mr revii would have no claim on Mr shlishi - for perhaps the events which occurred in the revii guy’s aliyah was chronologically first. So the Torah presented events out of chronological order to preserve peace. Beautiful.
Parashas Behaaloscha – Liar Liar
This week's sedra is another busy one with no lack of activity to discuss... so lets get started. Parashas Behaaloscha (try pronouncing that after a few drinks) begins with Moshe being told to command Aaron to light the Menorah, a seemingly irrelevant piece of information which our mefarshim discuss as to why it is placed here... We left off in Parashas Nasso, last week, with the dedication offerings from the twelve tribal leaders which were brought from every tribe at the exclusion of Aaron's tribe, the Levim. In the first Rashi to this weeks sedra, he comments that Aaron was perturbed by this and craved to be involved in the dedication of the new Tabernacle. Citing the Midrash Tanchuma, Rashi goes on to explain that Hashem comforted Aaron from his qualms by reassuring him that his role in the preparation and kindling of the Menorah would be greater than that of the bringing of the dedication offerings. In fact the Or HaChaim holds that
After the Torah lists the tribal leaders and their roles in the dedication of the Mishkan, Aron is awarded the responsibility of lighting the menorah at the outset of this week's Parsha. The Midrash asks why does the section regarding the menorah immediately follow the dedication of the Mishkan? The same Midrash offers an answer that shows a remarkable sensitivity to Aron's feelings. At a momentous event in the history of the Jewish people as the dedication of our first organized site of public worship, Aron was distraught when he realized that neither he nor anyone in his tribe was selected to play a role in the inauguration. Therefore, Hashem consoled Aron, reaffirming that he and his tribe will always serve a significant function with importance beyond the initial dedication of the Mishkan. Aaron and his family will serve in the Mishkan, always being responsible to light the menorah.
While the Midrash's comments are interesting, we are left with an important question. Why does Hashem give Aron the duty to light the menorah specifically; in what way is the menorah so important that it should offer a consolation for his not being involved with the original dedication of the Mishkan? In short, what is so special about the menorah?
"On the day that the Mishkan was erected, the cloud covered the Mishkan, and then in the evening, there appeared something like a fire on the Mishkan and remained there until morning. This is the way it remained. . ."(Numbers 9:15-16).
The possuk evokes images of a pyrotechnic's delight, but what does it really mean? Taken literally, the Torah is informing us that during the day a cloud rested on top of the Mishkan. The possuk continues to describe a blaze, a fiery inferno, which settled upon the Mishkan at night. What is going on here? What do a cloud and a fire really represent?
Perek 9 of Chumash Bamidbar (in our sedra) opens with HaShem commanding the Bnei Yisrael to perform the korban pesach. As the pasuk says, this command occurred in Nissan of Bnei Yisrael’s second year in the desert. Interestingly enough, when one looks back to the opening of parshas Bamidbar, one notices that that command took place in the month of Iyar. This means that chronologically, part of Beha’aloscha occurred before parshas Bamidbar. This should not scare us too much, for we have a rule that ein mukdam ume’uchar baTorah; the Torah’s events are not necessarily in chronological order. But it does beg the question; why is it that this command to offer the korban pesach is left until parshas Beha’aloscha and does not open Chumash Bamidbar?
Our sedra is one of the turning points of the Torah. It is from the middle of our sedra onwards that sees a flurry of sins; from complaining about the journey and about the manna to that of Miriam and Aharon, and it continues into next week’s sedra with the sin of the spies and the ‘mechalel shabbos,’ only to be followed in the next two weeks by the Korach rebellion and the hitting of the rock which prevented Moshe from taking us into the Land of Israel. What we are going to examine is the episode at the end of the sedra which sees Miriam seem to speak ‘lashon hara’ against Moshe and be given tzara’as as a result. In fact, it from here that the midrash learns that tzara’as comes for lashon hara (Sifri Devarim 24;9). One of the things Moshe warns Bnei Yisrael before his death is to ‘remember what HaShem Your G-D did to Miriam on the way when we went out of Egypt’ (Devarim 24;9), and the Ramban puts this mitzvah to remember Miriam’s sin and its consequences as one of the Torah mitzvos which he felt the Rambam had left out of his list of the 613 Torah mitzvos (Ramban on sefer hamitzvos shichechas mitzvos asei 7). Moreover, the midrash says that the commandment is not to merely mentally remember, but to verbalise the relevant parts of this episode of Miriam, and many read the pasuk in Devarim as one of the ‘six remembrances’ printed in the siddurim after Shacharis. So it is a rather worthwhile topic to discuss!
There are two main issues here. Firstly, why exactly was Miriam’s speech a sin? Let’s elaborate…
