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Contents : BS"D To: Parsha@YahooGroups.com From: crshulman@aol.com INTERNET PARSHA SHEET ON BEHALOSCHA - 5762 To receive this parsha sheet in Word and/or Text format send a blank e-mail to parsha-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/parsha/join Please also copy me at crshulman@aol.com For archives of old parsha sheets see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/parsha/messages For Torah links see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/parsha/ links http://www.yimidwood.org Parshas Bahaloscha 5761 By RABBI ELI B. SHULMAN 1. Parsha begins series of setbacks Vayisau Mehar Hashem they left Sinai Chazal say Kitinok Haboreach Mibeis Hasefer with a feeling of relief to be leaving those rarified spiritual heights. And then the bubbling discontent of the Misonenim and the explosion of carnivorous and carnal appetite at Kivros Hataava and the Chet of Aharon and Miriam. And finally in next week's parsha the crowning catastrophe of the Miraglim and the decree that they would have to spend forty long years in the dessert. 2. Between the first of these setbacks - Vayisu Mehar Hashem - and the second - the Misonenim - there appears a strange passage that seem to have nothing to do with what comes before and after: Vayehi Binisoa Haaron ... Uvenucha Yomar ... And Chazal say that it appears here Sheloh Lehachzik Bipuraniyus to break up the series of disasters. But what good is it to break up the first two if there follows an uninterrupted series of disasters afterward 3. The passage is set off by the strange device of two upside down Nuns one before and one after like parentheses. What is the meaning of these strange upside down letters 4. The Gemara says that these two verses constitute an entire sefer of the Torah. How can an entire sefer be made up of only two Psukim 5. We as Jews count time from Yitzias Mitzrayim from the month of Nisan which is Rosh Chadashim. And we count time forward towards Achris Hayamim the end of days. Because we experience time - not as an endless cycle of random events - but as a process a progress a journey which begins with Yetzias Mitzrayim and ends with Achris Hayamim. The physical representation of that journey in the Torah is the journey from Mitzrayim to Eretz Yisrael over 42 Masaos (encampments) over forty years. 6. Had the people left Sinai properly had they carried Har Sinai fully in their hearts that journey would have been far shorter and less difficult. But because they left precipitously they fell into the series of Chataim that begin with the Misonenim and culminate with the Miraglim. And reading of these disasters one might think that the journey has been derailed completely that the people are not moving forward at all but rather backward. The Torah therefore needs to teach us that even if on the surface this seems to be true yet on the deepest level the Divine plan is still unfolding and the Aron and the people are still moving ever forward inexorably forward their final destination where the Aron and the Shechinah will rest among the tranquil tents of Israel. 7. Therefore at the very beginning of this series of setbacks the Torah interupts and opens a window as it were to allow us to look beneath the setbacks of the naarative to the underlying process below: Vayehi Binsoa Haaron the Aron is still going forward until Uvenocha Yomar. 8. This window is framed by two upside down nuns. And that is significant. Because the letter nun represents 50 and that is a very symbolic number. Chazal always speak of fifty levels of Bina of wisdom the deepest of which is the fiftieth. So we should think of these two upside down nuns as two upside down periscopes allowing us to peer deep down below the surface of events. fifty levels below the events that take place in the Sefer that is on the surface to another Sefer a parallel Sefer far below. 9. If that Sefer seems very small to us we should remember that we are seeing it from a very great distance. Because we are up here on the surface of events we can't make out the details of that other Sefer we can't see how - despite all the setbacks through all the setbacks the Aron is making its way forward. All we are allowed to see from this distance is that the Aron is still moving. 10. It is very rarely that we are able to catch a glimpse of that Sefer to see the forward movement of the Aron. But even if all we see is chaos and confusion setbacks and disasters we need to remember that that Sefer is still there that the Aron is still moving ever forward until Uvenucha Yomar until it will come to a final rest among the tranquil tents of Israel. Delivered at the Young Israel of Midwood 5761 From: RABBI YISSOCHER FRAND ryfrand@torah.org Sent: Thursday May 30 2002 3:52 AM To: ravfrand@torah.org Subject: Rabbi Frand on Parshas Beha'aloscha "RavFrand" List - Rabbi Frand on Parshas

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