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| Fri, 04 Jul 2025 09:23:37 -0500 — |
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D'var: Parashat Beha'alotkha 5785 Commentary by Michael Goldstein Friday, June 13, 2025 |
| Exodus 8:1 — 12:16 |
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This week’s Torah reading is Parshah Beha’alotcha. Beha’alotcha means when you raise and refers to lighting the menorah lamps.
Here’s a summary of the portion. God has Moses and Aaron prepare the Levites for their service in the Tabernacle. He orders the Israelites to make the Passover sacrifice. God allows some men who were forced to miss the sacrifice because they were ritually unclean to celebrate Passover one month later. (According to many commentators, they were not pure because they carried Joseph’s coffin during the Exodus from Egypt.) Beha’alotcha then describes the cloud and fire that accompanied the Israelites in the desert. God issues commands about how the trumpets should be blown. The structure of the Israelites’ camp is described. Moses invites his father-in-law to join them on their way. The Israelites complain about the lack of meat. God gets angry about that and sends an excessive amount of quail into the camp. Miriam disses Moses to Aaron and is punished by God with tzara'at, often mistranslated as leprosy. Almost all of what follows here is from the late Chassidic Rabbi, Joshua Gordon. Since, if you gave me a blue pencil I would edit The Lord’s Prayer, I have taken a blue pencil to this. The parshah begins with God’s instructions about kindling the menorah in the Tabernacle. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and say to him: "When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the menorah." (Numbers 8:1-2) The 11th Century French Rabbi, Rashi, explains that when Aaron saw that, although each tribe presented an offering, but his tribe did not, he was distressed, so God said to him, "Your part in the Tabernacle service is greater than theirs, for you will prepare and light the lamps of the menorah." Aaron was thus told that he would create the light of the Tabernacle. On a deeper level, Aaron brought light to the world by kindling the lamp that is the essence of each of us. Every Jewish soul is a lamp, and some of those lamps must be kindled — or rekindled. The Mishnah quotes one of Hillel’s most famous sayings: "Be among the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them close to Torah." Each of us is tasked with the mission to seek out and kindle the spark within the soul of everyone. And we must not simply kindle the lamp and walk away. We must kindle it with unconditional love, coaxing the flame until it burns by itself. Aaron did not change the Torah. He did not compromise. He did not offer people a watered-down version. He said, "I will bring you Torah. Undiluted. I will bring it one mitzvah at a time if need be, but we will not compromise." This, then, is perhaps the most important message in Beha’alotecha: Our mandate is to kindle the flame and ignite the soul of every person we encounter. In education, they talk about the "kids who fall through the cracks." There are cracks in the system of life, too, and there are Jews who fall through those cracks… who become lost to Judaism. Who is going to concern themselves with these people? Who will make it their job to look after them, to show them the way back? Our sages tell us we must all go the extra mile to help them find their way home. We must all be lamplighters, kindling every soul with Aaron’s fire and coaxing their flames until their souls burn brightly on their own and then they, too, become lamplighters. The menorah is a symbol of the mission statement of the Jewish people. Our task is to illuminate ourselves and the world around us with warmth, enlightenment, and inspiration. Each of us is heir to the legacy of Aaron, and we are to kindle the lamps of the menorah and inspire each and every soul. There is a double message here. We must inspire others until they shine on their own; and the surest way to grow is by inspiring others. I believe that double message is at the heart of Judaism. And kindling the lamps is our responsibility… it is what we as Jews are to do… Tikkun Olam, Repair the World! Michael Goldstein |
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