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Behalotcha 5767

B'ha'alotecha is one of the most jam-packed, event- filled parashiyot in the entire Torah. For weeks, now, we've been preparaing to set forth on our journey from Mt. Sinai through the desert to Eretz Yisrael, and now, we finally shove off! But, wait, there's so many last minute things to arrange. So the first few passages of the parasha deal with taking care of all the final details. Then comes the famous "reversed nuns", the words contained therein bracketing our reading of the Torah each week, a two-verse passage which, we are told, is a complete "book" on its own, breaking up the book of B'midbar into two very difference "halves", and....we're off!!

But one of the matters that must be tended to is the question of - - - where are we going, and how are we getting there? We know we're headed to Eretz Yisrael, but this was before Google Maps and third-generation GPS cellphones. We need to know which diirection, for how long, etc.

This was taken care of by Hashem. The pillar of cloud/fire (I'm drawn to the interpretation which says that there was one pillar which looked like fire by night, smoke/cloud by day) simple lifted itself off the Ohel Mo'ed and headed off in the direction in which we were to march. This might happen at a moments notice, after having set up the enormous encampment only the day before, or it might happen after a 19-year stay in the same place. You've just got to be ready (this is in line with the Ramban's interpretation of this passage, and the psychological/spiritual clarfication and test such an arrangement provided.

But, in addition to this visual indication, there was another, audible way of knowing when it was time to strike camp and get a move on. Hashem commands Moshe, Ashe lecha shtei chatzotzrot kesef - "Make for yourself two trumpets of silver", and these would be used by Moshe either to gather the leaders or the entire camp, or to announce the breaking of camp.

Why do we need both Hashem and Moshe to inform us that we're moving forward once again? Wouldn't one means, presumably the divine one, be sufficient?

The Maggid of Mezritch, in Maggid Devarav LeYa'akov, has an astonishing teaching on this verse:

"Make yourself two hatzotzrot kesef (literally, trumpets of silver) - Explain this as "two half-forms (reading the word hatzi-tzurot). In line with, "and on the throne ( kisei) the form in the image of a man upon it from above" (from the vision of Ezekiel in Chapter 1). For man is merely dalet mem (last two letter of A-D-M, meaning "blood"), but the capacity of speech is imbued in him, and when he clings to the Holy One, praised be He, who is the Champion/Companion/Teacher ( Aleph) of the World, he becomes/we shall make man. How many contractions/dilutions, through how many worlds, did the Holy One, praised be He, make (for Himself) in order that He should be able to become oneness with man, who could not otherwise bear His effulgence. So man needs to separate himself from corporeality, so much so, that he ascends through all those worlds become onceness with he Holy One, praised be He, so that he effectively nullifies his (individuated) existence and then he is called "man".


The Maggid goes on to elaborate the idea, drawing upon even more kabbalistic ideas and images, and concludes, restating his core point with greater clarity:

For man is a half-form. he is merely dam (blood), and he Holy One, praised be He is called the Aleph of the world, but when they cling together, a complet form is made. Kesef (silver), means also desire- always be one who passionately desires the Holy One, praised be He, and He will love you.


Our image on the Divine thrown, His image within us. Each of us, if it were possible to say, is only half a complete form (Hashem has chosen to enter this situation by choosing creation). Only through each other do we achieve completion, oneness. Hashem enters into the physical world, and we seal the complete form by reaching higher than we ever imagined possible into the beyond of our souls. Senses of seeing and hearing word in tandem, clouds and trumpets, each a partial expression, partial concealment, together make for movement toward the Land of Inheritance and Complete Rest. The Nuns now turn back to face one another, embracing like the keruvim on the Aron Habrit, and we understand in the most profound way how the the ultimate book, two verses, "When the Aron set forth....And when it came to rest".

Once upon a time...they lived happily ever after.

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