Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Beha'alotecha 1

good evening we're learning we are in the art school kumash page 775. first gives us um events that happened later in um time and then it goes back to the events that happened a little bit earlier so first we're speaking about as the Jewish people are leaving Mount Sinai which is in the second month over the second year and then in the middle of the Parsha we're going to go back to the first month of the second year now let's begin chapter eight Hashem spoke to Moshe saying speak to aharon and say to him when you Kindle the lamps toward the face of the menorah shall the seven lamps cast light here we are given the instruction how to light the menorah and the instruction is a little bit uh cryptic we're not really sure what it means it says toward the face of the menorah shall the seven lamps cast light what does it mean what is the face of the menorah the face of the menorah um we assume is the front of the menorah and the question is which way was the front of the menorah facing and there are two opinions one opinion states that the menorah was facing the kodashakodashim if you can imagine the betamic dash the mishkan as a rectangle with kodu shakodashim at the Eastern end of it the menorah was just outside of it facing it here is the kodashakodashim and here's the menorah facing it and then it means that the menorah is lighting toward kodashakodashim where you put all the wicks in every lamp and there were seven lamps facing the kodashakodashi the other opinion says no this was the kodasha kudashim and the menorah was not facing it but rather it was east to west so then if the menorah is uh east to west and the candles are towards the face of the menorah they are shining to toward the table the table is opposite of the menorah Menorah is on the southern side of the mishkan and the table the golden table with bread on it is on the Northern side of the menorah so then what does the it mean the the face of the menorah according to this opinion it it it means that all the candles all the wicks were facing the center you had three on the one side and three on the other side and the Wicks were placed not in the center but they were toward the middle candle the middle candle was the central one it's weak was in the center but the three branches on the right were facing left and the three branches on the left were facing right towards the face of the menorah he killed all the lamps as Hashem had commanded and briefly we review the workmanship of the menorah it was hammered out of gold from its base to its flower it is hammered out according to the vision that Hashem showed Moshe so did he make the menorah Menorah was not made piece by piece and then screwed together assembled rather it was made from one chunk of gold and with a hammer since gold is soft metal as you put pressure on it it will move and that's what made the construction of the menorah so difficult that Moshe had had a hard time uh figuring it out and and Hashem had to show him the menorah like it says according to the vision that Hashem showed Moshe and even then it was hard for Moshe to do it until miraculously the menorah came about from fire ready made then the next paragraph is speaking about the consecration of the Levites making the Levites holy and ready to do work in betamic dash Hashem spoke to Moshe saying take the Levites from the children of Israel and purify them sprinkle upon them water of purification that is first of all they have to sprinkle upon them ashes of the red cow mixed with spring water and then pass a razor over their entire flesh they have to shave their entire body with a razor which is forbidden for a regular man but uh one time in history this was done and let them immerse their garments they have to put their clothing in the Mikvah and they have to immerse themselves in the Mikvah and they shall become pure then they bring their offerings they shall take a young bull and it's meal offering and a second young bull for a sin offering the first bull was an Ola a burnt offering the second bowl was a hata sent offering then the Levites are brought to the tent of meaning that's the mishkan and the entire assembly of the children of Israel was gathered now on page 777. verse 11 shall wave the levy the Levites as a wave service before Hashem which means aharon has to physically pick up each Levy and wave him to all four directions and then in verse 13 we say you shall stand the Levites before around and his sons and wave them as a wave offering that's the second time um they waved and then in verse 15 it says thereafter the Levites shall come to serve the tent of meeting and you shall purify them and you shall wave them as a wave service third time they have to be weave so the the commentators say that this refers to the three families of levite the first time refers to Children of kehat second time to Gershon and then to mirari not every levite is waved three times but rather each levite is waved once in three groups then in verse 12 it describes how they bring their offerings the Levites shall lean their hands upon the head of the Bulls and make one as a sin offering and the other one as an elevation over him to provide atonement for the Levites verse 14 you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel and the Levites shall remain mine this is the completion of the process where the Levites replace the firstborn of the Jewish people thereafter the Levi shall come to serve the tent of meaning and verse 16 explains this Exchange for they are presented to me from among the children of Israel in place of the first issue of every womb the firstborn of every one of the children of Israel originally the firstborn of the Jewish people were supposed to serve Hashem in the mishkan as it says verse 17 for every firstborn of the children of Israel became mine on the day I struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt I Sanctified them for myself sent the angel of Destruction to kill all the firstborn in Egypt Hashem went and himself protected the firstborn of the Jewish people and thereby since he saved their life they became indebted to him and in addition to their debt they also became privileged to serve Hashem however because of their sin with a golden calf Hashem replaced them with the Levites Verse 18 says I took the Levites in place of every firstborn among the children of Israel then I signed the Levites to be presented to Aaron the the kohanim to help them in their service in the mishkan now verse 23 at the bottom of the page Hashem spoke to Moshe saying from 25 years of age and up the Levites shall join the Legion of the service of the tent of meaning and from 50 years of age he shall withdraw from the Legion of work and no longer work he shall minister with his brothers in attentive meeting to safeguard the charge but work shall he not perform so by work here it means carrying the mishkan when they travel and by service by by ministering it means guarding the mishkan and opening and closing the doors and some commentators also including this singing some commentators say that singing is considered part of the actual service and can only be done by the Levites between the age of 30 and 50. now we read in the previous Torah portion that the Levites only serve in the betamic dash from 30 till 50. why does it say here from 25 till 50. why extra five years and Rashid says that the first five years are for training purposes they come to bit amigdash when they're 25 they'll learn about everything they practice and then they actually start working when they are 30. now we will page 779 chapter 9. Hashem spoke to Moshi in the wilderness of Sinai in the second year from their Exodus from the land of Egypt in the first month saying now we go back to the first month of the second year the children of Israel shall make the pesach offering a disappointed time this is the second time the Jewish people are making the Passover offering first time was in Egypt itself this is a year later the doing it for the first time in the desert and Rashi tells us that this was also the last time that they did it in the desert the next time will be 39 years later when your sure will bring the Jewish people into the land of Israel for 39 years they did not make a passage offering because only those that have britmilla who are circumcised are allowed to make the Passover offering however the Jewish people when they started traveling as soon as they left Mount Sinai a month later after the after Passover in the second year they stopped performing Brit Miller because they were traveling it was dangerous risky for them to have little babies after the operation and then you travel in the desert heat and sandstorms even though they had clouds but they had to follow natural order of the world and since they were traveling they couldn't rely on on the cloud they didn't know how long the cloud is going to be even though the clouds stayed with them for 40 years but because they could not rely on America they were permitted not to do britmilla and because they didn't do Brit Mila they couldn't perform the Passover offering now verse 5 they made the pesach offering in the first month on the 14th day of the month in the afternoon in the in the wilderness of Sinai however in verse 6 there were men who had been contaminated by human corpse and could not make the pesach offering on that day these people were contaminated with human corpse because they were taking care of the bones of Joseph and the brothers and they came to Moshe and they said we missed our chance we were not allowed what should we do now and Moshe told them don't worry you are patur you don't have to bring the passive offering because the law states that anyone who is impure or was a way and could not make it in time to betamic Dash is okay doesn't have to worry he will not be punished however they approached motion Aaron and they said why should this is a second half of verse seven why should we be diminished by not offering hashem's offering in its appointed time among the children of Israel we understand that we don't have to but we want to why should we miss out on a chance to serve Hashem and Moshe said to them stand right now I will hear what Hashem will command you Moshe turn into Hashem with a question what should these people do they want to serve you will you allow them the time has passed page 781 Hashem spoke to Moshe saying speak to the children of Israel saying if any man will become contaminated through a human corpse or on a distant Road whether you or your Generations he shall make the pesach offering for Hashem he is still allowed how is it possible he missed the chance verse 11 explains in the second month on the 14th day in the afternoon shall they make it and bitter herbs shall they eat it I'm giving them a second chance in the second month exactly one month later after regular pesach comes an opportunity to do pesacheni the second PESA and they roasted just like the first pesach and they eat it with matzah and marour just like the first peso however you don't need to clean your house from hamets as long as you don't eat hamets with it at the center that's okay lettuce the bitter herbs and the next day you can have Hamas if you want and in our times we also celebrate pesacheni of course so we we don't bring the the peso offering but we in commemoration of that day we eat mats on that day you don't have to eat a lot just a piece of matzo to remind ourselves that our ancestors who have missed out on the first pesach was able to bring the second pesach a month later from here we see a very important lesson that if a person really wants to do something for God Hashem will help him Hashem will create a new opportunity a new reality that didn't exist until now until now there was no Mitzvah of second Passover and now Hashem said because you ask I'm gonna create it I'm gonna give you an opportunity to serve me that is why a person should never think that I lost my chance I will never be able to do it a person should have desire and he should be Brave to ask for it as it says everything is in God's hands to say no to a person if he asks him except for the or of God which means if a person asks Hashem I want to have more fear of you I want to have love of you I want to serve you I want to have a connection with you it's not in hashem's hands to say no Hashem must allow you to achieve your desire and therefore every person has to say I want to learn the entire Torah I want to fulfill the entire Torah and it's not asking for too much it is within every Jew to attain that to know the entitled Torah and to be able to fulfill the entire Torah I want to perfect my character and that's within our ability I want to have a close connection with God and that's within our ability I want to love God I want to fear God and that is again within our ability Hashem cannot say no foreign lesson we learned from pesacheni which was not supposed to exist and because Jewish people asked for it Hashem gave it to them now on pay on on page 781 verse 15. Divine signs of the Israelites travels when the Jewish people traveled they were pillars one pillar of cloud and one Pillar of Fire and this paragraph explains it on the day the Tabernacle was set up a cloud covered the Tabernacle that was a tent for the testimony and in the evening there would be upon the Tabernacle like a fiery appearance until morning so it would always be the cloud would cover it during the day and an appearance of fire at night so there were already two pillars even when they were stationary a pillar of cloud during the day above the Tabernacle and the pillar of Fire light on top of the mishkan every night however when the Jewish people traveled the pillars of cloud and fire would travel with them in front of them verse 17. and whenever the cloud was lifted from atop the tent afterwards the children of Israel would Journey the cloud would arise and move to the front and the Jewish people knew we have to gather our belongings fold our tent and start following the cloud and in the place where the cloud would rest there the children of Israel would encamp that's how they would travel the cloud Rises up moves to the front and leads them the Jewish people fold all their tents they they disassemble the mishkan they get into positions they travel and where the cloud stops they go around it and they set up the Tabernacle in the middle and the cloud goes on top of it verse 18. according to the word of Hashem with the children of Israel Journey and according to the word of Hashem would they encamp how was the word of Hashem expressed through the pillar of cloud and as long as the cloud was on top of the mishkan the Jewish people encamped and they did not move and sometimes it was there only for a day or two sometimes it was for months and sometimes for years the longest that the cloud stayed on top of the mishkanth was in Kadesh for 19 years almost half of their travels in the desert they stayed in one place now turn to page 783 another way to communicate with people is described in chapter 10. one way is through the clouds when the cloud is lifted Jewish people know they have to travel when the cloud rests they know that's the place to encamp the second one is the trumpets Hashem spoke to Marshall saying make for yourself two silver trumpets what do you do with them they should be for summoning of the assembly and to cause the camps to Journey and verse 3 explains when they sound a long blast with them the entire assembly shall assemble to you when the there is when two trumpets sound long sound to foreign people know that every Jew must gather around the mishkan to listen to what Moshe has to say verse 4 if they sound a long blast with one trumpet the leader shall assemble to you if only one trumpet makes the long sound too then only the leaders come to motion verse 5 when you sound short blasts with two trumpets the camps resting to the east shell Journey which means if people here Two Trumpets like we blow on Rosh Hashanah to to do to it's a sign that we have to get up prepare ourselves for traveling and start traveling this was like the first Morse code depending how many trumpets and what the sound the trumpet makes that was the the sign to the Jewish people verse 8. the sons of Aron the kohanim shall sound the trumpets so um when Moshe was around he was in charge of the trumpets and he would tell them two sons of Aron take the trumpets and blow them now since verse 2 says make for yourself two silver trumpets it tells us that they were only used when Moshe was alive after your show took over and they entered the land of Israel they no longer used these two trumpets now we um add another time when we blow these trumpets when you go to wage war this is verse 9 when you go to wage war in your land against an enemy who oppresses you you shall sound short blasts of the trumpets which means different trumpets were made for that when Jewish people go to war they sound trumpets however we know that when your show went to war they sounded not trumpets but shofars