"Exile" Experience
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
There is an anomaly in the middle of Parshat Beha’alotcha that demands exploration and discussion. There are two verses bracketed between two inverted letter “nun”s that divide the parshah and, according to many commentators, should be considered an additional, separate book of Torah, making our count not five books, but seven books of Torah. (Dividing Sefer Bamidbar into two books, one book before this “addition,”, and a separate book after the division. Sefer Bamidbar then becomes three books instead of one.) These two verses record how Bnei Yisroel journeyed through the desert: “When the Ark would journey, Moshe said, ‘Arise, Hashem, and let Your foes be scattered, let those who hate You flee from before You.’ And when it rested, he would say, ‘Reside tranquilly, O, Hashem, among the myriad thousands of Israel..’ ”
The major question here is why is this considered a separate Book even though it seems not to have any mitzvoth? To this, the Kli Yakar counters that indeed, the mitzvah of Pru urvu/be fruitful and multiply is alluded to, for Hashem should rest on the myriad multitudes of Yisroel.
Rabbi Schlesinger, however, focuses on the use of the letters “nun” that appear as the brackets for this section. Rabbi Schlesinger explains that the numerical equivalent of “nun” is fifty, alluding to the fifty levels of understanding the Torah. It is a level of depth of Torah understanding we cannot fathom.
In an explanation that is even more esoteric, the Be’er Hatorah cites the Netziv as understanding that these two verses form the division of darkness and light within our nation, much as darkness and light were divided at creation. When Hashem led Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt, the generation witnessed Hashem’s visible Providence, with open miracles of redemption. The generation Hashem would lead into the Land would see His Providence only hidden within the natural world. This second generation would enter the Land in the relative darkness of the natural world. This short passage of two verses is the transition between the generations and the world views, and points to the goal of living in the natural world while still having Hashem reside within us and recognizing His presence.
According to Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, these two verses form not only a transition between the generation that left Egypt and those who entered the Land, but also the differing realities of the current world and the world as it will be in the end of days. Moshe is asking Hashem to arise and fight and disperse those that would vilify Him and cause others to turn against Him until the end of days. At that future time, all will recognize Hashem, and His presence will rest on the myriads who have come to recognize and accept Hashem, and bend their will to His will.
This is the secret of Jewish survival throughout our Diaspora, notes Rabbi Zaks. As we travel from one nation to another, we carry the Ark of Torah with us, and we ask Hashem to destroy those enemies who threaten us physically through pogroms as well as those enemies who would destroy us spiritually through assimilation. When we are at rest and comfortable, we worry about assimilation, and we ask shuvah Hashem/Hashem to return the dispersed and assimilated Jews to our people.
Moshe Rabbenu recognized the lure of other cultures and the danger they would present to Bnei Yisroel. According to Rabbi Schlesinger in Eleh Hadvorim, this is what Moshe was alluding to when he asked Yitro to stay with Bnei Yisroel and be “eyes” for them, for Yitro, having come from another culture, would recognize the slow but insidious encroachment of an alien culture and could warn Bnei Yisroel of these dangers.
When Torah rests and is found in only one place, warns us Rabbi Shimshon Pincus, we are in danger. However, when we carry the Torah with us from place to place, into each of our homes, we protect the Torah and it protects us.
If we then think of the Torah as the model and plan for the world, adds the Shvilei Pinchas, we can intuit that the world is divided into larger and smaller areas, just as the Torah has larger and smaller passages. We can further intuit that the world’s structure resembles the pattern of Kabbalah, the seven attributes of Hashem represented in Kabbalah corresponding to the seven millennia of the world’s existence. The fifth attribute is hod/splendor. When we realize that the Beit Hamikdosh was destroyed near the fifth millennium, lamenting the destruction of the Beit Hamikdosh as, “Hashem has made me desolate, davoh/wretched all day long,” davoh being an anagram of hod, we realize why these two verses under discussion form the fifth book of Torah in our count of seven books. We can also see how the first letters of the first four words in Parshat Masei, recording the stops in the travels of Bnei Yisroel through the desert, form an anagram for the initials of the four nations under whom we were subjugated in our exiles: “Eileh masei Bnei Yisroel/These are the travels of Bnei Yisroel.” The four nations are Edom/Rome (our current exile), Modai/Medea/Persia (the Purim history), Bavel/Babylonia, and Yavan/Greece (Chanukah). We are now left with only a remnant of the splendor that was in the days of the Beit Hamikdosh.
But every place in the world has a portion of Torah innately within it. We are meant to retrieve that Torah, just as we are meant to retrieve the sparks of Jewish souls lost in these scattered lands. We are meant to be Hashem’s treasure wherever we are, for the entire world belongs to Him. The Torah of Babylon (today’s Iraq) is captured in the Babylonian Talmud which illuminates our eyes with Torah to this day. France brought us our premier commentator on the Torah, Rashi, and Spain gave rise to Rambam and Ramban, and the list goes on. Each revealed the sparks of Torah hidden in that corner of the world, while Yerushalayim itself contains all of Torah.
It is not only being exiled to these varied places that reveals and redeems the sanctity of these places, but our personal travels are also meant to accomplish these results as well. We may think we are enjoying a well deserved vacation, but Hashem knows that we need to free the sparks of sanctity in a particular place by reciting some brachot there, or performing certain mitzvoth there, writes Rabbi Wolfson in Emunat Itecha. Even the different seasons are meant to highlight different aspects of our journey to elevate the world to Hashem’s purpose. The tribal flags that we followed in the desert had inscribed upon them verses to help us in our journey not only in the desert, but throughout our history, the two verses cited here, and the first verse of Shema. When we remove the Torah from the Ark to read it and we recite the first verse, we also recite the Shema. We then recite the next verse before we return the Torah to the Ark.
All of Torah was included in the first set of luchot/Tablets. When Bnei Yisroel sinned with the golden calf and Moshe then smashed the luchot, these interpretations and understandings of Torah scattered and were absorbed in different parts of the world, waiting to be retrieved. All these formerly unknown novel interpretations of Torah from our travels through the Diaspora will be gathered together at the end of time into these two verses, and these verses will then be expanded as the whole Torah. The 85 letters of these verses contain within them the entire Oral Torah. The broken luchot, the suppository of the entire Oral Torah, was kept in the Ark along with the complete, written Torah, and traveled with Bnei Yisroel on all their journeys.
From a simple reading of the text, it could seem that Moshe was causing Hashem to rise up even though the cloud was already signaling the move. Rabbi Eiseman uses this reading to teach us that when Bnei Yisroel is totally in sync with Hashem, we do in fact have the power to influence the world, as Moshe could influence the spirit of Hashem to rise. This is a vision of our potential. [This is why we go to great tzadikim who have the potential power to partner with Hashem and ask them to intercede with Hashem on our behalf. CKS]
We are the Aron/Ark. We travel through life and experience many challenges. When we travel through life, writes the Netivot Shalom, the Slonimer Rebbe, we need to ask Hashem to remove those obstacles that keep us from Him, and when we rest, to feel our connection to Him. We need the challenges in order to grow, but we need to use those challenges first to remove ourselves from evil and then to follow up by doing good/sur meira va’aseh tov. We accept these challenges and raise them as banners of victory and growth, adds Rebbetzin Felbrand. Our nesiyon/test becomes our neis/banner.
That does not mean that every challenge must be really difficult. Many challenges can manifest as minor inconveniences, such as taking the wrong coin out of our pocket. Pain is not our enemy, writes Rabbi Rosenblatt. Pain gives us the opportunity to get closer to Hashem..
When we take the Torah from the Ark, we have an auspicious moment to approach Hashem with our personal prayers, writes Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. We are asking Hashem to disperse the negative influences in our lives, We pray for this in Aramaic on Shabbat and especially on the yomim tovim when we invoke Hashem’s thirteen attributes of mercy at this time.
So we seem to have a complete Sefer Torah with special messages and power hidden within the larger text of Sefer Bamidbar. The Ba’al Haturim makes an interesting observation along these lines. The first of these two verses, referring to the Ark arising and traveling, contains twelve works, exactly equal to the twelve words in the concluding verse of the Torah. The second verse, recited when we return the Torah to the Ark, contains exactly seven words, equal to the seven words in the very first verse of the Torah. Thus, these two verses encapsulate the entire Torah within them. Further, the Sheveli Pinchas suggests that if we were to put the two inverted “nun”s together, they would form the circular letter “samech,” alluding to the verse, “Somech Hashem lechol hanoflim/Hashem supports all those who fall.” If we observe the Torah, all of which is alluded to as being contained between these two “nun”s, we can count on Hashem supporting us through our travels through life.