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Beha'alotcha: Time to Gather Together · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: The book Up a meet Bar opens on the first
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  Speaker 1: day of the second month, in the second year of
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people leaving Egypt, almost a year since they've
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  Speaker 1: left Egypt with the census of the people. Presumably the
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  Speaker 1: census took two to three weeks or a little under
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  Speaker 1: three weeks, because the Torah. In this week's Partian Balota
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  Speaker 1: tells us they departed Mount Sinai on the twentieth day
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  Speaker 1: of the second month, meaning they spent close to a
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  Speaker 1: year at Mount sina because they arrived at in the
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  Speaker 1: third month and they left the beginning of the third month.
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  Speaker 1: They left at the end of the second month, a
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  Speaker 1: year later. As they they had to learn a lot
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  Speaker 1: of Toraret, they got the tech commandments, they got parts
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  Speaker 1: of the Torah et cetera, and they, you know, they
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  Speaker 1: got ready, which was meant to be an eleven day
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  Speaker 1: journey to the land of Israel and the tour. And
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  Speaker 1: Baloch again describes the marching, how the tribes marched. Each
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  Speaker 1: tribe led White's leaders, and Toura describes how they marched
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  Speaker 1: in groups of three, kind of like a rectangle or
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  Speaker 1: a square, with the Mishigun in the middle. Leading. You
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  Speaker 1: had Yehudah, Ysaka and Vulun. Then you had Ruven, Simon
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  Speaker 1: and God. They had a prime in Nashan Byaman and
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  Speaker 1: then Usher and not Tully. So if you just hear
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  Speaker 1: those names, you know how it pretty much divides according
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  Speaker 1: to the mothers of the children. Reuven and Shimon will
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  Speaker 1: get back to God in a moment. Ruben and Shima
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  Speaker 1: go together, Yehuda, Ysascar and Zwulun. So those are five
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  Speaker 1: of the six kids of Lea. Layby isn't included because
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  Speaker 1: they're in the Mishkann, so they're in the middle. So
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  Speaker 1: we took the oldest of the the children of the concubines.
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  Speaker 1: God we put through veins. She went and got together.
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  Speaker 1: Done us share enough Talley the other three children of
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  Speaker 1: the concubines they also go together. And if Ryim Mnashan
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  Speaker 1: but ya mean Yosik gets divided into two when Layby
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  Speaker 1: is sort of separate, I mean yu mean those are
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  Speaker 1: obviously the children of Rachel. That makes a lot of
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  Speaker 1: sense on many levels. We know there is a lot
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  Speaker 1: of tension unfortunately among the brothers, between among the brothers,
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  Speaker 1: between the brothers of the wives and the maid servants,
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  Speaker 1: and obviously between the children of Rachael and the children
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  Speaker 1: of Lea. So there is a lot of logic where
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  Speaker 1: they would march on their own. It also makes sense
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  Speaker 1: that Yehuda was at the front because they had the
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  Speaker 1: largest of the groupings, and Don had the second largest,
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  Speaker 1: was at the back. Okay, but it's very important. Marching
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  Speaker 1: together is very nice, but it's kind of important that
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  Speaker 1: the tribes learn how to get along with one another.
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  Speaker 1: Without unity, without the Jewish people working together, we cannot
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  Speaker 1: create a successful state of Israel. They couldn't march into
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  Speaker 1: the land of Israel. And the Torah seems to hint
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  Speaker 1: that the brothers, the tribes, the descendants of the brothers,
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  Speaker 1: had learned something the Torus says have done. Who was
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  Speaker 1: the leader of the last group marching was the safe
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  Speaker 1: let the gatherer of all the camps. What does that mean?
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  Speaker 1: So many of the commentaries explain that people who couldn't
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  Speaker 1: keep up, the stragglers, people who was hard for them,
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  Speaker 1: and people who had no place to go in a sense,
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  Speaker 1: Done gathered them all. Done was the place where they
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  Speaker 1: welcomed everybody. So they had more than their tribe. They
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  Speaker 1: had people from all the other tribes. Now, at the
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  Speaker 1: end of Parsian m. Moore, we read a very cryptic story.
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  Speaker 1: The tour tells us voy yitse ben ish ysra Elite,
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  Speaker 1: a certain the son of a Israelite woman who is
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  Speaker 1: the son of an Egyptian man, went out and he
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  Speaker 1: had a fight with somebody, and then he cursed this
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  Speaker 1: child cursed God. And the tour then tells us the
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  Speaker 1: shame emos shlow me but div limitae Done. We don't
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  Speaker 1: know his father's name, but his mother was Shlowmi from
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  Speaker 1: TV from the tribe of Done. Russia explains this cryptic story,
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  Speaker 1: and he says, picking on word vay yet say he
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  Speaker 1: went out, So he said, where did he go? From? Me?
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  Speaker 1: Baked Dinosha Mosha? He went from the court of Mosha guilty.
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  Speaker 1: What happened is he wanted his He wanted to go
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  Speaker 1: with the tribe of Don, and they said, who are you,
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  Speaker 1: what are you doing? You said, I'm from Done. He
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  Speaker 1: said no, no, no, no, no. Your mother's from Done, but
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  Speaker 1: your father's not from then. Your father's an aug your
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  Speaker 1: father's an Egyptian, and we they know we can't they
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  Speaker 1: count even though you Jewishness is by your mother, but
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  Speaker 1: the tribe is by the father. So they threw him out.
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  Speaker 1: So he sued, so to speak, he went to complain
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  Speaker 1: to Mosha, and Mosha said, no, done is right, and
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  Speaker 1: he went out and he cursed the people. This is
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  Speaker 1: a terrible event, and probably Mosha wasn't one hundred percent
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  Speaker 1: right to tell him he couldn't go. But don apparently
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  Speaker 1: learned their lesson, and they became the tribe that gathered
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  Speaker 1: in all the people who had no place, those who
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  Speaker 1: do not keep up were more importantly, could not fit
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  Speaker 1: in with their tribe. There has to be a place
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  Speaker 1: for them. Now. It's interesting. We're going to read later
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  Speaker 1: on in Parsia Balokka that when the Jewish people complained
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  Speaker 1: by lack of meat, so God tells Mosha, es gather
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  Speaker 1: for me. Sheving me gathers seventy people the son Hendering.
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  Speaker 1: The son Hendering are the representatives of the nations. The
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  Speaker 1: seventy people in the soun Hendring, seventy people who went
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  Speaker 1: down to Egypt to found the Jewish nation, and Mosha
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  Speaker 1: does that bay yessof he gathers sign I'm from the
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  Speaker 1: elders of the people. Mosha himself was placed in yumsuf
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  Speaker 1: the soup and bassouf. That's where the army were connected
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  Speaker 1: to the word. Of course, last off. And had Paro's
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  Speaker 1: daughter not safed Mosha, had she not gathered it in,
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  Speaker 1: the world would be very I would not be here
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  Speaker 1: giving this podcast if the daughter of Miriam had not
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  Speaker 1: gathered in in Mosha. The end of this week's Barsha,
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  Speaker 1: when Miriam spoke Lussi and Hara against Mosha, it says
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  Speaker 1: they put her outside of the camp for seven days.
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  Speaker 1: She had to be the quote unpunished for what she did.
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  Speaker 1: But everybody waited for her, and they says, let's put
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  Speaker 1: her seven days vahart safe and then we will gather together.
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  Speaker 1: And he says, va, i'm loon nassu at he safe.
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  Speaker 1: Miriam and the nation did not added till they gathered
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  Speaker 1: in Miriam. This worthless. So to gather in the people,
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  Speaker 1: not only the tribe of Done, but here they we
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  Speaker 1: have the entire people. All the tribes became us being
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  Speaker 1: became people who gathered in the forsake, and so to speak,
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  Speaker 1: the camp of Israel must be large enough to gather
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  Speaker 1: in even perhaps you shay, especially those who do not
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  Speaker 1: fit elsewhere, whom others reject, done, done, the word done.
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  Speaker 1: Of course you don't Hebrew there, No, they're no vowels.
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  Speaker 1: So all we have is letter is Dala non, So
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  Speaker 1: Dala noon can be read a few different ways. He
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  Speaker 1: read is dean judgment, which has a very harsh connotation. Right, God,
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  Speaker 1: we have a god of Dean and a God of Rakimim,
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  Speaker 1: a god of judgment, harshness, justice, and a god of mercy.
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  Speaker 1: So God judges whether we are done or dean, whether
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  Speaker 1: we are gonna be like done and gather in the people,
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  Speaker 1: or the me that haden might be unfortunately unleashed. So
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  Speaker 1: we have to ensure that every Jew, no matter their
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  Speaker 1: physical or spiritual distance, religious secular, right, left, doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 1: Every Jew has to have a place in the camp.
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  Speaker 1: We must understand that we are not the only ones
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  Speaker 1: in the camp. There is a reason they're twelve tribes. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the twelve tribes have to get along, and they have
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  Speaker 1: to learn to mingle. But each tribe has its own customs,
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  Speaker 1: its own practices, no twelve of them. But there has
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  Speaker 1: to be a place in all the tribes for other
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  Speaker 1: people too, And if we can do that, then God
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  Speaker 1: will surely reward us. As we're going to read in
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  Speaker 1: a few weeks towards the end the Safer by Meat
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  Speaker 1: Bark when God tells Mosha to attack Metiam for what
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  Speaker 1: they had done to the Jewish people, to avenge what
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  Speaker 1: they had done with Billam and the bell like that
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  Speaker 1: old story, causing many Jews to die twenty four thousand Jews.
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  Speaker 1: And then it says, after you avenge what they did
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  Speaker 1: us safe al America, and then emotion will be gathered
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  Speaker 1: in to your people. May we earn the right to
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  Speaker 1: be gathered in by God? Arishaba shalo. We hope you
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed a thought for the week at Torah in Motion podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much looking forward to learning with you
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  Speaker 1: next week.