Parashat Beha'alotcha — When you set up (the lamps)

בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ

Torah portion 36 of 54 · Book of Numbers · pronounced beh-hah-ah-loht-KHAH

Beha'alotcha (בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ) means "when you set up (the lamps)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.

Next read: June 26, 2027 · then June 10, 2028

The Readings

What Happens in Beha'alotcha

When you set up — behaalotcha — the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the menorah: Aharon's daily charge opens the portion, the hammered-gold lampstand tended so its light shines forward. The Levites are then cleansed — sprinkled, shaved, washed — and presented before YHVH as a wave offering from the children of Yisrael, given wholly to Aharon for the service of the tent, in place of the firstborn. In the first month of the second year, Israel keeps the Passover at Sinai — and a problem births a promise: men defiled by a dead body ask, why are we kept back from offering? YHVH's answer institutes Pesach Sheni, the second Passover, one month later, for anyone unclean or far away on a journey: in the Torah's calendar of grace, missing the appointed time is not the end of the story. Two silver trumpets are hammered out for summoning the assembly, breaking camp, sounding the alarm in war — that you may be remembered before YHVH your God — and rejoicing at the feasts.

Then, on the twentieth day of the second month, the cloud lifts, and the nation Sinai built marches for the first time in its threefold order, the ark of the covenant going before them to seek out a resting place. Whenever the ark set out, Moshe said: arise, YHVH, and let Your enemies be scattered — the war-cry framed in the scroll by the inverted nuns. Three days in, the complaining begins. Fire at Taverah; then the mixed multitude's craving spreads — we remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing — and the people weep at their tent doors over manna. Moshe breaks: I am not able to bear all this people alone. God's double answer: seventy elders receive of the Spirit that is on Moshe and prophesy — and when Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp and Yehoshua objects, Moshe's greatness flashes out: would that all YHVH's people were prophets! Then quail piled deep, and the plague at Kivrot-HaTaavah, the graves of craving.

The portion closes in Moshe's own family. Miryam and Aharon speak against Moshe because of the Cushite woman, and reach for more: has YHVH indeed spoken only through Moshe? Has He not spoken also through us? The Torah interjects its famous aside — now the man Moshe was very meek, above all the men on the face of the earth — and YHVH Himself descends to answer: with him I speak mouth to mouth, plainly, and not in riddles. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moshe? The cloud departs, and Miryam is leprous, white as snow. Moshe prays the shortest prayer in the Torah — El na refa na lah, God, please heal her, please — and she is shut outside the camp seven days. And the people did not journey until Miryam was brought in again: the whole nation waits for one restored sister.

Main Themes

Light tended so it shines forward Second chances — Pesach Sheni Craving that despises the daily bread The Spirit shared with the seventy Moshe's meekness and God's defense of him

Key Events

· The lighting of the menorah

· The cleansing of the Levites and the second Passover

· The silver trumpets; the departure from Sinai

· The craving for meat and the seventy elders

· The quail and the graves of craving

· Miryam and Aharon speak against Moshe; Miryam healed

Key People

Aharon Moshe Miryam The seventy elders Eldad and Medad Chovav (Hobab) The mixed multitude

Key Verses

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