The Portion of Beha'alotcha The Source of Parenhthesis and their Significance Our portion begins with G-d's commandment to Aaron the High Priest concerning the lighting of the menorah in the Tabernacle. This is followed by the description of the work of the Levites and their preparations for transporting the Tabernacle from place to place in the desert. The portion also describes the erection of the Tabernacle, the divine cloud which covers it when it is ready for use, the means of transporting it and one other matter not directly connected to all of the above- the people's complaint to G-d concerning their desire to eat meat. Between these two sections we find two verses consisting of 85 letters: "So it was, whenever the ark set out, Moses would say : Arise, O Lord, may Your enemies be scattered and may those who hate You flee from You. And when it came to rest he would say, Repose O Lord, among the myriads of thousands of Israel. " (Numbers 10;35-36) These verses are not in any way connected to the section which precedes it nor to the section which follows it and therefore they require an explanation as to their seemingly strange placement. The Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 115b) presents two opinions. Rabbo Yehudah Hanasi's opinion is based on a verse in Proverbs (9;1) "Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven pillars". This refers to the seven books of the Torah. In other words even though we are used to referring to the Torah as a compilation of five books, Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi divides the Torah into seven books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers until these two verses, the two verses themselves, Numbers following these two verses and Deuteronomy. In his opinion, these two verses by themselves constitute a complete book of the Torah! Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel offers a different explanation. He says that these two verses come to separate two calamities- the first being the hasty departure fro Mt. Sinai and the second being the complaints concerning the lack of meat. All this is alluded to by the fact that these two verses are set apart from the rest of the text by "signs"- one before and one following. Says the Talmud "G-d made signs before and after". What are the signs? We find an inverted letter "nun" before the first verse and a similar inverted "nun" following the second verse, as if they were parenthesis. This is the only place in the Torah where G-d placed "signs" such as these. There are some who say that since there cannot be extra letters in the Torah one is to invert the letter "nun" in the word "nasa" and the letter "nun" in the word "mitonenim", thereby creating the first set of parenthesis in the history of the world! (For an explanation of the 12 different methods of writing the two "nuns", see the Torah Shleimah of Rav Kasher, chapter 11, page 124.) |
