Shalom Friends;
Our vort for Parshat HaShavua Beha’alotcha is being sponsored by Simon and Aliza Baum and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh who dedicate this vort Lilui Nishmas in honor of Simon’s Parents: Chaya Miriam Bas Boruch and Simcha ben Yehuda Leib and for the safety of the Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To the Baum family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
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We begin this vort for Parshat Beha’aloscha with excerpts from Rabbi Shmuel Goldin’s Parsha Summary in his sefer, “Unlocking the Torah Text” (page 69) :
The final instructions prior to B’nei Yisraels’ departure from Sinai are delivered as Hashem commands Moshe concerning the kindling of the Menorah, the consecration of the Levi’im, the laws of Pesach Sheini, the miraculous role of the Clouds of Glory [Ananei HaKavod] in guiding the nation’s wilderness travels and the construction of the silver trumpets.
Finally, the moment of the nation’s departure from Sinai arrives, as the Cloud of Glory rises from the Mishkan, signaling the movement of the camp.
Moshe attempts to convince his father-in-law, Yithro, to join the nation on its journey. Although Yithro demurs [verb – used without an object: to make objection, especially on the grounds of scruples; take exception; object], the final conversation remains unclear.
The Torah interrupts the flow of the narrative with a two-sentence interjection, set off from the rest of the text by two inverted Hebrew letter “Nuns.”
This interruption of Torah’s narrative is rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash (Perek 11, posukim 35 – 36) :
“When the Ark [Aron] 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 Yisrael.'”
Questions arise as to why the interruption and what brought it about? The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash notes (page 787) :
Rashi indicates that the passage was placed here so that Torah would not record three Jewish sins in succession.
Three of anything in succession is known in Hebrew as a Chazakah. It would seem to this author that word “chazakah” would denote, as Chabad.org indicates:
(a) An act of property acquisition. (b) The halachic status of permanence that is established when an event repeats itself three times. (c) An entity’s assumptive state based on its nature or personal track record.
Based on the Chabad definition of Chazakah, in the context of three consecutive sins, would seem to indicate a status of ongoing sin or wrong-doing based on track record.
What was the first sin which necessitated its separation by these posukim from the subsequent sins? And what were the subsequent two sins? The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash notes regarding the first of the sins (ibid, page 787):
Ramban cites a Midrash that the Jews “fled from the Mountain of Hashem like a child running away from school,” happy to leave that Holy place because they were afraid that Hashem might give them more and more commandments. Thus, although they traveled in compliance with Hashem’s will, their attitude made a sin of a journey that should have been the fulfillment of Hashem’s oath to the Patriarchs.
Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag, in a Young Israel Devar Torah written in 5755 expands on the first sin and provides his explanations for the second and third sins:
The Ramban states that this sin was soo severe that had they not ‘sinned’ in this manner, Hashem would have immediately brought them into Eretz Yisrael without having to travel through the wilderness.
The following explanation was offered in a Mussar discourse delivered in the Chevron Yeshiva in Jerusalem by the Rosh Yeshiva [Mentor and Teacher of Rabbi Ralbag], Rabbi Simcha Zissel Broide, Sh’lita (Founder of the Yeshiva in Hevron in 1924).
The analogy to a child fleeing does not refer specifically to studies. Rather, it refers to the school itself. The child feels constricted by the school, therefore, he can not sympathize with this school that confines him. Running away from school means that no importance is attached to the school.
…It was expected that B’nei Yisrael would feel deeply pained by Hashem’s ordered departure from Har Sinai. Though Har Sinai no longer retained its sanctity, and though they continued to develop in Torah for forty years longer, the Jews should have been profoundly saddened that they were leaving the Mountain where they received and then learned Torah. “Hakarat HaTov” required a deep sense of gratitude to Har Sinai. For this lapse they were severely punished. For it really meant that they attached little importance to the Mountain and all that occurred there.
The second and third sins of the B’nei Yisrael are those of complainers and rabble-rousers.
The complainers despair of the desert and bemoan their terrible fate. They succeed in their intention to anger Hashem, and a fire burns them at the camp’s edge. The rabble-rousers incite B’nei Yisrael to complain about their diet of manna. They not only crave meat, but even have the audacity to declare “Why did we leave Egypt?” Again, the instigators die while eating the meat.
To this author’s understanding, it seems that the nature of the sin, or sins of the complainers and/or the rabble-rousers is not clear. Might it be that the complainers’ despair of the desert, angering Hashem, and the clamor of the rabble-rousers for meat together constitute the second sin, with the sin of the miraglim, which Torah relates in our Pashat Shelach being the third sin?
Given what occurred as the B’nei Yisrael left Har Sinai for the wilderness, and their subsequent sins, there are lessons to be learned as to how our contemporary Israeli government deals with segments of the people whose ideology and political agendization, as well as main-stream media spins on news, run contrary to national security and Torah law, as well as reforming the Judicial branch of government to bring it to become representative of the governed, rather than of a closed group of lawyers. Similarly, there are lessons to be learned by the military command echelons regarding such areas as digesting and reacting to intelligence provided by border guards and observers whose jobs are to provide intelligence as to enemy training, maneuvers, weapons and weapon shipments, war preparations and more, as well as creating a command structure based on merit rather than politics.
In the weeks, days and hours before the War of Simchat Torah, it appears that while commanders were threatening and intimidating the female border guards over their warnings of Hamas preparations for invading Israel’s southern border towns, it has now been reported that a Gazan “Shin Bet Agent” who was furnishing information to Israel’s defense establishment has allegedly admitted to being a double agent. The report states:
The agent revealed that his role was to lull Israel’s defense establishment into a false sense of security on the eve of Hamas’s deadly terrorist attack on October 7, 2023.
According to a report published on Channel 12 News on Tuesday evening [13 May, 2025], the agent lied to Shin Bet officials in a conversation held just hours before the attack.
In that conversation, he stated, “There is no preparation for an offense by Hamas,” despite accumulating warnings and suspicious signs in the preceding hours.
The conversation with the agent, who was considered reliable, created the impression within the defense establishment that there was no real threat. His statements, described as a “weakening signal,” led to a reduced state of preparedness for Hamas’s attack, and no significant additional conversations with other agents took place throughout the night.
In retrospect, the defense establishment assesses that this conversation had significant weight in the partial understanding of the scale of the impending threat, just hours before Hamas’s deadly attack.
We hope for positive changes with appointments of a new defense minister, foreign minister and military chief of staff who seem to be signaling a more zealous, diligent command structure and strategy based on valid understandings of their adversary’s intentions and concern for Israel’s sovereignty and security. May we see our government and military become Totally self-sufficient as to manufacture of military equipment and aircraft, weaponry, munitions, as well as showing independence of actions responding to any threat, regardless of so-called “super powers.” And may see, from here on, that border guard personnel at all points of possible danger are listened to and treated with respect and dignity. May these words come to fruition B’Esrat Hashem.
Not withstanding the previous horrendous “ceasefires” and drips and drabs of hostages in exchange for thousands of bloody-handed terrorists, may it be that our Chayalim, regardless of the machinations of malfeasance and nonfeasance by their previous high command to date, but now under command of both a new defense minister and chief of staff, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, Islamic Jihad, their other terrorist buddies, UNWRA and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds. May our Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. May we see a Final and Decisive victory by our Chayalim, mandated by a government secure in it’s foremost service of and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fifth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, and the recent recovery of the remains of Tzvi Feldman, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we see, in 5785, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
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