Parashat B’haalot’cha: SEVEN Books of Moses?

Parashat B’haalot’cha: SEVEN Books of Moses?

Reminder – we will honor Jess Maghan this Saturday morning! We will study Torah from 9-9:45am, and then Lary Bloom will emcee a tribute to Jess until 10:30 (when Shabbat Services begin). We ask that you arrive by 8:45am so that we can begin promptly at 9am. Thank you!

 

Let’s start our study this week with the following assumptions (just for now, in case these aren’t your beliefs):

  1. The Torah was composed by God.
  2. Moses transcribed the text of the Torah atop Mt. Sinai.
  3. As such, the Torah is perfect. There are no errors, and there is nothing superfluous, redundant, accidental, or meaningless in it.

Ok, so if we build our study of Torah on these fundamental beliefs, we find a terrific puzzle in this week’s Torah portion, B’haalot’cha (Numbers 8:1-12:16). As you may or may not be aware, there are a number of special markings, notations, and other strange typographic details throughout the official Torah text. There are some words which contain letters written much larger than the others, and some with much smaller letters all of the sudden.

In this week’s parasha, we find two upside-down letter nuns. One immediately precedes Numbers 10:35, and one follows 10:36. In Hebrew, this is called Nun Hafucha

The two verses set apart by these inverted letters read:

When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Advance, O Eternal! May Your enemies be scattered, And may Your foes flee before You!

And when it halted, he would say: Return, O Eternal, You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!

The rabbis of the Talmud (BT Shabbat 16) disagreed on why these inverted letters appear:

The rabbis taught: Before the passage [Numb. 10:35]: “And it came to pass when the ark set forward, that Moses said,…,” and at the close of the next verse, the Holy One, blessed be God, made signs (the inverted letter Nun, which must be inserted in the Scroll) in order to signify that this is not the proper place for the two passages; but Rabbi says, that this is out of the question, and that the two verses form a valuable book in themselves. We have heard from R. Samuel ben Na’hmeni in the name of R. Jonathan, that we have not a Pentateuch but a Septateuch(i.e., we have not five books of Moses, but seven). Would this imply that R. Samuel holds with Rabbi and declares that there are seven (because the two verses, which form a book in themselves, divide Numbers into two books)? Who is the Tana, however, that differs with Rabbi? He is R. Simeon ben Gamaliel, for we have learned in a Baraita: R. Simeon ben Gamaliel says, that these two passages will in the future be removed and put in their proper place. Why were they put here, then? In order to make a separation between the two scourges that befell the Israelites. Which was the second scourge? The one that follows immediately afterwards [Numb. 11:1]: “And it came to pass, that, as the people complained in a manner displeasing to the Eternal…” And which was the first? The first was as it is written [Numb.10:33]: “And they set forward from the mount of the Eternal,” which, according to R. Hama b. Hanina, means “and they departed from the ways of the Eternal.” Which is the proper place for the two passages? Said R. Ashi: In Numbers 2.

Thus, given our assumptions above, these letters must be here for a reason. It cannot be that the Torah is less than perfect. The reason, itself, is a mystery (a separate book of the Torah? a text out of place until the Messianic era?).

Could an answer be contained in the Haftarah portion, Zechariah 2:14-4:7? Zechariah writes following a return to Israel after the Babylonian exile. Construction on the Second Temple has begun, but is going quite slowly. Zechariah and the prophet, Haggai, were instrumental in encouraging the people to complete the rebuilding. And, interestingly, the two verses set apart in our Torah portion mention the people of Israel embarking on a journey and returning from a journey.

The text reminds us that we are blessed wherever we find ourselves along the way.

Our study journey continues this Shabbat – see you then!

CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM RODFE ZEDEK

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