BehaAlotcha

Chevre, this week’s parsha is BeHaAlotcha (בְּהַעֲלֹתְּךָ). A lot of focus is generally put on the more pleasant aspects of this parsha. In the middle we have the reversed nuns (׆, thank you Sefaria, I didn’t know these existed in the font) which we say every time we take out the Torah from The Ark.

׆ וַיְהִ֛י בִּנְסֹ֥עַ הָאָרֹ֖ן וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֑ה קוּמָ֣ה ׀ ה’ וְיָפֻ֙צוּ֙ אֹֽיְבֶ֔יךָ וְיָנֻ֥סוּ מְשַׂנְאֶ֖יךָ מִפָּנֶֽיךָ׃ וּבְנֻחֹ֖ה יֹאמַ֑ר שׁוּבָ֣ה ה’ רִֽבְב֖וֹת אַלְפֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ ׆ When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Advance, O HaShem ! May Your enemies be scattered, And may Your foes flee before You! And when it halted, he would say: Return, O HaShem, You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!

This section is often considered a seperate book of the Tanach. Before this, everything was going relatively well, with some bumps like the Golden Calf. After this, however, things really go down hill. The complaining starts.

When I read this, Moshe is so desperate he asks HaShem, what did I do to deserve this? In any technological project, even small things I do for myself, there is some amount of frustration and/or despair.

My wife’s Hebrew is considerably better than mine. Once she was on the phone with some kind of tech support and couldn’t remember the word “frustrated”. I called out from the other room מְתוּסכָּל (Metuskal). Afterwards, she asked how I knew that word. I said, “Oh that’s easy, it’s a computer word”. The other thing to remember about The Jewish People is that we are stubborn. Therefore, we need to persevere through the challenges and difficulties both technical, personality or whatever else comes our way. We can and will overcome and be better for it on the other side.

Therefore, I bless you and please bless me back to be עַקשָׁן (stubborn) in our Avodat HaShem. Shabbat Shalom.

I have finally succumbed to the influences of Steven Phillips (for those that know him) and am working to post all the archives of these weekly Divrei Torah on a website. Right now it’s just a placeholder, but stay tuned, I’m working through some frustrations and learning a lot. https://www.clouded-torah.org/