Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

Good morning everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is Parshas Beha'aloscha. Beha'aloscha is the third portion in the book of Numbers, in the book of Bamidbar. Last week in Parshas Noso we discussed the inauguration of the Mishkan, of the tabernacle, and each leader of each tribe, each Nasi, brought a special offering in this celebration of the inauguration of the tabernacle.
And there's one that did not. Who was that one who did not? That was Aaron, the leader of the tribe of Levi. And the tribe of Ephraim was counted as the twelfth tribe. And now Aaron was very sad. He was very sad that he missed out on this opportunity to light the menorah. Sorry, that he missed out on this opportunity to bring the offering, the special offering for the inauguration of the temple.
And it says that Aaron cried and he said, woe is to me, because this is Hashem being upset at me still for the sin of the golden calf, because Aaron participated not in the way we would think that he participated, but he participated by trying to delay the service of the golden calf. He said, okay, we'll do this, but let's take some time and he wanted to delay so that Moses would return from his journey, his 40 day journey. They were miscounting. It was day 39.
And if he was just able to delay them for 24 more hours, Moses would be back already and they wouldn't have to serve the golden calf. But his involvement or even uttering such approval was wrongful. And he felt that now he was being punished by God that he wasn't able to bring the special offering. He wanted to bring the offering and he wasn't allowed to. It says additionally that the entire tribe of Levi was grieving this terrible pain that they were not able to be included in the inauguration celebration. Imagine they're celebrating now the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Big celebration. Imagine that they invite everybody, but they don't invite you. You'd feel left out. Aaron feels left out. It's so much greater. Obviously the inauguration of the temple is much greater than the 250th birthday of the United States. And Aaron is left out. He's devastated. Sages tell us in the Midrash that it's like a king who throws a big bash.
He throws a big party and he doesn't invite one of his closest advisors. Everybody gets an invitation. He doesn't. The king is upset at me. Obviously I did something wrong. What did I do wrong? I don't know. He's all concerned and all worried. Eventually this big bash ends and a private courier comes, hand delivers a signed and sealed private invitation from the king. And the king says, that was, the bash was just for the simple people.
But for you, I want you to come and have a private dinner with me. And that, our sages tell us, is what was happening with Aaron. Is that the rest of the tribes, fine, they get the regular ceremony. But Aaron, you're so dear and so precious to me. You're going to have something very different. You're going to have a special private dinner with God, so to speak. You're going to have a much more special mitzvah. And what was that special mitzvah?
Hashem reserved the mitzvah of Menorah for Aaron. The special mitzvah of Menorah, we know the Menorah is so special in the eyes of the Almighty that it is mentioned multiple times. And each time that it's mentioned, it's given new mitzvahs that are added to it, or new regulations that are part of its observance. Our sages teach us that every time God wanted to add something new to it, He's so delightful before the eyes of God. It's a very special mitzvah to light the Menorah.
We know the Menorah really represents the entire Jewish people because you had the center line of the Menorah, and then you had three branches on each side that went out. So that's six total on the sides and one in the middle. And the one that was in the middle is the shamash, which is taller than the rest of them. The others needed to be on a straight line. And our sages tell us that those six represent the 12 tribes of Israel, each one for two of the tribes, but they had to be at the same level. There's no one elevated. You're not allowed to have a staggered Menorah. You're not allowed to have one which has one height, another height, another height, another height. You can't have that because the Jewish people are represented by the Menorah. And even in our laws of Menorah during the holiday of Hanukkah, the Menorah needs to be a straight line, and then one which stands taller. And that one that stands taller represents the Almighty.
The Almighty is above, but no other Jew is above the other. No other Jew is above the other. We are all on the same line. And we all have a connection at the core with the Almighty, at the stem, at the base. So God tells Aaron, you and your children, you're going to prepare the Menorah forever. We don't have a temple today. We don't have a temple today. So what's the Menorah forever? Our sages tell us the Menorah of Hanukkah was already commanded to Aaron, where God says that your Menorah will light forever. That's the Menorah that we light on Hanukkah. The entire Jewish people light that Menorah, not only for the miracle of the Maccabees, not only for the miracle of the overcoming of the Greeks, but rather it's because we are celebrating the light of the Menorah from Aaron. It continues forever. And it's something very interesting, is that it doesn't say that, it doesn't call the whole process of lighting the Menorah, it doesn't use the term, which means to light the Menorah, but rather it's, which is to elevate. What are they doing? They're there to light the Menorah. So if they're there to light the Menorah, it should be to light it. No, instead it's, because the whole purpose of the Menorah was not to light a light. It was to elevate. You want to see something even more special? Our sages tell us that Moshe felt that having a Menorah was a little bit unnecessary. A little bit unnecessary. Why?
Because God's radiance was so bright that wherever you went in the temple, it was lit. So what are you going to light a Menorah for? Our sages tell us another metaphor, another mashal. There was once a very wealthy man who had a poor friend. He tells his poor friend, you know, I want to come visit at your home. I want you to prepare dinner. We'll have a dinner in your home. Poor man doesn't know what to do. He's like, you know, he's a very wealthy guy.
He's used to very serious, high standards. So he cleans up his house. He gets the place decorated. He gets a nice tablecloth and he puts his candles that he has, he puts them on the table. This wealthy man comes with his chariots and his wagons and they're carrying these big candelabras so that he can see his way into the home of this poor person. The poor person sees what's going on outside. He says, look at these candelabras that this guy is bringing with him.
He has all of his servants and all of his people, he says he's going to laugh when he sees my little simple candles that I have on the table. He grabs the candles, throws them in the drawer. The rich man comes into the house and he says to him, there's no light in here. What's going on? You didn't know I was coming? He says, no, I knew you were coming, but I looked outside and I saw the bright lights that you have with your whole procession and all the lights that they're bringing to honor you. I felt that it was unbecoming for you to walk into my house and see my little cheap candles that I have. He says, you don't understand. I want to be with you. I want to live and exist in this time that we're going to have dinner together like you and be there with you. I don't need the light, but I want it to be yours.
Our sages tell us God doesn't need our light. God doesn't need our menorah. God wants our menorah. He desires our menorah. Even more, our sages tell us that how were the lights of the menorah set? They weren't set to the outside of the menorah so that they shine light to the world. They were set inside towards the center one. Why? Because God doesn't need the light. He wants our light. He desires our light. He desires our elevation.
There's a lot of emphasis when we talk about the menorah, about the preparing of the menorah, cleaning the menorah, setting the menorah. There's a lot of detail about that. In fact, our sages tell us that the Kohanim prolonged the process of cleaning the menorah. They would clean five of them and then they would go do another service in the temple. They'd come back and finish the other two. What's going on? Because the mitzvah of the menorah was so precious, is so precious in front of the Almighty that they wanted to prolong this process as long as possible. Aaron himself performed the mitzvah of the menorah his entire life. Till Aaron died, his children didn't do it. Even though they were commanded to do it, they only continued to do it after he died. Because while he was alive, he wanted the opportunity to do this mitzvah. It was so precious, he wanted to do it himself. It was such a meaningful, it is such a meaningful mitzvah.
And there are many additional laws that are relayed, as we mentioned, with each mention of the laws of the teaching of the menorah. Number one, it needed to have steps. Aaron was known to be very tall. He didn't need steps to reach the top of the menorah, to be able to light it. But the Torah commands us, elevate yourself to the menorah. The objective, the goal is not to make it brighter. The goal is not to bring light, so to speak.
The goal is for it to be a service of commitment, of dedication. It's like a relationship of a husband and wife. She doesn't need you to do the dishes. She just wants to see your commitment. She wants to see your dedication. Understand? There's something deeper here. It's not about the flowers. It's about your dedication. And that is what the menorah represents. They needed to climb up to elevate their spirituality. Each flame was lit, Behaloscha. Our sages tell us, what is Behaloscha?
Until it gets elevated, our sages tell us it's an important rule for chinuch, for educating our children. It said that what they would do is they would place the light next to the wick and let it catch on its own. And then it would go up on its own. They wouldn't mess with the, sometimes you're trying to light a wick and you mess with it. You toy with it. You push it. Our sages tell us that's a parent and a child relationship. Don't push your child.
Just put it nicely next to you. Put your child next to you and then they will elevate nicely on their own. Sometimes we want to push our children to do certain things, to be at a certain level, to be at a certain level of spirituality. You know, when are you going to take life seriously? When are you going to start growing? When are you going to start being a mensch? When are you going to start this? When are you going to start?
Parents, we're pushing our children. Sages tell us don't push your children. Bring them closer to you. Bring them closer to you. And that warmth, that closeness, they will light their own light on their own. What we see in the menorah is the menorah, we say this about Chanukah, we say that the purpose, the objective of the menorah is to shine your own light out. The idea why we put the menorah by a window on Chanukah is that each one of us has a spark.
Each one of us has a light that we're not allowed to leave inside. We have to share it with the world. God says to Aaron, you have something special that nobody else has. You have something unique. You need to shine your light to the world. You need to go and you need to connect with others. We see that Aaron, after he died, it says that he was mourned by all the homes of the Jewish people. It doesn't say that about anybody else.
It says the Jewish people mourned for Moshe after he died. The Jewish people mourned for Miriam. But all the houses of Israel mourned Aaron. Why? Because Aaron had something unique. He was Ohav Shalom, V'Rodav Shalom. He loved peace, it's not enough to love peace. You have to pursue peace, go after peace. When you see two people fighting, you don't say, hey, not my business. You guys figure this out on your own. I'm out. No, Aaron didn't do that.
Aaron says when two people have strife, when a husband and wife have strife, it's a fire. It's going to burn everything in its way. We have to make peace. We have to preserve the home. And Aaron would sit with the couples, with the husband and wife and make peace. He would see two business partners fighting. Aaron would go pursue peace. The Midrash tells us that Aaron would go to one and tell him, you know, I spoke to the other guy. He says, oh, hate his guts.
He's such a cheater, such a liar. He says, you know, but he feels so terrible. He told me that he regrets everything he did. He just is so embarrassed he doesn't know how to say it to you. He said that? He took responsibility? He said, yeah. And then he'd go to the other guy and he'd say to him, you know what he said to me today? He said to me, he feels so terrible. He's just so embarrassed he doesn't know how to say it to you.
He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't think you'll ever accept his apology. He really said that? And they'd become best friends again. So what would happen? 15 years later, they'll figure out that they were duped by Aaron. It's too late already. Let bygones be bygones. Sometimes people come. They're so angry. They're so offended. They're so hurt. They're just like, you just named the person. Just like they see black in their eyes. That person stole my business.
They stole my job. They stole my career. They stole my clients. They stole my wife. They stole whatever it may be. Aaron found a way to bring peace. The menorah was shining a light outward from Aaron. Aaron, you have something special. Don't keep it to yourself. Shine that light to others. You know, if I have something very special here in my hand right now. You know what's in my hand? Darkness. But you know what happens with darkness? It's locked in here.
There's darkness locked in my hands. Darkness doesn't shine out. But if I were to turn off the lights and light a little match, the whole room would be lit. A little bit of light removes all the darkness. We all have light within us. We need to shine our light. You have something special, share it with others. You know something, teach it. You have a gift. We all have a gift. We need to shine the light outward. Shine your light to others.
Share your light. Don't leave it within yourself. It's not about, again, the light of the menorah wasn't meant to light everybody else's homes. It was faced inwardly. Your job is not to make sure that every person knows your name. Your job is not to be the biggest YouTuber out there or the biggest influencer on TikTok. Your job is to shine your light. Shine your light. You have something unique. You have something special that you can share with the world.
That is what Hashem commanded Aaron to do. Shine your light. It's time for your light to shine forth. We each have unique talents, unique abilities, unique skills, unique talents. Share them. Encourage other people. Bring peace to others. And that's why the Torah says when Aaron passed away, the homes of Israel mourned Aaron's passing because it wasn't just the individuals. It was all the husbands and wives who came for counsel, that he implored them to work on building harmony. The menorah represents something so special.
The menorah represents wholesomeness. We light the menorah on Hanukkah. Hanukkah comes from the same root word of chinuch, which is education. Establishing our children needs to be peaceful. We need to shine their light, not to extinguish their light. I've seen, sadly, in my childhood I experienced this, where we had teachers who were not skilled, trained teachers. Some were Holocaust survivors. Some had a very difficult life. They had no business being teachers. They had no business being educators.
Today, you have really skilled, magnificent teachers in our yeshivas, in our schools. They're professional teachers. They love what they do. They shine a light out. And to bring the light of your students out, this is something that just, it can't be minimized, the impact that we can have on other people. My dear friends, beha'aloscha, beha'aloscha means we need to elevate. Don't just say, listen, I'm nothing special. I've got nothing to offer. You've got a lot to offer. Take other people up with you.
Elevate other people. Elevate yourself. Focus on your own growth. But whatever you grow, share it with others. You're inspired? Share it with others. Don't let it just sit and rot within you. Shine the light out to others. My dear friends, it's time to shine your light. Let's do so, my dear friends. Have an amazing Shabbos.

You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH. The Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.