Weekly Message 06.13.2025 Parashat Behaalotecha
- jccwestpasco
- Jun 12
- 3 min read
Parashat Behaalotecha (when you raise) Numbers 8:1 - 12 16
HafTorah Zechariah 2:14 - 4:7
Dear friends,
I hope you had a good week and are prepared for what is hoped to be a happy, healthy, and safe summer season for all. I will be traveling with my family for our annual (55th consecutive) reunion in Delaware with college friends and their families and later in the summer attending a family wedding in New Rochelle, NY and a trip to the museums in the Puglia region of Italy where my father resided in a displaced persons camp immediately after surviving but losing his entire family in the Holocaust. Upon our return to New York from there, we will visit our family's gravesites, a tradition done every year during the month of Elul just prior to the High Holy Days. As always, we will also be visiting our local cemeteries here in Florida on Sunday, September 21st. So, it will be a busier summer than usual, but certainly a fulfilling one!
This Shabbat's Torah reading marks a turning point in the children of Israel's journey from slavery to freedom in the Promised Land. Last week in the portion of Naso in the Book of Bamidbar, we read about the dedication of the Mishkan (portable tabernacle) and how it would accompany the people into the land of Israel which seemingly they were on the brink of entering. So near and yet so far! This week's portion begins on a positive note as we are introduced to the Menorah that would illuminate the Mishkan and thus provide light, i.e. enlightenment, wisdom, and joy in the peoples' lives and rituals. However, very soon thereafter, it is proven that the people are not ready for freedom and self-governance. Complaints and murmurings abound. Today, we call it "kvetching"! The people are tired of eating the manna provided by Hashem that had been sustaining them since they have left Egypt and cry out for meat to the point of wishing that they were back in Egypt where they allegedly led better lives. In response, they were given so much meat (in the form of quail) that they quickly became sick from it. Then the shock of two of their leaders Aaron and Miriam "kvetching" and showing uncharacteristic intolerance towards their brother Moses for having a Cushite (foreign) wife. Although not of the Hebrew faith, Moses's wife and in-laws played critical roles in assisting him to lead the Children of Israel. We recall Moses's father-in-law Jethro entering the camp and providing crucial advice on governance that avoided potential disastrous conflicts. We are constantly reminded that we too were strangers in a strange land and that we must treat all people as if they are our neighbors. As we are soon to learn, all this kvetching and lack of believing ultimately led to forty years of wandering in the wilderness and for those who were adults (except for Joshua and Caleb) upon leaving Egypt would not live to enter the Promised Land. It is a sad commentary but a necessary one that it is impossible to go from slavery to freedom without acquiring the moral and ethical tools and the mindset that is required of free people.
This Shabbat, we also have the honor and privilege of chanting a Haftorah authored by the Prophet Zechariah which contains the powerful and often quoted adage "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts".
לֹא בְחַיִל, וְלֹא בְכֹחַ--כִּי אִם-בְּרוּחִי, אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת
The context of this message is taken from Zecharia's Chapter 4, Verse 6 as the Prophet has returned to the land of Israel and Jerusalem from exile in Babylonia and refers to the rebuilding of the destroyed first Temple. The Temple will be rebuilt with faith and fellowship and not arrogance and power! Please join us this evening at 7:30 pm and tomorrow (Saturday morning) at 9:30 am for our Shabbat services in-person or virtually via Zoom. As summer approaches, many will be away, so it is more important than ever for those who are here to attend services to ensure that we always have a minyan to read the Torah and for those who need to, to chant the Mourner's Kaddish.
Shabbat Shalom!
Ron Becker,
Spiritual Leader
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