Passover in June!
The Lubavitcher Rebbe cited the words of the Midrash: “The Time of your Redemption has arrived!” The Rebbe declared that we are on the threshold of the Redemption. What we need now is the desire and courage to cross over this threshold into the “Sanctuary courtyard”—the Final Redemption! LIGHT FROM THE FUTURE ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Second’s Please!
In the very first anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt, this week’s
Parsha recounts how the Jews celebrated Passover for the second time.
What makes this episode unique is that there were a few Jews who complained about not being permitted to participate in the ritual of the Paschal offering. They were denied this right because they were ritually “unclean” having been involved in the burial of the dead.
They protested:
“Why should we be denied the opportunity to bring the offering of the L-rd in its appointed time among the children of Israel?”
G-d communicated His response to them through Moses that they—or anyone in the future who was denied the right to bring the offering as ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA ritually unclean or by being on a faraway journey, were to be given another opportunity to bring it a month later.
Their complaint was deemed to be a praiseworthy gesture and thanks to it we now have another Jewish Holiday: Pesach Sheni-the Second Passover. This holiday conveys the twin lessons that it is important to demand that G-d give us more opportunities to be close to Him and that, even if we miss such an opportunity, we are given a second chance.
What’s the Point?
Rashi, citing the Talmud, observes that in the Torah—which does not ordinarily have any punctuation—there is a little dot written over the words “far-away journey.” This, Rashi comments, is to qualify and limit the definition of “far away.” Far away does not necessarily imply that the person is miles away from the Temple. Even if he is situated “right outside the threshold of the Sanctuary courtyard,” he or she is considered to be far away.
This obviously begs several questions. First, how can simply standing outside the threshold be characterized as being “far away?” And why does the Torah transmit this lesson to us by way of a little dot? Why ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA couldn’t the Torah have taught us the same lesson by explicitly stating that, if one were outside the threshold of the Temple when Passover arrived and failed to bring the offering, one would be given another opportunity to do so?
Calling Long Distance
The answer to all these questions is to redefine distance. Distance is not necessarily measured by physical proximity. The greatest gap between two people is when they are back to back, even if they are touching one another, whereas two people miles away who face each other can be said to be close.
One’s “journey of life” can be such that even if one were to stand so close to the holiest place on earth that all one had to do was cross over the threshold, he or she may still choose to remain outside. This person is truly farther away from the Temple than the one who may be situated thousands of miles away from it, but whose heart is always yearning for the day that he can come there.
King David expressed himself thus when he was physically far away from the Temple, “My soul thirsts for You.. in a dry and weary land… So do I thirst to thus perceive You in the Sanctuary.” The Ba’al Shem Tov ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA interpreted King David’s words to mean: “O that I would so perceive You in the Sanctuary.” King David prayed, according to the Ba’al Shem Tov, that his yearning for G-d would be as strong when he was close to Him in the Sanctuary as when he was far away.
Close But Far
There are times when one’s physical closeness is, ironically, in an inverse proportion to one’s emotional distance. There can be many causes. Three of these causes come to mind:
First, “familiarity breeds contempt,” is one cliché that describes this phenomenon. When one is so close they tend to take the other for granted. We expect them to be there and we don’t acknowledge their presence. Worse still, is when we have unfair expectations of one who is so close to us that it actually turns us away from them.
Second, oft-times, closeness gives us a false perception that we already have what we are close to, and have no need to go and get it.
Third, frequently, the prospect of finally realizing one’s greatest dream, entering the most holy place on earth, could generate feelings of fear ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA and trepidation. People are known to fear success. They would rather dream about it than ever achieve it.
It’s Not Pointless!
Whatever the cause, one might expect that, when people missed an opportunity to bring the Paschal offering, even when or, perhaps because they were so close (they were standing on the other side of the threshold of the Sanctuary), they would not be given a second chance. It would be futile to give them a second chance when they were so far.
However, Torah teaches us by placing the little dot on the words “far away journey,” that even one who is so far still possesses what has been called “the pintele yid,” the “point” of Jewish consciousness, that doesn’t allow any Jew to ever lose his or her Jewish identity. All one has to do is to recognize that he or she has this “point” and then make another effort to cross the threshold that is the sole barrier between the Jew and G-d’s Sanctuary.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
We’re Close and Close
That we are living on the threshold of a new age of spirituality has been universally recognized by all of the greatest Jewish leaders of our times. In the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who, in turn, citied the words of the Midrash, “The Time of your Redemption has arrived!”
What is lacking now seems to be the desire and courage to cross over this threshold into the “Sanctuary courtyard”—the Age of Redemption.
We seem to be so close but yet so far. In truth, while we might think we are far, the Torah tells us that we have the “point” that feels dissatisfaction with galus and yearns to be inside G-d’s Sanctuary.
Whenever a Jew emits a sigh and is intolerant of the suffering, pain and evil that still exists, that is his or her “pintile yid” expressing itself. That is our way of saying we want G-d to make good on the last promise that He has yet to keep: bring us Moshiach and the ultimate Redemption!
There are some stubborn souls who may think they are too emotionally and spiritually distant from the Sanctuary and that their “point” has been dulled and blunted. They feel that they are too far gone to be given another chance. The Torah, in this week’s parsha, conveys the opposite message and states emphatically that no Jew will be left ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA behind. No Jew is unworthy of being given another opportunity to enter into the Sanctuary and celebrate the ultimate Festival of Liberation.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behalosecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
