Sam Sapozhnik
Our generation is very special. We are a fiercely independent minded people. Yet, we nevertheless yield to G-d’s will and seek ways to follow every Mitzvah with precision and then more. LIGHT FROM THE FUTURE ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
Aaron’s Praise?
One of the enigmas in this week’s parsha is the Torah’s description of Aaron’s compliance with the commandment to light the Menorah (Candelabrum) in the Temple in a prescribed manner.
Moses, commanded by G-d, tells Aaron to light the Menorah so that all of the flames face the center of the Menorah. Immediately after this instruction is recorded, the Torah continues: “And Aaron did so, as G-d commanded Moses.” Rashi, the principle Bible commentator explains:
“This teaches us that he did not alter [G-d’s command].”
This comment has prompted many to ask the obvious question: How could it be that Aaron, Moses’ brother, would even harbor a desire to change the way he was instructed to light the menorah? Why would he ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA be praised that he was faithful to G-d’s instructions directed to him?
(See preceding and following essay for alternate answers.)
Fish in the Water
On a simple and basic level one could explain that the whole idea of lighting a Menorah was not just as a ritual. In Chassidic literature, the lighting of the Menorah by Aaron was his way of kindling the souls of all the Jews. They are divided into seven general categories, based on seven personality types.
Aaron was chosen to perform this service precisely because he was a person whose own soul was on fire. To do the work of Aaron one must be motivated by a passion for G-d and a passion for other people. If one is missing one or the other they are not the most suited to light the Menorah, either figuratively or literally.
Now when Aaron was about to approach the Menorah, he could have said, “I know exactly what to do. This is my life’s passion and obsession.
I am like a fish in the water. I do not need precise instructions to tell me how to do it.” If a skilled professional instructs us concerning an area of which we have virtually no knowledge, we are more than eager to heed his or her words. But we would take umbrage if we were given ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA instructions about how to, let us say, bake a cake, when we have been baking all our lives.
There is a famous Russian expression, employed by Chassidic Masters, that sums up this attitude. A Russian peasant was caught with stolen Tefillin. When he was confronted, he said “Sam Sapozhnik-I am a shoemaker, I made these myself.” Frequently we exhibit this sense of independence and indignation when we are “confronted” by someone who implies that he or she knows more than we do about a subject in which we think we are quite proficient.
Aaron, with all of his expertise in the area of lighting up souls, as natural and effortless as it would have seemed for him, did not find the least amount of external or even internal resistance to accepting the instruction he received from Moses about how to do that which was in his greatest area of expertise.
Facing the Center
But, there must be a more specific message intended by the Torah’s emphasis that Aaron did as he was told. The specific instruction was that when the Menorah was lit, the six branches, three of the right and ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA three on the left, should face the central branch, referred to as the “face of the Menorah.”
The fact that it was this particular instruction that the Torah stresses
Aaron heeded, indicates to us that there would have been a reason for Aaron to find this particular instruction hard to follow.
What is it about kindling all of the six branches towards the central branch of the menorah that is so significant? And what is the lesson for us?
Rashi explains that by directing the lights towards the center, it deflected the claim that G-d needed the light to illuminate His Temple.
If one wanted to increase the light in an area one would normally try to get the flames to be extended outward.
Now, the question can be strengthened. Why would Aaron find it difficult to do something that was designed to show that G-d did not need the light for illumination?
To answer this question, another question must first be resolved: How could Rashi say that there was a need to dispel the notion that G-d needed the light? Who, in his right mind, would have thought that G-d, who wrought all the miracles, needed the light for Himself?
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
It may be suggested that by requiring the wicks to be directed towards the center of the Menorah, G-d was responding to a rather sophisticated belief that some might have entertained, that the Menorah was indeed intended to illuminate G-d’s Sanctuary. They could have reasoned that since the Mishkan was a physical structure subject to the laws of physics, it required physical illumination. And while G-d does not need physical illumination for Himself, they could have argued that He would need it for His physical Sanctuary.
In other words: there is a belief that though G-d is infinite and beyond the constraints of the physical world, He is subject to the limitations of nature when His presence is introduced into the physical, corporeal world. G-d, in this erroneous view, “respects” the parameters of nature, and will not allow the supernatural and spiritual to intervene and override the natural order.
Aaron, too, might have thought that his role of kindling the Menorah was to bring physical illumination to the Sanctuary and therefore it would have been better to extend the wicks outward to maximize the illumination.
The Torah therefore states that Aaron did not deviate from G-d’s instructions.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
True, logic may have dictated otherwise that, when dealing with G-d’s
Sanctuary within the physical world, the natural order ought to be maximized by maximizing the illumination. Moreover, if the illumination was not as strong, a dark Sanctuary would detract from the honor that it would be accorded. After all, in our tradition, lighting of candles is our way of according honor to the place and time, such as the Shabbat candles or candles lit in the synagogue.
Aaron could thus have reasoned that since Moses’ instruction to him flew against logic and would prove to be disrespectful to G-d, it was his obligation to “defend” G-d’s honor by extending the wicks outward so that there would be more light for G-d’s honor.
The Torah therefore declares that Aaron did not stray one iota from the instruction he received though Moses.
Where Logic Stops
Two lessons emerge from this story:
First: the importance of not allowing our own logic to weigh against G- d’s commandments to us through Moses.
Second: that the notion that G-d Himself is “captive,” so to speak, to the norms of nature and cannot or will not override it is erroneous. And ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA while it is true that G-d respects nature because He is its Creator, He nevertheless has “reserved” the right to override it.
A Message for Modern Times
In recent times we’ve witnessed miracles that rival those seen in Biblical times. The only difference is that now they are cloaked in nature.
There are those who cannot fathom what it means to be on the very threshold of the Messianic Age. How, they say, can the world change overnight? After all, we are living in a natural order. And while they believe in a Supernatural G-d, they cannot grasp how the supernatural can enter into the natural in a seamless unity of two worlds; where nature remains nature, and we have the awareness of the supernatural presence.
The Messianic Age, according to most Jewish sources, will produce a fusion of the supernatural within the natural world. Maimonides wrote in his Mishneh Torah that there will be no suspension of the laws of nature in the Messianic Age. He later conceded that this assertion was not categorical and there is room for the alternate view that we will experience great miracles in defiance of nature.
ESSAYS ON PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSECHA
The two views are not really mutually exclusive. While nature will still be intact, we will see glimpses of the supernatural, especially in the Beis Hamikdash. May we see this happen imminently!
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behalosecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
