Parashat Behalotecha
By: Becky Adelberg

There is a lot taking place in the Torah portion, Behalotecha. The afterbirth of a nation, the menorah is created, the first national music mandated, the first national holiday of Passover is celebrated and the Israelites complain and complain and complain.

In this Torah portion, the cleansing of the Levites is described.  A process that necessitates being sprinkled with water of purification, receiving a full body shave, and sacrificing two bulls. The Levites are to serve between the ages of 25-50, after which they still act as guards but perform no labor. G-d instructs Moses to prepare to offer the Passover sacrifice; however, it is discovered that some of the Israelites are unclean because they have touched a corpse.

One the Tabernacle is finally established, a cloud covers it by day, morphing into fire at night. When the cloud lifts, the Israelites prepare to follow it on their journey. Wherever the cloud settles is where they know to pitch camp.

G-d commands Moses to craft two silver trumpets for the priests to blow and summon the community. Each type of blast from the trumpet is intended for a different group or call to action, depending on the length of them.

As the Israelites begin their journey, they are given a specific order of who marches first, last and so forth. They march for three days from Mount Sinai. The Israelites soon return to their old ways of complaining about the hardships of the dessert wanderings. G-d is furious and releases fire on the outskirts of the Israelite’s camp until Moses intercedes on the people’s behalf. Moses feels stuck in the middle between the Israelites and G-d. G-d instructs him to bring 70 elders to the tent of the meeting so they can share the burden of leadership with Moses.

G-d makes sure that the Israelites not only have meat, but enough that they will be sick of how much they begged for. Mose’s brother and sister spread gossip about why he has been chosen as the sole leader when he is not perfect. G-d is furious with this and turns Miriam’s skin a deadly white snow, as well as having to leave the camp for 7 days.

There are many lessons to be taken from this Torah portion and each line reads like one of them. Just like with all of the Torah, there is hidden meaning. What I found is the very nature of being a human in this Torah portion. The purification process I equate to taking time for ourselves- whether through Shabbat, a nap, reading, meditation, nature and more- to come back renewed and ready to be our best selves. The trumpets serve as a call to action- just like on the Jewish new year, where we have the blasts of the Shofar, it is a call to wake up, a summoning and a call to action of how we want to live out the next year. The different blasts have different meanings. Many times we have the best intentions but then return to our old ways- we are only human and the blasts remind us of what is important to us. The Israelites constant complaining can teach us that sometimes we don’t know how good we have things and we need to appreciate what is right in front of us. The last lesson I gained from this parsha is that leadership does not have to be done alone and a leader does not have to be perfect, they just have to be committed and work in partnership with community. We need to know when to step up and when to step back, just as the Israelites began their journey and were instructed who marches first, last and so forth.

I am privileged to share my lessons from this parsha, which is my Bat Mitzvah portion. Reading it as an adult I saw completely different meaning, which is how the Torah should always be viewed, as a living evolving book that can constantly teach us new things.