Sounds like a detective book for young readers, right?! Really we are referring to the letter of the Hebrew alphabet – nun or נון.
In the middle of parshas Beha'aloscha the torah interjects two pesukim that are bracketed with two upside down letters in the Torah – the letter nun. The Torah does this to separate between unfortunate incidents – so we shouldn't have an unbroken chain of negative parshiyos.
A closer look at the parsha would seem to indicate that the break is in the wrong place. After all, there are three 'calamities' that are described in the parsha – the Jews complaining about lack of meat, the Jews crying about forbidden relationships and Miriam speaking Lashon Hora against Moshe Rabbeinu - and they all take place after the nuns !
Perhaps what the 'nun break' is trying to teach us is that the one negative item mentioned before the break is equivalent to all three of the 'calamities'.
The Jews' travel from Har Sinai was described by chazal as the flight of a child from the schoolhouse. As if to say – please don't give us any more rules and restrictions. This negative behavior is somehow equivalent to all the misdeeds in the pesukim to follow – and why? Because it underscores the basic human failing that caused them.
Running from Har Sinai represented the ultimate in ungratefulness. The keys to the spiritual salvation of the universe had been placed in the Jews' hands and they resented the effort it would take to use them. This was certainly a flaw equal in magnitude to the others that the Jews exhibited.
What can we do to correct this flaw ? Every time we learn – we can linger at our seforim, just a drop – but enough to demonstrate that we wish we could have more. And what about those of us who have a difficult time learning ? We can close the gemara with the tiniest sigh – that we wish we didn’t feel relieved.
Hatzlacha !
No comments:
Post a Comment