Parashat Beha'alot'cha (Numbers 8:1-12:16)

A weekly Torah exploration for families by Michael S. Raileanu, M.A.Ed.

A weekly Torah exploration for families by Michael S. Raileanu, M.A.Ed.

We now come to Parashat Beha'alot'cha (Numbers 8:1 - 12:16). It opens with a discussion of the menorah that was lit every day as a way of marking the passage of each week. There is also a short discussion about being a Levite (age limits and such). There is an explanation of Pesach Sheni (the second Passover), where it comes from and what rituals should be observed for it. Finally, there is talk of the trumpets the Israelites used to communicate with one another (love those ancient brass players!).

We learn again about the Levites and we are told that the men who can serve the in holiest of areas must be between the ages of 25 - 50. Why those ages? Why couldn't someone of say 22 or 61 work in the tabernacle? What is going on in someone's life before or after those ages that might make it so that they shouldn't work in the tabernacle?
After the age of 50 the men are to "go out of the ranks of service, and he shall serve no more. But he shall wait on his brothers in the tabernacle of the congregation, to keep watch over them, but the service he shall not perform... (Num 9:25- 26)" Why? So, what is he doing if he is not doing the actual holy work? Do you think this is a holy form of mentoring?
Do you know anyone who is a mentor? What do you think is the difference between a mentor and a teacher? How are they helping that person? Have you ever mentored someone?
Pesach Sheni is introduced here (Num 9:6 - 13). You can observe Pesach Sheni if you are ritually unclean and cannot observe Pesach the first time it comes around but not if you just forgot. Why do you think you cannot do it if you just forgot? Why is there a special rule for people who were made unclean by attending to the bodies of their dead loved ones? It is a huge mitzvah to make sure someone has a proper burial. How does this commandment show that? The Torah lists a second chance for people who need to observe a second Pesach, why not a third chance, or even a fourth chance? Why only one extra chance?
Chapter 10 talks about the trumpets that the people made and the rules governing when and how they were to be blown. If they blew both trumpets everyone gathered at the tent of meeting. If they blew only one then chieftains were to gather at the tent. If they blew Teruah once, it meant one thing, twice it meant something else. Whew! What a system. How would the people know if only one trumpet was being blown? What if they were in a conversation and did not hear the whole thing or none at all? What other systems do you think they might have used? How closely could 2 million people listen for the sound of one or two trumpets?