A thought on Parshas Behaaloshcha
"...va'yehi b'nsoa ha'aron...""...and when the Ark travelled..." (10:35)
Rabbeinu Bachya writes that our nation experienced wonders and miracles at the Sea, in the desert, and when we conquered the Land of Israel. We know about the important role served by the splitting of the Sea, and we understand that Eretz Yisroel is always a land of miracles. What purpose did the nesei ha'
midbar - the miracles of the desert - serve?He writes that as our people trekked through the barren desert, crossing vast plains of sand and scrub, they later encountered looming mountains, mighty pillars of rock, and stone plateaus which seemed like the very foundations of the earth. To the secular mind, he writes, such terrain was evidence of the primeval nature of the globe with its tumultuous core, solid crust, and its evidence of tectonic upheaval and shifting. People looked at this ancient topographical diversity and could conclude that the earth was a natural phenomenon.
This is why we had to witness Heaven-sourced miracles in that desert. With the Aron in our midst, signaling HaShem's constancy and Presence among us as we followed the travels of His encased Torah, events not credible to the scientific sechel surrounded us - pillars of shielding smoke, sustenance from Above, mountains trembling and toppling as the Clouds of Glory passed over and through them...all of these miracles were to show that it is HaShem who created and formed all things, and HaShem who determines destiny with the same mastery with which He can avert gravity.
This is why, Rabbeinu Bachya explains, the Mishna's teaching is codified in halacha that when we see deserts, even though their appearance is very ancient and seems unchanging, as if suggesting an eternity which predates recorded time, we declare the blessing Oseh Ma'aseh Bereishis - HaShem created the universe from nothingness, and those ageless hills and timeless arroyos had a beginning, and a Creator.
When I go out to the desert, I think of the verses (Bereishis 49:26; Devarim 33:15) ad tavas givas olam (to the ends of the eternal hills) mimeged givas olam (the treasures of the ancient hills), as I look out on the endless folds of sand that shape the desert's rising and falling floor. Touched by that sense of antiquity and timelessness, I will then declare "Boruch Atoh...Oseh Ma'aseh Bereishis" - I know that this is one more sign of Genesis, bearing the insignia of HaShem's greatness.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
Rabbeinu Bachya writes that our nation experienced wonders and miracles at the Sea, in the desert, and when we conquered the Land of Israel. We know about the important role served by the splitting of the Sea, and we understand that Eretz Yisroel is always a land of miracles. What purpose did the nesei ha'
midbar - the miracles of the desert - serve?He writes that as our people trekked through the barren desert, crossing vast plains of sand and scrub, they later encountered looming mountains, mighty pillars of rock, and stone plateaus which seemed like the very foundations of the earth. To the secular mind, he writes, such terrain was evidence of the primeval nature of the globe with its tumultuous core, solid crust, and its evidence of tectonic upheaval and shifting. People looked at this ancient topographical diversity and could conclude that the earth was a natural phenomenon.
This is why we had to witness Heaven-sourced miracles in that desert. With the Aron in our midst, signaling HaShem's constancy and Presence among us as we followed the travels of His encased Torah, events not credible to the scientific sechel surrounded us - pillars of shielding smoke, sustenance from Above, mountains trembling and toppling as the Clouds of Glory passed over and through them...all of these miracles were to show that it is HaShem who created and formed all things, and HaShem who determines destiny with the same mastery with which He can avert gravity.
This is why, Rabbeinu Bachya explains, the Mishna's teaching is codified in halacha that when we see deserts, even though their appearance is very ancient and seems unchanging, as if suggesting an eternity which predates recorded time, we declare the blessing Oseh Ma'aseh Bereishis - HaShem created the universe from nothingness, and those ageless hills and timeless arroyos had a beginning, and a Creator.
When I go out to the desert, I think of the verses (Bereishis 49:26; Devarim 33:15) ad tavas givas olam (to the ends of the eternal hills) mimeged givas olam (the treasures of the ancient hills), as I look out on the endless folds of sand that shape the desert's rising and falling floor. Touched by that sense of antiquity and timelessness, I will then declare "Boruch Atoh...Oseh Ma'aseh Bereishis" - I know that this is one more sign of Genesis, bearing the insignia of HaShem's greatness.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 9:57 AM
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