• Aaron the High Priest was instructed to light the Menorah.
  
• The Levites are dedicated for service in the Tabernacle in place of the firstborn, some of whom were involved in the building of the Golden Calf.
  
• The festival of Pesach is celebrated on the first anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt. A group of men came to Moses and complained that they were excluded from offering the Pesach sacrifice because they had come into contact with a dead body, and they felt that it was unfair that they should be left out. Hashem told Moses that they could offer it on 14 Iyar instead.
  
• Preparations were made for the journey to the land of Israel. A Pillar of Cloud rested on the Tabernacle by day, and a Pillar of Fire by night. When the Cloud rose above the Tabernacle, this was a sign that it was time to travel. The Israelites followed the Cloud until it came to rest. That is how they travelled until they reached the Land of Israel.
  
• Moses was also told to make two silver trumpets. They were to be used to assemble the camp. The Torah then describes the Israelites setting off on their journeys. They were to march in a special order with each tribe marching in turn. The Tabernacle was dismantled and carried along by the Levites.
  
• Poised to enter the Land of Israel, Moses appealed to his father-in-law Chovav (Yitro) to travel with them. We are not told if he did so.
  
• Two special verses that are very familiar to us – see below.
  
• It was then that things began to go wrong. People started to complain for no apparent reason, and Hashem sent a fire as a punishment, killing some of the people.
  
• Then the people began to complain about the manna. They fondly remembered the meat, fish and vegetables, which they had eaten in Egypt. This made Hashem angry, and Moses was very upset. He cried out to Hashem that the task of leading so many complaining people was too much and he would rather die than carry on!
  
• Hashem told Moses to gather 70 elders who would then receive part of his wisdom, and be able to share in the leadership. That way he would no longer have to work alone. He also told Moses that he would send quails into the camp; more than enough for everyone. When the quails came, some of the people gathered as many quails as they could, and then ate as much as they could. This caused many of them to die from overeating.
  
• Then Moses’ sister and brother Aaron and Miriam spoke Lashon Hara about their brother. It seems that they were jealous of his gift of prophecy. Hashem explained to them that Moses was on a much higher spiritual level than they were, and that he was very humble. Miriam was punished with leprosy for having begun the conversation, and she was banished from the camp for seven days. But the camp waited for her. This was to reward Miriam for the way she had waited for her brother Moses when he was a baby in a basket.
  

Points to Ponder
We see that the sedra is divided into two main parts. The first part deals with the preparations for the journey and the potential for a glorious future. The second part deals with the reality. Instead of entering the land in a blaze of glory, the Israelites became bogged down with complaints, arguing, and a loss of perspective concerning their true destiny. This set the scene for the disastrous mission of the spies, which we will read in next week's sedra.

Between these two parts are two verses that we say in shul each time we read from the Torah; the first when the Torah is taken from the Ark, and the second when it is put back:

'Vayehi binsoa ha'aron, vayomer Moshe, Kumah Hashem veyafutsu oyevecha, veyanusu mesanecha mipanecha' when the Ark travelled, Moses said: 'Arise Hashem; let your enemies be scattered and let those who hate you run away'.

Uvenucho yomar: Shuva Hashem rivevot alfei Yisrael - when it camped he will say: return Hashem to the myriads of Israel'.

Questions:

1. Why are these two verses here, just as the Israelites set out on their travels?
   
2. These verses seem to describe an event that never happened; that with the approach of the Ark, the nations scattered! To what do these verses refer?
   
3. The Talmud says that there are seven books in the Torah, not five. Bamidar, according to this view is in fact three books: The part prior to these verses; these two verses and the rest of the book. How can two verses constitute a whole book?
   
4. These verses begin and end with inverted nuns. (Open a chumash and see!) Why are they there?
   
5. What were the high hopes of a quick entry into the Land of Israel so quickly dashed?

The answers are based on a variety of commentators:
1, 2 and 3: These verses describe what should have been. The Israelites were destined to enter Israel at this point in history, with Moses as their leader. Such an entry would have been free of any wars, as the inhabitants of the land would have scattered as the Ark drew near. These two verses are the first and last verse of the book, which would have been written, had all gone according to plan.

4. But it didn't work out that way. The letter nun stands for nefilah, which means to fall.

5. Our sages say that these two verses interrupted three bad events. The first event was that the Israelites travelled from the Mountain of G-d, the only time that Mount Sinai is given this description. They were happy to run away like a child who runs out of school before the teacher gives them any more work. This running away from the Divine Mission led them to complain about the trip, as they had lost sight of where they were going. And finally – nature abhors a vacuum - they lusted after meat and other things. The rest of the Torah describes the result – and so does much of the rest of the Bible, for that matter.

These two verses serve as a reminder of what might have been...

Shabbat Shalom