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See Shavuot information at the bottom of this email...
Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel Shabbos Parshas Bamidbar 5782 PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Numbers 1:1–4:20
In the Sinai Desert, G‑d says to conduct a census of the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses counts 603,550 men of draftable age (20 to 60 years); the tribe of Levi, numbering 22,300 males age one month and older, is counted separately. The Levites are to serve in the Sanctuary. They replace the firstborn, whose number they approximated, since they were disqualified when they participated in the worshipping of the Golden Calf. The 273 firstborn who lacked a Levite to replace them had to pay a five-shekel "ransom" to redeem themselves.
When the people broke camp, the three Levite clans dismantled and transported the Sanctuary, and reassembled it at the center of the next encampment. They then erected their own tents around it: the Kohathites, who carried the Sanctuary's vessels (the Ark, menorah, etc.) in their specially designed coverings on their shoulders, camped to its south; the Gershonites, in charge of its tapestries and roof coverings, to its west; and the families of Merari, who transported its wall panels and pillars, to its north. Before the Sanctuary's entranceway, to its east, were the tents of Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's sons.
Beyond the Levite circle, the twelve tribes camped in four groups of three tribes each. To the east were Judah (pop. 74,600), Issachar (54,400) and Zebulun (57,400); to the south, Reuben (46,500), Simeon (59,300) and Gad (45,650); to the west, Ephraim (40,500), Manasseh (32,200) and Benjamin (35,400); and to the north, Dan (62,700), Asher (41,500) and Naphtali (53,400). This formation was kept also while traveling. Each tribe had its own nassi (prince or leader), and its own flag with its tribal color and emblem.
HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Hosea 2:1-22.
This week's haftorah begins with the words, "The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea [shore], which can be neither measured nor counted." An appropriate reading for the first Torah reading of the Book of Numbers.
Hosea first prophesies about the eventual reunification of the houses of Judah and Israel. During the Messianic Era, these two perennial antagonists will make peace and appoint a single leader. Hosea then rebukes the Jewish people for their infidelity, abandoning their "husband," G‑d, and engaging in adulterous affairs with pagan deities. He describes the punishments they will suffer because of this unfaithfulness.
Eventually, though, Hosea reassures the Jews that they will repent, and G‑d will accept them back wholeheartedly. The haftorah concludes with the moving words: "And I will betroth you to Me forever, and I will betroth you to Me with righteousness and with justice and with loving-kindness and with mercy."
SAGES ON THE PARSHAH
G‑d spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai (Numbers 1:1)
The Torah was given to the people of Israel in the ownerless desert. For if it were given in the Land of Israel, the residents of the Land of Israel would say, "It is ours"; and if it were given in some other place, the residents of that place would say, "It is ours." Therefore it was given in the wilderness, so that anyone who wishes to acquire it may acquire it.
Submission to Emmanuel's? See here
The Talmud relates that when G-d came to give the Torah to the People of Israel in the early morning of Sivan 6 (see "Today in Jewish History" for tomorrow), He found them sleeping. (The Chassidic masters explain that this was an attempt to connect to their subconscious, transcendent self in preparation for their reception of the divine wisdom.) To rectify this lapse, we spend the entire first night of Shavuot (which begins at nightfall tonight) studying Torah. The traditional Tikkun Leil Shavout ("Rectification for Shavuot Night") study program includes the opening and closing verses of each book of the Written Torah (Tanach), as well as of each Parshah; the entire Book of Ruth (see "Laws and Customs" for tomorrow); the opening and closing sections of each tractate of the Talmud; a list of the 613 mitzvot; and selected readings from the Zohar and other Kabbalistic works.
SHAVUOT TORAH READINGS IN A NUTSHELL
Exodus 19:1-20:23; Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17
On the first day of Shavuot we read from Exodus chapters 19 and 20.
A summary of the content: The Children of Israel camp opposite Mount Sinai, where they are told that G‑d has chosen them to be His "kingdom of priests" and "holy nation." The people respond by proclaiming, "All that G‑dhas spoken, we shall do."
On the sixth day of the third month (Sivan), seven weeks after the Exodus, the entire nation of Israel assembles at the foot of Mount Sinai. G‑d descends on the mountain amidst thunder, lightning, billows of smoke and the blast of the shofar, and summons Moses to ascend.
G‑d proclaims the Ten Commandments, commanding the people of Israel to believe in G‑d, not to worship idols or take G‑d's name in vain, to keep the Shabbat, to honor their parents, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, and not to bear false witness or covet another's property. The people cry out to Moses that the revelation is too intense for them to bear, begging him to receive the Torah from G‑d and convey it to them.
On the second day of Shavuot we read from Deuteronomy chapters 14-16 which detail the laws of the three pilgrimage festivals — Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot — on which all Jews came "to see and be seen before the face of G‑d" in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
SHAVUOT HAFTORAHS IN A NUTSHELL
First Day of Shavuot
Ezekiel 1:1-28 3:12
The haftorah for the first day of Shavuot describes Ezekiel's Vision of the Chariot reminiscent of the revelation experienced by the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, on the very first Shavuot of history.
The prophet Ezekiel son of Buzi relays the vision he had of a chariot led by four creatures that resemble men and describes their physical appearance and actions in detail, "When they [the living beings] would go, they [the wheels] would go, and when they would stand, they would stand, and when they would lift themselves up from the ground, the wheels would lift themselves correspondingly to them, for the will of the living being was in the wheels… Like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness round about; that was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the L-rd, and when I saw, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice speaking."
The haftorah ends with Ezekiel's mention of the prayers of the angels to G‑d.
Second Day of Shavuot
Habakkuk 2:20, 3:1-19
The haftorah of the second day of Shavuot is a prophecy of Habakkuk
The prophet recalls the wonders that G‑d had done for Israel at the time of the Giving of the Torah at Sinai. He also speaks of the punishments that G‑d meted out to the enemies of Israel
PARSHAT SHAVUOT IN-DEPTH
Exodus 19:1-20:23
In the third month... that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai (19:1)
On the first of the month [of Sivan] they arrived in the Sinai... and on that day Moses did not say anything at all to them, on account of their exhaustion from the journey.
On the second day, he said to them, "And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests..."
On the third day, he informed them of G‑d's command to set boundaries [around Mount Sinai]...
On the fourth day, he commanded them to "Sanctify [yourselves today and tomorrow" (Exodus 19:10); following which the Torah was given on the sixth day of Sivan].
Rabbi Jose says that the Torah was given on the seventh day of the month... Moses having added a third day of sanctification out of his own understanding.
All agree that the Torah was given on Shabbat. They differ only in that Rabbi Jose says that the first of the month was a Sunday, while the other rabbis hold that the first of the month was a Monday.
(Talmud, Shabbat 86b)
A most puzzling thing in the Talmud's account is the fact that on the first day of Sivan—the day on which the people of Israel arrived at the place where they would receive the Torah--"Moses did not say anything at all to them, on account of their exhaustion from the journey." For six weeks the children of Israel had been eagerly awaiting the most important event in their history—their receiving of the Torah from G‑d. Our sages tell us that they literally counted the days (hence our annual practice of "counting the omer" during the weeks that connect Passover to Shavuot). Does it make sense that on the very day they arrived at Mount Sinai they would do nothing at all in preparation for the great day?
At Sinai, the divine wisdom was revealed to man. Obviously, the human mind cannot attain the divine wisdom on its own---it that must be given to it by G‑d Himself. So although G‑d instructed us to study His Torah, desiring that human intellect should serve as the vehicle by which we apprehend His truth, a crucial prerequisite to Torah study is the mind's total abnegation of its ego. Only after it has voided itself of all pretension that it is capable of attaining the truth of truths on its own, can the mind become a "fit vessel" to receive it. In the words of the Sages, "An empty vessel can receive; a full vessel cannot receive."
So the day on which "Moses did not say anything at all to them" was an integral part of their preparations for receiving the Torah. This was the day on which they undertook the most "exhausting journey" of emptying their souls of intellectual vanity and make themselves fit receptacles of the divine truth.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
