Parshas B’haaloscha
By Malka Schneps
ESTY CAME HOME from school glowing with excitement. “Mommy, look what Morah gave me for a prize. It’s a special kit that makes the most beautiful pictures!” Esty pulled out a packet from her school bag with a flourish. Inside the packet were a blank sheet of black paper and a pointed wooden stick. Chaya looked with confusion at her daughter’s prize. “Esty, I don’t see how a pointy stick can make pictures on anything, let alone a plain sheet of black paper.” As Esty sat down at the kitchen table with the stick and the paper, she explained. “Well, the stick is not making the picture, and the black paper is not really black. Behind the black, the most beautiful shiny colors are hiding! All the stick really does is scratch off the black to show the secret colors. See?” Esty took the stick and began to draw a picture on the black paper. As she had explained, the stick etched a beautiful, shiny, colorful picture on what had appeared to be a plain, black sheet of paper. This week’s Parsha begins with Hashem telling Moshe to say to Aharon, “B’haaloscha es haneiros el mul p’nei hamenorah ya’iru shivas haneiros – When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the Menorah.” (Bamidbar 8:2) The Sfas Emes explains that the mitzvah of the Menorah teaches us the relationship between the physical and the spiritual.
72 / THE MONSEY VIEW
The Menorah is a physical object that holds spiritual light. It says in Mishlei 6:23, “Ki neir mitzvah v’Torah ohr… – For a mitzvah is a candle, and the Torah light…” The light of Torah is completely spiritual, and this world is physical. Just as light needs a lamp to hold it, the light of Torah needs a vessel to reveal it in this world. The mitzvos are the channels through which the light of the Torah can be revealed. Hashem gave Klal Yisroel the unique ability to reveal the Torah’s light in this physical existence. With each and every mitzvah that we do, we create the vessel that brings the light of the Torah into this world. What’s more, the Zohar teaches that the 248 limbs of our bodies parallel the 248 positive mitzvos. When we use our body to perform a mitzvah, our physical limbs themselves become channels that draw the light into this world. The Sfas Emes takes this entire concept a step deeper. There was once a time when the light of Torah was openly revealed in this world. Chazal explain that the light that Hashem created on the first day was a spiritual light. Hashem hid that light away after the first Shabbos, and the light will remain hidden until the ultimate redemption. However, a glimmer of that light – the ohr haganuz – is revealed each Shabbos. There are seven lamps on the Menorah, each representing a day of the week. By performing mitzvos, we link the seven lamps of the Menorah to the seven days of cre-
ation, which is alluded to in the posuk above: “…the lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the Menorah …” Since the lamps are part of the Menorah, how can they cast their light towards the Menorah? Chazal explain that the three lamps on either side face the middle lamp. The middle lamp represents Shabbos, while the six lamps facing it represent the days of the week. When we perform mitzvos during the six days of the week, there is a revelation of light from those days on Shabbos as well. This world can appear to be a very dark place, just like the black sheet of paper Esty brought home from school. Our bodies of flesh can seem like nothing more than mere wooden sticks. How could our physical bodies possibly bring spiritual light into this dark world? The answer is that we do not have to create the light – the light is already there. All we have to do is reveal it. When we use our bodies in the right way, we are like wooden sticks etching away the black surface of the paper to reveal the brilliance that had been hidden away. At the same time, we must take care not to use our bodies in the wrong way. If Esty would take her wooden stick and use it to scrape the sidewalk, the tip would become dulled and could no longer function as effectively to etch the black paper. May we all be conduits of light in this world, and may we soon merit the full revelation of the ohr haganuz.