Parashat Behaalotcha

By Rabbi Shemuel Akhamzadeh

וַ֠יֹּאמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֤ים הָהֵ֙מָּה֙ אֵלָ֔יו אֲנַ֥חְנוּ טְמֵאִ֖ים לְנֶ֣פֶשׁ אָדָ֑ם לָ֣מָּה נִגָּרַ֗ע לְבִלְתִּ֨י הַקְרִ֜ב אֶת־קָרְבַּ֤ן יְהוָה֙ בְּמֹ֣עֲד֔וֹ בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

Those men said to them, “Unclean though we are by reason of a corpse, why must we be debarred from presenting the LORD’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?”(Bamidbar 9:7)

In this week’s portion we read about the protest of those who could not offer the Korban Pessah because they were tamme. The Midrash calls these people kasher and special. Rashi says they merited that the law of Pessah Sheni was thought of through them.

The Gemara in Berachot לה tells us how the earlier generations would go out of their way to make sure that they were חייב responsible to do a mitzva. However, later generations would try to exempt themselves from doing a mitzvah – An obvious degradation of the generations.

As we are in the midst of this pandemic ר״ל , and even though a hand full of shuls have started limited Tefila schedules, many of us, especially elders and those with underlying health challenges, are still exempt from joining minyanim and should avoid shuls for obvious reasons. But these exemptions should not come with a sigh of relief, rather with a feeling of sorrow and bitterness that we are not worthy of the opportunity to serve Hashem. Our Tefilot though at home should be with more vigor and beseeching that Hashem should grant us the zchut to get back to our Shuls and Battei Midrash soon.

Shabbat Shalom