Recap for 16 Sivan (Parsha Behaalotecha)

This Shabbos, Avishai spoke about the week’s parsha known as Behaalotecha. In the parsha, Miriam questions why Hashem has such a close relationship with her brother, Moses, and not with her.  It would seem that Miriam is jealous of her brother, Moses, which is why she makes negative comments about him. Avishai relayed to us some of the main points in Efroni’s dvar Torah, which include the possibility that Miriam was in fact trying to help her brother, by lightening his load, and this was her primary motivation rather than jealousy.  Nevertheless, we agreed that what Miriam did was still lashon hara.

Miriam was not completely aware of all the facts as to why Moses was able to take on his role and what it takes to be a prophet.  David S. talked about how prophets were not necessarily predetermined, but became prophets by attaining a very high level of spirituality.  In the parsha, Hashem appears suddenly.  We talked about what this means, as a message that not anyone can be a prophet.  The week’s parsha contains a message to all of us that we should be careful not to judge and make assumptions about anything when we do not know all the facts.  We need to be very careful, especially in saying negative things about and judging others.  We may think we are being helpful, but if we knew all the facts it would be obvious to us that we are not.

David S. led a discussion of Shabbos, and how this day is meant to be holy and a day of rest.  There are 39 categories of work which are forbidden, which correspond to a type of work that was performed in construction during ancient times.  We discussed how even though we can do modern work and avoid these 39 categories, we should not engage in any type of work with a few exceptions such as doctors saving lives and rabbis leading services.

In the past, the observance of Shabbos was not spelled out in detail.  There were only Torah commandments.  But there was an expectation that the Jews would come up with details to carry out these general commandments and keep Shabbos a holy day.  Unfortunately, over time the Rabbis have had to institute additional laws.  We discussed how there may still need to be additional laws on top of this, if we still can’t figure out and follow details that will keep Shabbos holy.

There are several things we should avoid on Shabbos, even though they are not explicitly commanded.  We should avoid talking about work and other topics we normally focus on during the week.   We should avoid making business deals, even if no money is to change hands until after Shabbos. We should avoid dressing in the same cloths we wear during the week.

There are people who can work on Shabbos, but they should do as much work as possible during the week.  We discussed how these people can be paid so much for their Shabbos work.  David S told a story that his Dad tells about how someone can be paid $200 to do something simple like tighten a screw. The person is being paid $1 to turn the screw but $199 to know what screw to turn.

Finally, we discussed how in some situations we can use a non-Jew, known as a “Shabbos goy”, to help us out on Shabbos.   This non-Jew can perform tasks such as turning on a light, or turning off a microphone that is making a lot of noise.   We can’t ask the person directly to perform the task, however we can hint around what we would like him to do.  We talked about some interesting situations we have been in.   In conclusion, it can be desirable to have a few non-Jews living among us.  But it may be a good idea to talk to them beforehand and let them know what may be happening.

This is a summary of what we discussed this past Shabbos.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.