Shabbat Greetings
This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alotecha (Numbers 8:1-12:16) opens with a simple but powerful image: Aaron is instructed to kindle the lamps of the menorah so that they shine forward. The Torah could have simply said “light the lamps.” Instead, it uses the verb beha’alotecha, “when you raise up” the lights.
The rabbis (Kehot Chumash: A Chassidic Commentary) noticed this unusual language and taught that Aaron was to hold the flame to each wick until it could burn on its own. A true act of leadership is not merely providing light for a moment; it is helping others become sources of light themselves.
This teaching feels especially relevant in a world that often seems marked by uncertainty, conflict, division, and anxiety. Many people feel overwhelmed by problems that appear larger than any one person can solve. The Torah’s response is neither denial nor despair. Instead, it offers a different vision of hope.
Hope in Judaism is not passive optimism. It is not the belief that everything will magically work out. Rather, hope is the decision to keep kindling light even when darkness remains. Interestingly, Beha’alotecha quickly moves from the beauty of the menorah to stories of complaint, frustration, and hardship. The Israelites grumble. Moses feels exhausted by leadership. The journey becomes difficult. The Torah does not present a community of perfect faith. It presents real human beings struggling with fear and uncertainty. That honesty itself is a source of hope. The Torah recognizes that spiritual life includes disappointment and doubt. Yet the journey continues. The covenant continues. The people continue.
One lesson we might draw is that hope does not require certainty. Moses does not know exactly how the journey will unfold. The Israelites certainly do not. Yet they take the next step. In Jewish tradition, faith often means walking forward without seeing the entire path.
A second lesson comes from the menorah itself. A single flame can seem insignificant. Yet light behaves differently than many other things in life: when one candle lights another, nothing is diminished. The original flame remains whole while the total light increases.
In a challenging world, acts of kindness, justice, learning, prayer, friendship, and community can feel small compared with global problems. Beha’alotecha reminds us that light spreads precisely this way, one flame at a time. We are not asked to illuminate the entire world alone. We are asked to tend the light that has been entrusted to us.
Finally, the opening image suggests that every generation receives both a responsibility and a promise. The responsibility is to keep the lamps burning. The promise is that light can endure even through long periods of darkness. The Torah’s message is not that darkness is absent. It is that darkness never gets the final word.
May we find the courage to be kindlers of light for one another, to strengthen hope where it has grown fragile, and to help raise up flames that burn steadily and independently. And may we remember that even in difficult times, a small light shining forward can help guide an entire community on its journey.
SHABBAT SHALOM