Aliya Summary: The Jews arrive at Mount Hor. At G‑d's command, Moshe,
Aaron and Aaron's son, Elazar, go up the mountain. Aaron removes his
high priest's vestments and Elazar dons them. Aaron then passes away.
The entire nation mourns Aaron's death for thirty days. The Amalekites,
disguised as Canaanites, attack the Jews. The Jews pray to G‑d and are
victorious in battle. The Jews complain about their food, claiming that
they are "disgusted" by the manna. G‑d dispatches serpents into the
Israelite encampment, and many Jews die. Moshe prays to G‑d on the Jews'
behalf. Following G‑d's instructions, Moshe fashions a copper serpent
and places it atop a pole. The bitten Jews would look at this snake and
be healed.
And why did they Amalekites disguise
themselves as Canaanites? The Midrash explains that they figured that
the Jews would pray to G-d to help them defeat these enemy Canaanites,
and because they weren't really Canaanites, their prayers wouldn't work.
Their mistake was that they only disguised their language, not their
clothes, so when the Jews saw them, they weren't sure who they were, and
simply asked for help in defeating this enemy (general request), and
that worked. This definitely puts prayer in a different perspective, a
perspective we could probably use more of these days.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment