Parshas Chukas- Balak
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
This weekend in the synagogue we read Parshas Chukas-Balak – which contains, among other things, the “Song at the Well†that the Jewish people sang at the end of their forty-year sojourn in the desert before entering the Land of Israel [see Numbers 21:17-20]. This was a song in which the Jewish people expressed gratitude to G-d for having given them the miraculous well and its constant water supply which kept them alive in the arid Wilderness.
This weekend also marks the 28th anniversary of my aufruf [lit., “call upâ€] – when, as is the time-honored tradition for a bridegroom on the weekend before his wedding, I was “called up†to the Torah for an Aliyah as Parshas Chukas was being read. As I think back to that special time in my life, I would like to share with you what my late beloved grandfather Rabbi Joseph Baumol ZTâ€L said to me in a memorable speech that he gave on that occasion. I hope you’ll enjoy it …
The Midrash comments that unlike the Song at the Sea which the Jewish people sang at the beginning of the 40-year journey in the desert – and which Moses led them in song – in this song at the well Moses name is nowhere to be found. [See commentary of Rashi to Numbers 21:20]
To understand why this is, said my grandfather, we first need to understand the Torah’s concept of shirah (song). In the normal course of events, we often fail to perceive G-d’s hand at work, and we wonder how most of the daily, seemingly unrelated phenomena surrounding us could be part of a Divine plan. We see suffering and evil, and we wonder now they can be the handiwork of a Merciful G-d.
Rarely, however, there is a flash of insight that makes people realize how all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. It’s that “aha!†moment when things come full circle (in fact, the Hebrew word for song, shirah, also means necklace or circle), when everything clicks, and when we can finally understand how every note, instrument and participant in G-d’s symphony of Creation plays a role. The result is song, for the Torah’s concept of song is the condition in which all the apparently unrelated and contradictory “happenings†do indeed meld into a coherent, merciful, comprehensible whole.
But it takes a certain spiritual maturity and sophistication to be able to see G-d’s hand working through nature and behind the scenes in the course of human events. This explains why at the Splitting of the Sea, when the fledgling Jewish nation was just starting out and was as yet spiritually immature, they needed Moses to hold them by the hand, so to speak, and to lead in them singing the shirah.
But after forty years of the Jewish people experiencing all kinds of tests and challenges and open and hidden miracles with Moses as their guide and teacher, he had enough confidence in them to “sit back in his armchair†and tell the Jewish people standing there at the well, “I took all of you up until this point, but I don’t have to lead you anymore. Now you can go sing your own shirah!â€
This was the same message that my grandfather gave me twenty-eight years ago, as I reached this new stage in my life, about to be married and start a family. And it is a message I shall never forget.
He said, “Dovid, your parents and family lovingly raised you and guided you through the first 25 years of your life. We taught you to see G-d’s hidden hand in all the ups and downs that befell you, and to string together all the seemingly disparate elements of your life into one harmonious symphony. Now that you are mature and about to start building a Jewish home and family of your own, we can all sit back with confidence and watch you with pride as you sing your own shirah in life. We know you can do it. Mazel Tov!â€
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