Parashat Beha’alotcha & Haftarah

Light, Spirit, and the Journey of the Ark

In this lesson on Parashat Beha’alotcha and its Haftarah, we explored the connection between the Menorah in the Mishkan, the journey of the Ark, the inverted nuns surrounding Vayehi Binsoa HaAron, and Zechariah’s prophetic vision of the golden Menorah.

We began by noting that this Haftarah, from Zechariah 2:14–4:7, is read twice during the year. It is read for Parashat Beha’alotcha, because the parashah opens with Aaron kindling the Menorah, and it is also read on Shabbat Chanukah, because Chanukah also centers on the Menorah and the theme of divine light.

We had already encountered this Haftarah earlier in the year in our study of Parashat Miketz / Shabbat Chanukah. In this class, we returned to the same prophetic text from a different angle: not through Chanukah, but through the structure and themes of Parashat Beha’alotcha.

The lesson moved from Aaron’s quiet act of kindling the lamps, to the unusual two verses of Vayehi Binsoa HaAron, to the rabbinic and textual discussion of the inverted nuns, and finally to a short discussion of suspended letters in the Masoretic text.

Opening the Lesson

Beha’alotcha, Chanukah, and Zechariah’s Menorah

In the opening part of the lesson, we introduced the main themes of Parashat Beha’alotcha and its Haftarah. We explained that the parashah begins with the Menorah: God commands Moses to speak to Aaron and instruct him concerning the lighting of the lamps in the Mishkan.

We then noted that Chanukah also centers around the Menorah. For this reason, the Haftarah read on Shabbat Chanukah — Zechariah’s vision of the golden Menorah — is also the Haftarah for Parashat Beha’alotcha.

Earlier in the year, we studied this same Haftarah in connection with Parashat Miketz and Chanukah. In that earlier lesson, the focus was on Chanukah, divine light, the Menorah, and the famous words from Zechariah:

In this class, however, we approached the same Haftarah from a different direction. Instead of reading Zechariah’s Menorah through the lens of Chanukah, we connected it to Parashat Beha’alotcha: Aaron kindling the Menorah, the journey of the Ark, the inverted nuns, and the structure of the Torah itself.

Main Topics

• The connection between Parashat Beha’alotcha and the Menorah.
• The reason this Haftarah is also read on Shabbat Chanukah.
• The earlier class on Zechariah’s Menorah during Parashat Miketz / Chanukah.
• The new angle of this lesson: the Menorah, the Ark, and the journey of Israel.

Aaron and the Menorah

Reading Numbers 8:1–4

In this section, we studied the first four verses of Parashat Beha’alotcha. These verses present God’s command to Moses to speak to Aaron and instruct him concerning the lighting of the lamps. Verse 3 describes Aaron carrying out the command, while verse 4 gives a brief description of the craftsmanship and form of the Menorah.

We focused closely on the Hebrew of the opening phrase beha’alotcha et hanerot — “when you raise up the lamps.” We discussed the morphology and syntax of the word beha’alotcha, and the way the root connected to “going up” or “raising” shapes the meaning of the command.

We also discussed the phrase el mul penei hamenorah, “toward the face of the Menorah.” This led us to the broader biblical use of body parts as relational or directional terms. In Biblical Hebrew, words such as “face,” “hand,” “mouth,” and “side” often function not only as body parts but also as spatial language.

Hebrew and Grammatical Themes

• The morphology and syntax of beha’alotcha.
• The expression “the face of the Menorah” and body-part language in Biblical Hebrew.
• The phrase “seven lamps” and number-gender patterns in Semitic languages.
• The unusual noun nerot, similar to avot, where a masculine noun takes a feminine plural ending.
• The surprising agreement in shiv‘at hanerot: both words appear irregular, yet they fit one another.

We then discussed verbs from roots whose third root letter was originally a yod or heh, such as ע־ל־י / ע־ל־ה and ע־ש־י / ע־ש־ה. This led us to the verb vaya‘as, “and he made/did,” and to the contrast between the act of making the Menorah and the act of raising or lighting its lamps.

Finally, we looked at the expression “the work of the Menorah,” the mappiq in the final heh of words such as yerechah and pirchah, and the way this marks the third-person feminine singular possessive suffix. We also mentioned the golden Menorah created by the Temple Institute, now displayed in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem after previously being shown in other locations, including the Cardo.

Vayehi Binsoa HaAron

Reading the Verses Closely

In this section, we turned to the two famous verses of Vayehi Binsoa HaAron, Numbers 10:35–36. Before discussing the inverted nuns and the unusual status of this passage, we first read the verses themselves closely and focused on their language, grammar, and inner structure.

These verses describe what Moses would say when the Ark set out and when it came to rest. The passage is very short, but it contains a powerful theology of movement: the Ark travels, Moses speaks, God arises, enemies scatter, and the divine presence returns to rest among Israel.

The Two Movements of the Passage

• When the Ark sets out, Moses says: “Arise, O LORD.”
• When the Ark rests, Moses says: “Return, O LORD.”
• The first verse emphasizes movement, battle, and the scattering of enemies.
• The second verse emphasizes rest, return, and God’s presence among Israel.

We paid special attention to the verbs in the passage, including kumah, “arise,” and shuvah, “return.” We also discussed the grammatical forms binsoa and uvnucho, and how they frame the two states of the Ark: journeying and resting.

A central grammatical focus was the category of hollow verbs — verbs whose second root letter is originally a weak letter, often vav or yod. In the verses of Vayehi Binsoa, we focused especially on roots where the middle consonant is vav, and on how these forms behave in Biblical Hebrew.

The Inverted Nuns

Research, the Gemara, and the Structure of the Torah

In this section, we moved from the grammar of Vayehi Binsoa HaAron to the unusual status of the passage in the Torah scroll. Numbers 10:35–36 is surrounded by inverted nuns, one before the passage and one after it. These signs mark the unit as exceptional.

We asked why these inverted nuns appear. First, we discussed an explanation from modern textual scholarship, including Emanuel Tov’s discussion in his work on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. We then turned to the rabbinic discussion in Tractate Shabbat 115b–116a.

The Gemara’s Discussion

• The Gemara asks why this passage is marked with special signs.
• One explanation is that this is not the proper place of the passage.
• Another view treats these two verses as a book of their own.
• This leads to the striking rabbinic idea that the Torah may be counted as seven books.

We also discussed the rabbinic principle that sacred scrolls “make the hands impure,” and read from Mishnah Yadayim 3:5. This led to the question of what counts as a sacred book or scroll. In this context, the short unit of Vayehi Binsoa becomes very important, because it serves as a standard for defining a textual unit as a “book.”

According to this rabbinic model, the Torah can be viewed as seven books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers until Vayehi Binsoa, the two verses of Vayehi Binsoa themselves, the continuation of Numbers after the passage, and Deuteronomy.

Georgie’s Question

Suspended Letters in the Masoretic Text

In this short final section, we responded to Georgie’s question about suspended letters in the Masoretic text. These are letters written above the normal line of the text, preserving important scribal and interpretive traditions.

We explained that there are several examples of suspended letters, and that some of them involve guttural letters, especially the letter ayin. This led to a discussion of the weakening of gutturals in Hebrew pronunciation. Because the ayin can be difficult to pronounce clearly, it may sometimes have been omitted in transmission and later restored above the line by a scribe or corrector.

Examples Discussed

• Suspended letters as letters written above the normal line of the text.
• The role of guttural letters, especially ayin.
• The weakening or instability of gutturals in pronunciation.
• The example from Psalm 80: yicharsemenna chazir mi-ya‘ar — “the boar from the forest ravages it.”
• The suspended nun in Judges 18.
• The case of Jonathan son of Gershom son of Manasseh.

The example from Judges 18 is different from the guttural examples. There, the suspended nun in the name Manasseh is traditionally understood as a way of protecting the honor of Moses. The figure involved is understood to be connected to Moses’ family line, but the text avoids directly presenting Moses as the ancestor of a priest associated with illegitimate worship.

This showed us that suspended letters can function in more than one way. Sometimes they may preserve a scribal correction or reflect pronunciation issues. In other cases, such as Judges 18, they may preserve a theological or interpretive tradition embedded in the written form of the biblical text.