page_title: Behaalotecha
section_title: Numbers chapter 10
hierarchical_section_title: Behaalotecha / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Numbers chapter 10
caption_attribution_description: English: Hebrew Bible text of Numbers 10:33-11:1 as written in a Torah Scroll, Sefer Torah.
context_page_description: Behaalotecha, Beha'alotecha, Beha'alothekha, or Behaaloscha is the 36th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the third in the Book of Numbers. The parashah tells of the Menorah in the Tabernacle, the consecration of the Levites, the Second Passover, how a cloud and fire led the Israelites, the silver trumpets, how the Israelites set out on their journeys, the complaints of the Israelites, and how Miriam and Aaron questioned Moses. The parashah constitutes Numbers 8:1–12:16. It is made up of 7,055 Hebrew letters, 1,840 Hebrew words, 136 verses, and 240 lines in a Torah Scroll.
  Jews generally read it in late May or in June. As the parashah sets out some of the laws of Passover, Jews also read part of the parashah, Numbers 9:1–14, as the initial Torah reading for the fourth intermediate day of Passover.
context_section_description: It was taught in a Baraita that Rabbi Josiah taught that the expression "make for yourself" (עֲשֵׂה לְךָ, aseih lecha) in Numbers 10:2 was a command for Moses to take from his own funds, in contrast to the expression "they shall take for you" (וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ, v'yikhu eileicha) in Exodus 27:20, which was a command for Moses to take from communal funds.
  When Samuel had a bad dream, he used to quote Zechariah 10:2, "The dreams speak falsely." When he had a good dream, he used to question whether dreams speak falsely, seeing as in Numbers 10:2, God says, "I speak with him in a dream?" Rava pointed out the potential contradiction between Numbers 10:2 and Zechariah 10:2. The Gemara resolved the contradiction, teaching that Numbers 10:2, "I speak with him in a dream?" refers to dreams that come through an angel, whereas Zechariah 10:2, "The dreams speak falsely," refers to dreams that come through a demon. The Gemara taught that a dream is a sixtieth part of prophecy. Rabbi Hanan taught that even if the Master of Dreams (an angel, in a dream that truly foretells the future) tells a person that on the next day the person will die, the person should not desist from prayer, for as Ecclesiastes 5:6 says, "For in the multitude of dreams are vanities and also many words, but fear God." (Although a dream may seem reliably to predict the future, it will not necessarily come true; one must place one's trust in God.) Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan that a person is shown in a dream only what is suggested by the person's own thoughts (while awake), as Daniel 2:29 says, "As for you, Oh King, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed," and Daniel 2:30 says, "That you may know the thoughts of the heart."
  Rabbi Hama bar Haninah and Rabbi Josiah disagreed about what configuration the Israelites traveled in when they traveled in the Wilderness. Based on Numbers 2:17, "as they encamp, so shall they set forward," one said that they traveled in the shape of a box. Based on Numbers 10:25, "the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rearward of all the camps," the other said that they traveled in the shape of a beam—in a row. Refuting the other's argument, the one who said that they traveled in the shape of a beam read Numbers 2:17, "as they encamp, so shall they set forward," to teach that just as the configuration of their camp was according to God's Word, so the configuration of their journey was by God's Word. While the one who said that they traveled in the shape of a box read Numbers 10:25, "the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rearward of all the camps," to teach that Dan was more populous than the other camps, and would thus travel in the rear, and if anyone would lose any item, the camp of Dan would return it.
  The Sifre deduced from the words "And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day" in Numbers 10:34 that God's cloud hovered over the people with disabilities and illnesses—including those afflicted with emissions and skins diseases that removed them from the camp proper—protecting those with special needs.
  The Sages taught that inverted nuns ( ] ) bracket the verses Numbers 10:35–36, about how the Ark would move, to teach that the verses are not in their proper place. But Rabbi said that the nuns do not appear there on that account, but because Numbers 10:35–36 constitute a separate book. It thus follows according to Rabbi that there are seven books of the Torah, and this accords with the interpretation that Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani made in the name of Rabbi Jonathan of Proverbs 9:1, when it says, "She [Wisdom] has hewn out her seven pillars," referring to seven Books of the Law. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel, however, taught that Numbers 10:35–36 were written where they are to provide a break between two accounts of Israel's transgressions. The first account appears in Numbers 10:33, "they set forward from the mount of the Lord three days' journey," which Rabbi Hama ben Hanina said meant that the Israelites turned away from following the Lord within three short days, and the second acco
caption: Numbers 10:33–11:1 in a Torah Scroll
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