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Parshas Behaalotecha 052910:
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky
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"Omissions and Additions" The Torah is replete with words that are Chaseir or Malei. A word that is Chaseir is a word that seems to be missing a letter while a word that is malei is written with all of its letter‟s intact. Generally speaking there are two letters in the He-brew language, the Yud and the Vav, that can be added to a word but yet seem to be expendable as well, meaning that the word will read the same way with or without these letters. We are all aware that there are no extra words or any extra letters in the Torah. Therefore if a word has the vav and could be read without it, there must be a reason that it is there or not. There are hundreds of examples of this throughout Tanach. The question then arises as to why sometimes the very same word is written full, Malei or Cha-seir, missing. Even more challenging are the situations when a word is mentioned twice within a passuk and one time it is written one way and the second time the other way. In the opening passuk in this week‟s parsha B’Haaloscha it says "Dabair el Aharon V’Amarta Aleihem, B’Haaloscha es HaNeir`s (without a Vav) el Mul Pnei HaMenorah Yairu Shivas HaNeiros (with a Vav). RABBI YISRAEL BE'ERI KO-LODNER in his commentary Zahav B’Miluasam on Chumash explains the Chaseir/Malei phenomena in Tanach. The Vav in a word is a sign of com-pleteness and wholesomeness, and its absence connotes that it is lacking in something. In our case of the candles, the word Neiros is first written without a vav because the candles at that point are not set into the candelabra. Rather they were taken outside and lit and are therefore considered incomplete. They can only be complete when they are lit in the holders of the Menorah itself. The Ohr Hachaim HaKadosh explains that when the candles were taken down to be cleaned and then lifted back up to be arranged again in the Menorah the word Neiros is without vav. The Nei-ros/candles are only a part of what their potential is supposed to be. The second time the word Neiros/candles are men-tioned in the passuk is when they have been lit and are IN the Menorah. The candles, together with the Candelabra, is now Shaleim, it is now complete, so the word Neiros is full with the vav. If one was to analyze each time the word is used you can decipher whether or not it is being used in its full or partial form. There are times when a person is preparing something to be baked. Even if all the ingredients are mixed together but it‟s not yet been in the oven it is not ready to be eaten. So too when it comes to learning and doing of Mitzvos. There are times when we prepare to do a Mitzva but we never finish it off. We go out erev Sukkos and purchase a lulav and esrog and all its trimmings, but when it comes to the last component of actually doing the Mitzva we sometimes fall short. There is a certain excitement in getting ready and preparing for the Mitzva but we sometimes slack off when it comes to finishing. If we only buy the lulav, or clean the chanukiah, practice blowing the Shofar but don‟t use it properly at the right time in the right place then we are lacking in the vav of that mitzva. We in our every day lives get bogged down with all the prep and hype of an event, or a mitzva, and never fully appreciate or complete the task at hand. One of the major ben-efits in completing something is the ac-companying feeling of peace and tran-quility that comes as a result of our fi-nishing. We find this in that city in Israel known as Yerushalayim, or Ir Shalem and it is the city of peace. Let us all share in the enthusiasm to prepare the mitzvos and have the wherewithal to complete them and bring forth light of the full Nei-ros (with a vav) that we shall merit to light once again in the Bayis Shlishi B’Meheira V’Yameinu, Amen. Ah Gut Shabbos |
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