Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

The commandment of the Red Heifer does not make sense. But this teaches us to obey the commandments even when they do not make sense to us. When taken in total they do make sense.

The rebellion of Korah and his squad was a rebellion of the elites against the leadership of Moses. They based their arguments on a falsehood. This teaches us that sometimes the elites are dangerous.

The purpose of the Exodus was to train the Jews how to live a Torah life once they entered the land. It is easy to keep the Torah while in Yeshiva, the real test comes when you are dealing with the real world.

The problem with the men that Moses sent to observe the land was that they were the elites of society. They realized that once the Jews entered the land they might not be needed to lead. That lead to their mistakes.

One of the problems with the emissaries that Moses sent was that instead of just reporting the facts they editorialized. And they misinterpreted the facts as well. The job was just to report the facts, not give their opinions.

The men chosen to scout the land were not the correct people for the job. Their mission was to report about the people and what if the cities were fortified. They overextended their mission. That is what lead to the disaster that was to follow.

Miriam was the holiest woman of her time. Yet she was stricken with Zora’at for speaking ill of her brother, Moses. How could this have been? The answer is that she meant well bit acted inappropriately.

The real reason for the Jews complaining about the food that they were given by God was that it came with the command that they had to be moral and ethical. They wanted the food but did not want the condition that it came with.

We learn that the Jews were guided in the wilderness by a pillar of fire. This teaches us to place our trust in God. That we should strive to succeed but our success depends on God’s help.

We learn that to be a Levite meant that there was a five-year internship to carry out their duties in the Tabernacle. This is to teach us that we have to educate our youth to do the right thing.