Words From Rabbi White

This week we read the double portion of Huqqat and Balaq.  The first sidra tells us of the very sad passing of Miriam and Aharon.

Let’s reflect for a moment on essential roles played by these two:

I consider Miriam to be the heroine of the Torah. After all, she stood watch over the baby after he had been placed in the Nile. And when the daughter of Pharoah spotted the baby floating in the river, Miriam might have endangered her own life by running over to the princess and suggesting that an Israelite woman be appointed to nurse the baby.

As for Aharon: well, we are all familiar with the teaching of Hillel’s in the first chapter of Pirkei Avot that he is the paradigm of person who not only loves peace, but actively pursues it.

Someone might have said: without the merit of these 2 great people, all is lost. So we immediately open up parashat Balak: the king of Moab and the famous seer team up to curse the Israelite people into oblivion. Yet the enemy cannot succeed. When am yisrael is united, the enemy can only bless us.

“Mah tovu ohalekha yaakov mishkenotekha yisrael”

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi menahem White