Behaalotcha – weekly Torah Portion
The portion is about lighting the candles in a particular manner. Looking at the entire portion – as a verb in Hebrew – speaks of being in the midst of the ability to rise oneself to a state or work which is under the mandate of reforming everything in order to get a point of: the general Shabbat – the world to come. Where everything is already in its place, reformed.
Its many stories, which vary from personal to general – like everyone is dis-satisfied in this portion. People are restless, not happy with what the have. They don’t feel in their place. They feel there is a constant gap between where they are and where its possible to be. This is why they complain.
In the beginning its not a specific complaint. We are not given that…but, later it finds the words – to create the reality of the satisfaction. So, it seems that a sense or emotion which isn’t clear yet, becomes a reality when we give it a name: a word. We formulate it into a description of reality
Its not that we describe an actuality, but rather a reality. There is a difference.
As we meet the first complaint – its general. Then it focuses on wanting, and missing to eat meat. Like all the complaints are there in that which they are missing from Egypt. When we read it carefully, its not the actual food – its appetizers. Midrashim explain that they are not hungry, because they have ‘man’ every day – in a way that each one gets what they would like to have. They could taste, but can’t see what they eat. We don’t only eat with taste buds…but rather with all of our senses.
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