Beha'alotecha, Complaining, and Ashrecha Ba'Olam Hazeh

Topics

• The Passage Bracketed by Inverted Nuns
• When Dissatisfaction Becomes the Calamity
• Torah Interrupts the Cycle
• The Complaint Beneath the Complaint
• The Story of Rav Eliyahu Lopian
• How the Beis Yisrael Knew
• “Do It, and You Will See”
• Happiness Is Not Purchased Through Calculation
• Scatter the Enemies Within
• The City of Happiness
• Recognizing Present Blessing
• From Complaint to Desire
• Weighing on Shabbos
• Eating for Shabbos
• Medical Measurement on Shabbos
• Formal Measurement and Informal Comparison
• Health Is a Mitzvah, but Electricity Is Separate
• Measuring Distance for a Shabbos Need
• Measurement for a Mitzvah
• Medical Portions and Dieting
• The Question Must Be Asked Correctly
• The Torah Learned Before Birth
• What Do Girls and Non-Jews Learn?
• Shalom Zachar and Forgotten Torah
• Forgetting Creates the Work of Life

Transcript

## The Passage Bracketed by Inverted Nuns

In Parashas Behaaloscha, the Torah records:

> “When the Aron traveled, Moshe said: ‘Arise, Hashem, and let Your enemies be scattered; let those who hate You flee before You.’ And when it rested, he said: ‘Return, Hashem, to the myriads of thousands of Yisrael’” (Bamidbar 10:35–36).

These two pesukim are enclosed by inverted letters nun. Rashi, following Chazal, explains that the passage was placed here to separate between one calamity and another (Rashi to Bamidbar 10:35; Shabbos 116a).

What were the two calamities? Immediately afterward, the Torah says, “The people were like complainers” (Bamidbar 11:1). Before the passage, Klal Yisrael departed from Har Sinai. Chazal describe their departure as resembling a child who runs away from school: after receiving the Torah, they hurried onward as though they feared being given additional obligations.

## When Dissatisfaction Becomes the Calamity

The second calamity is striking because the Torah initially does not identify a specific complaint. It simply says that the people became *mis’onenim*—complainers. Hashem heard, became angry, and a fire broke out among them (Bamidbar 11:1).

Why was the reaction so severe? Because the complaint revealed something deeper than a request for a particular food. Klal Yisrael had received the Torah. Hashem protected them, fed them, and cared for every need. Yet they remained dissatisfied.

The greatest misfortune is not merely losing money or lacking some comfort. The greatest misfortune is becoming a person who cannot be happy with what Hashem has given him. A person may possess blessing and still experience his life as deprivation because his mind is trained to complain.

## Torah Interrupts the Cycle

The Torah places *Vayehi binsoa ha’Aron* between the two failures. The Aron represents Torah. It is Torah that interrupts the progression from fleeing responsibility to living as a complainer.

When a person is spiritually empty, complaint arises naturally. Something is always missing; something is always wrong. But when a person learns, davens, and fills himself with avodas Hashem, the complaints lose their force. Therefore, when a person discovers that he has spent the day dissatisfied with everything around him, he should examine the day itself: Was there Torah? Was there tefillah? Was there meaningful avodah?

*Vayehi binsoa ha’Aron* is not merely a historical passage. It is the remedy placed between one calamity and the next.

## The Complaint Beneath the Complaint

The problem of the *mis’onenim* was not merely that they asked for meat. Rashi explains that they sought a pretext to separate themselves from Hashem (Rashi to Bamidbar 11:1). The external complaint concealed an internal resistance: Torah felt demanding, and they wanted release from its discipline.

An earlier sefer entitled *Sfas Emes*—not the well-known work of the Gerrer Rebbe—was cited as drawing a numerical allusion between the language of *mis’onenim* and Torah. The exact calculation requires verification, but the underlying point is clear: their dissatisfaction was bound up with their flight from Torah.

Torah is not always easy. No honest person should sell Torah as effortless. Yet the very effort produces the happiness that comfort cannot provide. When a person gives himself to learning despite the resistance, he discovers that Torah does not diminish life; it gives life its sweetness.

## The Story of Rav Eliyahu Lopian

Rav Shalom Shvadron would repeat a remarkable story concerning his rebbe, Rav Eliyahu Lopian.

When Rav Eliyahu was still young, his wife became gravely ill. The doctor concluded that there was no hope. Unable to remain inside and watch her condition deteriorate, Rav Eliyahu paced outside his home in distress.

An elderly man approached him and asked why he appeared so broken. Rav Eliyahu explained that his wife was dying and that the doctors had given up hope. The stranger asked about the illness and instructed him to enter the nearby forest, locate a particular plant or berry, prepare it in a specific way, and give it to his wife.

Rav Eliyahu turned to look in the direction the man had indicated. When he turned back, the stranger had disappeared. With nothing to lose, he followed the instructions. His wife recovered and lived for many additional years.

Rav Eliyahu never publicized the episode.

## How the Beis Yisrael Knew

Many years later, when Rav Eliyahu was already an elderly man and became ill, his son visited the Beis Yisrael of Ger to request a brachah. The Rebbe responded in astonishment: “You are asking me to bless Rav Eliyahu Lopian? A man who merited giluy Eliyahu does not require my brachah.”

When the son returned and repeated the words, Rav Eliyahu was amazed. He said that he had never told anyone what had happened. How, then, did the Beis Yisrael know?

Rav Shalom Shvadron used this story when transmitting Rav Eliyahu Lopian’s teachings. The story itself was not the lesson; it revealed the spiritual stature of the person whose mussar he was about to repeat.

## “Do It, and You Will See”

Rav Eliyahu Lopian explained the Mishnah:

> “This is the way of Torah: bread with salt you shall eat, water in measure you shall drink, upon the ground you shall sleep, a life of hardship you shall live, and in Torah you shall toil. If you do so, fortunate are you in this world, and it will be good for you in the World to Come” (Avos 6:4).

The Mishnah appears difficult. It describes dry bread, measured water, sleeping on the ground, and a life of hardship—and then promises, “Fortunate are you in this world.” How can those two descriptions coexist?

Rav Eliyahu illustrated it with a mashal. Imagine receiving a brochure advertising a luxurious vacation. You open it to see the menu and discover that the guests will be served old bread. You turn to the beverage section and learn that water will be rationed. You examine the accommodations and find that everyone will sleep on the ground. Then, on the final page, the brochure declares: “This will be the finest vacation of your life.”

The advertisement sounds absurd.

That, however, is precisely the Mishnah’s point. The happiness of Torah cannot be demonstrated through the ordinary calculations of comfort. If one examines only the external conditions, the promise appears impossible. Therefore the Mishnah says, *“If you do so.”* Do it, and then you will see. The experience itself reveals what explanation cannot.

## Happiness Is Not Purchased Through Calculation

A person imagines that if he steps away from business, money, deals, and constant planning in order to learn and daven, he will lose his enjoyment of life. The truth is the opposite. When he stops calculating every possible gain and gives himself honestly to Torah and avodah, he often discovers that he has had a better day than all the days spent chasing satisfaction.

The mind argues: “But I am missing an opportunity. I am losing a deal. I need to take care of one more thing.” Those calculations feed the state of *mis’onenim*. A person becomes preoccupied with what is absent instead of living with what Hashem has placed before him.

The answer is not an intellectual slogan. It is *im atah oseh kein*—try it. Learn. Daven. Do what a Jew is meant to do. Then the promise becomes visible: *ashrecha ba’olam hazeh*.

## Scatter the Enemies Within

A Gerrer Rebbe offered an inward reading of Moshe Rabbeinu’s words:

> “Arise, Hashem, and let Your enemies be scattered; let those who hate You flee before You” (Bamidbar 10:35).

The “enemies” are not only external forces. They include the thoughts, distractions, anxieties, and calculations that oppose a person’s Torah. When a person sits down to learn, every unfinished concern suddenly demands attention. Every desire declares itself urgent. *Veyafutzu oyvecha* means that these forces must be dispersed. A person must push aside the worries and refuse to let them govern the moment.

Only then can Torah interrupt the cycle of complaint. When the mind is constantly occupied with “I need,” “I want,” and “What will happen?” the person becomes a *mis’onen*. When he clears space for Torah, the mind itself changes.

## The City of Happiness

Rav Avraham Pam would often repeat an English expression: “The city of happiness can only be found in the state of mind.”

Happiness is not located in a particular house, salary, possession, or circumstance. It is found in the way a person receives his life. A person may possess everything and remain worried, desolate, and unhappy. Another may possess very little and nevertheless live with genuine joy.

The mind has extraordinary power. When a person continually rehearses what he lacks, the thoughts themselves become his suffering. He tells himself: “I need a larger house. I need more money. I need this opportunity. I must acquire that.” There is no end. The moment one desire is fulfilled, another appears.

Chazal describe this pattern: one who possesses one hundred desires two hundred (Koheles Rabbah 1:13). Desire does not naturally announce that it has received enough. It expands.

This does not mean that a person may not seek parnassah or work toward improvement. He should be blessed with abundance. The danger begins when pursuit displaces the person from his own life—when it becomes *matrid es ha’adam me’olamo*, removing him from Torah, family, gratitude, and inner peace.

## Recognizing Present Blessing

People often declare that health and children are all that truly matter. Yet when Hashem grants health and children, they remain unhappy because the mind immediately selects another deficiency.

A person must stop and listen to his own words. If he claims that a certain blessing is everything, then while he possesses that blessing he should allow himself to recognize it. Otherwise, the mind will ensure that no circumstance is ever enough.

Great people are not necessarily those who possess the most. They are those who have learned to be happy with what Hashem has given them while continuing to serve Him faithfully.

## From Complaint to Desire

Immediately after the Torah describes the *mis’onenim*, it says:

> “The mixed multitude among them desired a desire” (Bamidbar 11:4).

The sequence is exact. First a person becomes dissatisfied. Then he searches for something that will fill the emptiness. He tells himself that if he acquires one more thing, tastes one more pleasure, or reaches one more goal, he will finally be content.

The Torah does not merely say that they desired. It says *his’avu ta’avah*—they desired a desire. They were not necessarily seeking one specific object. They needed to want something because they could not tolerate the emptiness within themselves.

This is a profound psychological truth. The complaint comes first; the object comes afterward. A person is unhappy, and therefore he chooses something upon which to place his longing. But the thing itself cannot cure the dissatisfaction, because the real problem was never the meat, the house, the purchase, or the experience. The problem was the inner condition of *mis’onenim*.

## Weighing on Shabbos

The discussion now turns to practical halachah. Chazal prohibited ordinary weighing and measuring on Shabbos because these are weekday activities associated with commerce (Shabbos 157a; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 306:7).

Therefore, a person should not weigh himself on Shabbos, whether with a conventional scale or another instrument. An electronic scale raises the additional issues involved in activating electrical equipment.

The restriction is not limited to checking body weight. Measuring one’s height in a formal numerical manner is likewise included in the general prohibition of weekday measurement.

## Eating for Shabbos

The Gemara teaches that Hashem grants a person a *neshamah yeseirah* for Shabbos, and Rashi explains that it broadens his capacity for rest, joy, eating, and drinking (Beitzah 16a and Rashi there).

Rav Zalman Sorotzkin was quoted as asking humorously: If the additional neshamah is given to accommodate Shabbos eating, why do people nevertheless gain weight?

The answer reflects a deeper truth. Everything depends upon why one is eating. If the eating is genuinely part of honoring and delighting in Shabbos, it belongs to the avodah of the day. But a person must be honest with himself. It is easy to label ordinary indulgence “oneg Shabbos” when one is simply eating for oneself.

The Kotzker Rebbe demanded this honesty. He rejected spiritual fantasies that allow a person to disguise appetite as avodah. The question is not what name we attach to the act. The question is whom we are truly serving.

## Medical Measurement on Shabbos

Although ordinary weighing and measuring are prohibited on Shabbos, Chazal permitted measurement for a mitzvah and, in appropriate circumstances, for medical need (Shabbos 157a; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 306:7).

Accordingly, a person who feels unwell may take his temperature when the information is genuinely needed. This does not necessarily require a life-threatening illness; medical assessment itself can qualify as a legitimate need. With a traditional non-electronic thermometer, even preparing it for use by lowering the previous reading is not ordinarily treated as repairing an instrument.

An electronic thermometer presents additional electrical concerns. Its use depends upon the patient’s condition and the absence of a practical permitted alternative. The more serious the medical concern, the broader the halachic allowance becomes.

The same distinction applies to measuring blood pressure. A manual device used for a genuine health need is fundamentally different from casual measurement. A battery-operated machine raises separate questions and should not be treated as automatically permitted merely because the information is medical.

## Formal Measurement and Informal Comparison

Measuring one’s height numerically is an ordinary act of measurement and should not be done on Shabbos without a permitted purpose.

An informal comparison—such as two children standing next to one another merely to see who appears taller—may not have the same status when no instrument or numerical measurement is used. The shiur raised this distinction without presenting it as a final ruling.

The underlying principle is important. Halachah distinguishes between a formal weekday act of measurement and a casual observation that produces no number and serves no commercial purpose. Yet one should not create permissions casually. Where the act is genuinely a measurement, the prohibition remains.

## Health Is a Mitzvah, but Electricity Is Separate

Caring for the body is itself part of avodas Hashem. Therefore medical measurement is treated more leniently than weighing oneself out of curiosity or checking progress on a diet.

At the same time, one may not reason that every health-related goal automatically permits every instrument. The purpose may justify measurement while the method remains prohibited. A manual thermometer and an electronic device are not halachically identical. A manual blood-pressure cuff and a battery-powered machine are likewise not necessarily the same.

Practical cases depend upon the patient’s condition, the instrument involved, and whether a permitted alternative is available.

## Measuring Distance for a Shabbos Need

A person may sometimes estimate distance on Shabbos by counting his steps when the information is needed for Shabbos itself. For example, he may need to know whether a particular walk is manageable or whether an item can be positioned properly for the meal.

This is different from pacing off a room or property merely to obtain measurements for a weekday project. The problem is not only the physical act of counting. Ordinary measuring belongs to weekday calculation and can lead naturally into commerce and planning.

Thus, purpose matters. When the measurement serves a present Shabbos need, there is room for permission. When it is simply preparation for later business or construction, it remains a weekday activity.

## Measurement for a Mitzvah

Chazal explicitly permit measurement for a mitzvah (Shabbos 157a). Therefore, if a person needs to determine a required shiur for matzah, Kiddush, or another mitzvah and failed to prepare before Shabbos or Yom Tov, necessary measurement may be permitted.

Nevertheless, when the need is foreseeable, it is better to measure before Shabbos. The permission exists to enable the mitzvah, not to encourage avoidable dependence upon measurement during Shabbos.

## Medical Portions and Dieting

A person who has been instructed by a physician to eat a measured amount presents a different question from someone who is casually dieting. A medically necessary portion may fall under the allowance for health needs. Ordinary dieting, however, does not automatically transform weighing food into a mitzvah.

The distinction again rests upon the actual need. “Health” cannot become a label placed upon every personal preference. At the same time, a genuine medical instruction should not be dismissed as mere convenience.

## The Question Must Be Asked Correctly

The class discussion then turned briefly to the *neshamah yeseirah* and to the Torah learned by a child before birth. The exchange itself illustrated an important method: many questions become confused because they are not formulated precisely.

Before searching for an answer, one must identify what is truly being asked. Is the question about the soul, the body, the obligation to learn, or the visible sign shared by different people? Clear thinking begins with a properly stated question.

## The Torah Learned Before Birth

The Gemara teaches that while a child is in the womb, a malach teaches him the entire Torah. When he enters the world, the malach causes him to forget what he learned (Niddah 30b).

This teaching means that Torah is not foreign to the Jewish soul. Learning is not merely acquiring information from the outside. It is also the awakening of something deeply rooted within the person.

An oral tradition cited in the shiur connects the small indentation beneath the nose with the malach’s touch at the moment of forgetting. The precise source was attributed to the Zohar and should be verified before publication.

## What Do Girls and Non-Jews Learn?

The discussion raised a natural question: If the visible indentation appears in everyone, what does that imply about girls and non-Jews?

Several possible approaches were offered. Girls may also be taught the portions of Torah and halachah relevant to their mitzvos. Non-Jews are obligated in the seven mitzvos of Bnei Noach and therefore also require knowledge of Hashem’s will for them.

Another possibility is that the visible feature was created universally so that the physical appearance of one human being would not disclose his spiritual identity in an unmistakable way. The world is arranged so that free choice remains possible.

These explanations were presented as possibilities rather than definitive conclusions.

## Shalom Zachar and Forgotten Torah

One explanation given for the custom of *Shalom Zachar* is that it resembles a visit of consolation: the newborn has forgotten the Torah learned before birth, and people come to comfort him.

This explanation itself raises the question of why the custom is associated specifically with a boy. If girls also learn the Torah relevant to their obligations, the difference requires explanation. The shiur suggested that the forms or scope of learning may differ, but did not present a final resolution.

## Forgetting Creates the Work of Life

Why teach the child Torah only for him to forget it?

Because the Torah has entered him. The person must spend his life recovering through effort what his neshamah already recognizes. The forgetting does not make the original learning meaningless. It creates the possibility that Torah will later become his through choice, struggle, and ameilus.

This returns to the opening message of the shiur. A person who runs from Torah becomes empty and dissatisfied. A person who returns to Torah is returning to the deepest truth already planted within him.