Parshat Beha'alothcha relates the beginning of Bnei Yisroel's journey to Eretz Yisroel after the completion of the mishkon. The Torah goes into great detail explaining the procedure for these travels. While they knew their final destination, the route was not clear to them, nor the timing for each leg of the travels. All Bnei Yisroel knew was that when the clouds of glory rose from above the mishkon, they were to pack their belongings, dismantle their tents, and start following the clouds until they stopped. This was their sign to unpack and pitch their tents anew.
Hashem also commanded Moshe to fashion chatzotzrot, silver trumpets that would be used to herald the impending travel, in addition to being sounded for other occasions such as war, festivals, and bringing the offerings to Hashem. The sounding of the trumpets, says the Torah, "shall be for you an eternal decree for your generations." How are we to understand the eternity of these trumpet blasts, when we obviously no longer have these trumpets?
It is important to understand the absolute faith of Bnei Yisroel in Hashem, and to realize that Bnei Yisroel followed Hashem's indirect instruction, through the clouds and the trumpets, unquestioningly. As the Ramban points out, sometimes their accommodations were uncomfortable, yet Hashem had them stay encamped there for extended times. There were other times when they had just barely pitched their tents in an inviting area but were then told to move on the next morning.
Rabbi Frand notes that in the journey of our lives, we also experience good times and bad times. We do not control the duration of either the sunny days of our lives or of the dark, cloud filled days. But in all circumstances, we must follow the will of Hashem and travel the road He has set for us.
The Netivot Shalom offers a different insight into the mishkon and the cloud that hovered over it. Each of us must build a mishkon for Hashem's Presence within our own souls. But as soon as we have completed it, the clouds may begin to descend upon it. The clouds turn to fire at night, a fire that represents the yetzer hora. The evil inclination tries to consume us, presenting obstacles in our path, trials in faith and observance that every Jew faces in his lifetime. When the darkness envelops us and descends on our internal tabernacle, we cannot move forward. We must stop, remain committed to Hashem, and wait for the dark cloud to lift and bring us back to light. These dark times, these trials, are our wake up calls from Hashem to seek Him out and return to Him. As Rabbi Wachtfogel point out in Leket Reshimot, during the difficult times in our lives, we must stop and search for the silver lined cloud of brightness, of Hashem's hashgocho, in every situation. We need to acknowledge that Hashem is leading our lives, and we must follow His lead, even if we're unsure where we are going, just as Bnei Yisrael did in the wilderness.
Rav Schachter in Venichtav Basefer makes a salient point. Even though we may not know why certain things happen to us, we must continue to attribute everything to Hashem's providence. Since we probably do not know exactly what we need to repair, our response needs to be only that we recognize this wake up call and make some positive resolution and action. In this way, says the Ohr Daniel, we reaffirm our faith that Hashem leads the world according to His plan.
How are the trumpets relevant to our journey? The trumpet blasts differed, signaling either joy or fear, much as different bugle blasts in an army would signal differing actions. To serve Hashem properly, Meirosh Tzurim suggests, one needs to approach the relationship with both joy and fear, and must adapt the response to the occasion. The chatzotzrot, however, are far from ordinary trumpets. The Maggid of Mezerich explains that the word can be reread as chatzi tzurah. Each trumpet was only half a form of the whole, as each of us is only half of the partnership we are supposed to be in with our Maker, in Whose form we were created. As such, says the Avodat Yisroel, we are incomplete unless we fashion ourselves after Him, as Hashem calls us in Shir Hashirim, "Yonoti, tamati," "My dove, My completion."
To reinforce this idea, the chatzotzrot were made of silver, kesef, which can also be translated as longing. Further, the Torah was given in the month of Sivan whose astrological sign is twins. Twins are known to have such a close relationship with each other that they almost seem to share one nervous system in two separate bodies, feeling each other's pain even when miles apart. So is Hashem's relationship to us as He feels our pain in exile.
Rabbi Pincus notes that the vehicle to making this connection is prayer. Our Sages agreed that prayer is a mitzvah from the Torah; a cry, like the trumpet blast, to our Maker. To fail to call on Him, especially in times of stress, is to deny His continuing presence in our lives. Rabbi Nissel points out in Rigshei Lev that Hashem engineers the difficulties and complexities in our lives so that we will be moved to call out to Him and connect with Him. But in order to clearly understand His messages, we must establish a continuing relationship with Him in good times as well.
Halekach VeHalebuv explains howthe chatzotzrot point the way to the ultimate prayer and connection to Hashem. The chatzotzrot are musical instruments, and we can forge an intimate connection to Hashem through song. Song is the inner call of the soul as the chatzotzrot were the outer call for festival or danger. Each change in our routine, whether a joy or a trial, should arouse us to sing, to attempt to connect our soul to Hashem, to complete our "half form" that longs for its other half, its Twin.
