Parshas Beha'alosecha - What Is the Significance of the Trumpets?

00:00 They tell of someone who once came to the Rebbe Rashab. He was a chossid, though not a Chabad chossid, and in his community the custom was just the opposite: they davened briskly, they davened quickly. As is known, some of the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples held that the service of prayer should be done with alacrity. He came to the Rebbe Rashab and spoke about the service of prayer. In Chabad Chassidus, as is well known, people were expected to daven at length. They contemplate during davening, both before davening and during davening itself, spending a long time in contemplation. This is the way of Chabad Chassidus. That chossid, who was not accustomed to davening at length, told the Rebbe Rashab that in his community they made a point of davening briskly. The reason, he said, could be explained with a parable about the service of prayer: A person is sitting in a wagon, traveling down the road, while outside, in the street, troublemakers are standing and throwing stones at the wagon. What should he do? Obviously, the wagon should not travel slowly or stop. On the contrary, it should go as fast as possible to escape, so the troublemakers cannot throw stones at him. If it stops, they will throw stones at him; it is very dangerous. To this the Rebbe Rashab said:

01:44 What he meant by the parable was that during davening, a person sits in the wagon—meaning that he wants to reach Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And there are the troublemakers, representing the yetzer hara, who throws distracting thoughts, improper thoughts, and confusion into his davening. So he has to rush. If he stops and travels slowly, the yetzer hara will throw stones—distracting thoughts—and that could ruin his entire davening. That is why he must start rushing, and that is the reason for the custom of those who daven briskly and quickly. The Rebbe Rashab replied that it was a good parable. But when does it apply? If the non-Jew is standing outside and throwing stones in, then you have to rush, and he will leave you alone. But what do you do if the non-Jew climbs into the wagon and is there with you inside the wagon itself? Rushing will not help. You have to stop and throw him out, and only then can you set out. With this, the Rebbe Rashab wanted to explain the Chabad approach to the service of prayer: the non-Jew, the “non-Jew within you”—the yetzer hara—is inside, deep within the soul, in the left chamber of the heart, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, and speaks through distracting thoughts. So your desire to flee will not help at all, because

03:11 he is there—the non-Jew is there with you in the wagon. That is why, in the service of prayer, you must stop, contemplate, throw out the non-Jew, the animal soul, and bring in the G-dly soul. And all of this takes time: extended contemplation and a prolonged struggle in the service of prayer. In one of the parshiyos, Parshas Behaaloscha, we find the subject of the trumpets. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu, “Make for yourself two silver trumpets.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands Moshe Rabbeinu to make two trumpets of silver, “and they shall be yours for calling the congregation together and for setting the camps in motion.” In practice, the trumpets were used for various purposes. When it was time to set out on their journeys and gather the people, Moshe Rabbeinu sounded the trumpets. Later it says that they were also used when “war comes upon you in your land against the foe who oppresses you.” In a time of war, Heaven forbid, when war came “against the foe who oppresses you,” “you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets”—they had to sound the trumpets. “And you shall be remembered before Hashem your G-d and be saved from your enemies”: this would bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu to remember them and save them from the oppressing foe. And later, “On your days of rejoicing, your festivals, and your new moons,” there too the trumpets were sounded: “They shall be a remembrance for you before your G-d; I am Hashem your G-d.” This is the passage about the trumpets in Parshas Behaaloscha, in today’s portion. What is it about? What is the passage telling us? As the commentators say,

04:57 these things follow on from the journeys of the Jewish people in the desert. Here, in Parshas Behaaloscha, the journey begins in which the Jewish people leave Mount Sinai. They are leaving the place where the Torah was given, leaving behind that rich period at Mount Sinai, when our ancestors received the Torah, built the Mishkan, and experienced all those great events. We see what begins now: the journey. This is “And it came to pass when the Ark set out,” in the second half of Parshas Behaaloscha, which we study in today’s portion. So when the Torah speaks about the journey, about the Jewish people traveling toward Eretz Yisroel, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives Moshe Rabbeinu the mitzvah of the trumpets. We see that the trumpets are perhaps something exceptionally lofty. The wording of the verse itself, “Make for yourself two trumpets”—“for yourself,” from your own possessions—teaches us that this is something special that Hakadosh Boruch Hu entrusts to Moshe Rabbeinu. And it seems that “for yourself” means it is yours, something connected to Moshe Rabbeinu. As our Sages say, when Moshe Rabbeinu passed away, the trumpets did not remain after him. In other words, the trumpets were something special and lofty, connected specifically to Moshe Rabbeinu—something very unusual. We need to understand what the trumpets are about, and why they were used for all these things, as the commentators

06:22 ask. The holy Ohr Hachayim asks: Why were the trumpets needed? When the people set out from the Mishkan and traveled through the desert following the pillar of cloud, why did they need trumpets? They could see the cloud of glory rise and knew they had to travel; when the cloud descended, they knew they had to stop. Why were trumpets needed, the holy Ohr Hachayim asks? And what role did the trumpets have in war—“you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets”? Why were trumpets needed in wartime? Then there is “On your days of rejoicing and your festivals”—what is the whole idea of the trumpets, and what role do they have at all these special times? When we look into the inner dimension of the Torah, we find wonderful explanations. One of them is the explanation of the holy Shelah: the trumpets have a spiritual meaning. He explains that the whole idea here is humility and lowliness. The trumpet is similar to the shofar. That is, the trumpet is a different kind of instrument from a violin and other musical instruments, which have a particular melody and ways of producing it. The trumpet, by contrast, like the shofar, produces a simple sound. It is a powerful sound, a sound that breaks through, a sound that awakens a deep sense of bittul, along the lines of what is said

07:55 about the shofar: the sound of the shofar awakens a person, as the verse says, “If a shofar is sounded in a city, will the people not tremble?” It awakens a deep sense of bittul. So does the trumpet. There is, of course, a difference between a trumpet and a shofar, but they do have something in common. As the holy Shelah explains, the trumpets in this parsha allude to serving Hashem in the battle against the yetzer hara. He explains that the verse “When war comes upon you in your land against the foe who oppresses you” speaks of the service of Jews as they battle the yetzer hara. This is the allusion in the war: “When war comes upon you in your land against the foe who oppresses you.” “The foe who oppresses” is the yetzer hara. When a Jew stands up to daven, that is precisely when it troubles him with problems, thoughts, worries, confusion, and improper thoughts. This is what the verse means by “When war comes upon you in your land against the foe who oppresses you.” When a Jew stands up to daven, “the time of prayer is a time of battle.” Davening is a time of war: the battle of one’s middos against the yetzer hara and the animal soul. That is when distracting and improper thoughts come. As we see in practice, when someone is talking idly about worldly matters, there are not so many distractions. It is precisely when the times of purity arrive, after the time for

09:28 davening, that the desire to speak idly stirs within him. And when he wants to speak idly, distracting thoughts fall into his mind; confusing matters come along, enter his head, and do not let him learn or daven. About this the Torah says in the parsha: “When war comes upon you in your land against the foe who oppresses you, you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets.” When the battle begins, you must know that you have to sound the trumpets. Through this, we bring ourselves to a state of brokenheartedness, bittul, humility, and lowliness. The Rebbe also cites what is written in Tanya, chapter 28, where the Alter Rebbe discusses distracting thoughts. When a Jew stands up to daven and confusion and distracting thoughts come to him during davening, what does the Alter Rebbe say he should do? He should stand firm and continue davening until he succeeds, without becoming upset, engaging in an exchange, or arguing with the yetzer hara. He should not let it draw him in and start weighing all the arguments back and forth, because then he will sink into those distracting thoughts. So what does he do? As the Alter Rebbe says, the essential thing is not to listen to any of these distractions, but to stand firm and daven with great vitality. And the Alter Rebbe explains that when a person tries to do this and sees that still

10:55 He cannot manage it: the distracting thoughts “forcefully disturb his mind,” pursuing him and troubling him intensely. What is the remedy? The Alter Rebbe says: “He should humble himself before Hashem.” A person must humble himself before Hashem. He lacks bittul and submission; he must “bring himself to a spirit of submission and lowliness” and ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu for help. The Alter Rebbe says: “And He will do it for His own sake, for His people are truly a part of Hashem.” He should ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to save him from “the raging waters.” That cry itself—like a child calling to his father and pleading, “Father, save me, help me”—gives him the strength to overcome distracting thoughts and improper thoughts. This is what the holy Shelah explains about the verses we saw concerning the trumpets: the trumpets represent the bittul and submission needed at all times—whether at “gathering the people,” when Jews assemble together for communal matters; at “setting the camps in motion,” when Jews begin traveling through the desert; or at “you shall sound an alarm,” in times of war, the battle with the yetzer hara that confuses a person. In all these situations there must be “you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets.” The holy Shelah then points to the continuation of the verses: “And on your days of rejoicing, on your festivals, and on your new moons”—all of these are times of joy. You might...

12:29 think that in times of war, in difficult times, a person needs to lament; that is when he needs bittul and a broken heart. But when, thank G-d, there is no war and there is peace and tranquility—and likewise in serving Hashem, in times of joy, when a Jew is a mashpia and a scholar, at more elevated times—the Torah tells us that even then, “you shall blow the trumpets.” Even then, there must be this cry, a broken heart, bittul, submission, and lowliness, so that he does not fall into pride and self-importance because he is in such a state. At elevated times, at times of joy, things may still arise that confuse a person, and then too he must maintain an attitude of submission and lowliness. This, broadly speaking, is the holy Shelah’s explanation. The Rebbe once spoke about this at a farbrengen on Shabbos Parshas Behaaloscha and explained the verses according to [unclear]. This relates to how the matter is expressed in serving Hashem. Another point enters here: the Ramban cites “you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets” in times of war. He brings it up in his objection to the Rambam concerning the service of prayer. The Ramban disagrees with the Rambam on this point. As is well known, regarding the service of prayer, the Rambam rules that prayer is a Torah obligation, citing the verse, “You shall serve Hashem your G-d.”

14:08 According to the Ramban, who disagrees with the Rambam, the obligation to pray is only rabbinic. The verses the Gemara cites—“You shall serve Hashem your G-d” and “to serve Him with all your heart”—and the teaching brought in the Sifrei, that “service of the heart is prayer,” are only scriptural supports. “You shall serve” refers to all service of Hashem; as a source for the commandment to pray, it is only a scriptural support. This is the Ramban’s ruling, and the ruling of most of the Rishonim; it is also brought as practical halachah in the Shulchan Aruch, that prayer is only a rabbinic obligation. Nevertheless, the Ramban writes that “you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets” is a positive Torah commandment. When discussing the obligation to pray, he says that in a time of distress, prayer is a Torah obligation. When there is distress, the Torah says, “When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you”—he quotes the verse from the weekly parsha—and he says that here it is a Torah obligation. When there is war and “the enemy who oppresses you,” then one must [unclear]. The Torah then says, “You shall sound an alarm.” That alarm is part of the service of prayer, and the trumpets must accompany it. The Ramban maintains that this is a positive Torah commandment: in a time of distress, prayer becomes a Torah obligation. The Rebbe once spoke about this at a 19 Kislev farbrengen, in connection with [unclear], that it relates to the service of prayer, and from this we learn [unclear]. Regarding

15:46 the service of prayer being a Torah obligation in a time of distress: in practice, the ruling is that prayer is a rabbinic obligation. That is how the Alter Rebbe rules in the Shulchan Aruch, following the Ramban. The Ramban is among those who disagree with the Rambam, and he holds that prayer is only a rabbinic obligation. But the Ramban says: When is prayer a rabbinic obligation? In ordinary, daily prayer. When a Jew is in distress, prayer becomes a Torah obligation. According to this, the Rebbe said, a Jew who studies Chassidus—and Chassidus gives him the [unclear] in Hashem’s greatness, in all the aspects of His greatness, in memalei kol almin and sovev kol almin, all those great subjects that prayer addresses concerning the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “For His name alone is exalted; His glory is over earth and heaven,” “And He raised the strength of His people,” and all the wonderful verses in which Pesukei Dezimrah expresses His wondrous greatness—and, alongside this, the matter of lowliness. The Rema mentions in the laws of prayer the greatness of G-d and the lowliness of man. A person sees his own lowliness, how distant he is, and his need for bittul; how immersed he is in physical and material concerns, in things that confuse him, in distracting thoughts, and so on and so forth. This gives him a sense of distress—real distress. Then he sees the

17:22 depth of the matter: that the animal soul and the yetzer hara are the true, oppressive enemy. When he recognizes that this is the true, oppressive enemy, prayer becomes a Torah obligation for him. The Rebbe said then that, according to this, a Jew who studies Chassidus and engages in the service of prayer—Chassidus demands something more—may find that even his ordinary prayer, the whole prayer, is a Torah obligation. Prayer is a rabbinic obligation, but through this, it becomes a Torah obligation. And regarding this matter, in Parshas Yisro, as is well known, this was one of the arguments raised against the great teachers of Chassidus in the days of the Alter Rebbe. At that time, when he was spreading Chassidus in Russia, in Vilna, and in White Russia, in places where there were not so many Chassidic leaders, one of the strongest arguments against Chassidus was that chassidim spent so long at prayer, approached it with such fervor, and placed such great demands on the service of prayer, reducing their Torah study for its sake. The argument was: Torah study is a Torah obligation. There is the mitzvah of studying Torah, with all the weighty and wonderful things said about studying Torah at every moment—“Torah study is equal to them all.” Yet they devote themselves to the service of prayer, which is a rabbinic obligation. How can chassidim be so

18:50 meticulous about the service of prayer, even at the expense of Torah study? This is one explanation. To understand the depth of it: when the service of prayer is as it should be, and one feels that the yetzer hara and the animal soul are the oppressive enemy, then prayer takes on the character of “you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets”: awakening within ourselves the arousal, bittul, and submission needed to defeat the yetzer hara, the confusion, and the distracting thoughts. The verse then continues: “You shall be remembered before Hashem your G-d, and you shall be saved from your enemies.” In this way, prayer becomes a preparation for Torah, and a Jew can then have an effect on his daily life through the Torah study that follows prayer. And here, when we speak about the trumpets, a wonderful explanation by the Maggid of Mezritch enters the picture. He offers a remarkable explanation. It is said of this teaching in the Maggid’s Torah that it is a subject our Rebbeim later expanded upon. It is one of the teachings our Rebbeim discussed, repeated, and explained in the finest detail. The Tzemach Tzedek has notes on Tehillim chapter 98 in which, on the verse “With trumpets and the sound of the shofar, sound an alarm before the King, Hashem,” he cites the Maggid’s teaching and explains it in detail. [unclear] with a vav in the middle. That is from the Tzemach Tzedek, and the subject is explained at length by the Maggid of Mezritch.

20:20 But what more can we say, briefly? That same teaching is also explained at extraordinary length, in a wonderful, extensive explanation by the Rebbe Rashab, whose soul is in Eden, in Hemshech 5672. I want to tell you: anyone who has ever studied Hemshech 5672 knows that half of it already—hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages—is an explanation of the Maggid’s teaching on “two silver trumpets.” The Maggid’s teaching is short. And also in [unclear]. Yes, look in Hemshech 5672: hundreds upon hundreds of pages, all to understand the Maggid’s teaching line by line. But look at the central point of the teaching. It is an extraordinary teaching, particularly relevant in our time. We are living through terrible distress, quite literally, so this is certainly a time to invoke the merit of the Jewish people and arouse great compassion. As an aside, the Rebbe spoke about this subject—everything we have discussed at length concerning the trumpets—in a sicha on Shabbos Parshas Behaaloscha, a few days after the Six-Day War, when there was a victory beyond the natural order.

21:50 The war was just before Shavuos, and that Shabbos, Parshas Behaaloscha, was immediately after Shavuos. The Rebbe spoke at length then about the two silver trumpets in Parshas Behaaloscha. In connection with the trumpets and the teaching of the Maggid, what is the central point of what the Maggid says? He says that the word “chatzotzros,” trumpets, can be read as “chatza’ei tzuros,” half-forms. In other words, there are two halves here. A Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are, so to speak, each half a form. [unclear] There is one half above and one half below. A Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are two halves. That is what the Maggid of Mezritch says about the two trumpets: two half-forms. And he says: It is written, I think, on the eve of Shavuos, “And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man.” The man above, the supernal man—both are called “man.” That is, there is the supernal man, the man upon the throne, and there is the man below. The Maggid says that the Hebrew word for “man,” “adam,” consists of three letters: alef, dalet, mem. What is the alef? It alludes to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Master of the world. Dalet and mem spell “dam,” blood, and allude to man, who is flesh and blood. Alef, dam,

23:26 meaning that Hakadosh Boruch Hu together with man become “adam.” As long as a person is an entity unto himself, before davening, he is an entity unto himself: a person is flesh and blood, with the vitality of materiality and physicality, the aspect of blood, [unclear]. But the G-dliness is missing; the intention is missing. He davens, but the soul is missing, the alef is missing. When he unites with the Master of the world—and “the Master of the world” refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—he becomes “adam.” And he says something similar about what is above: Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, just like the person, is, so to speak, half a form on His own. He needs to reach the Master of the world in order to become “the man.” Similarly, “And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man”—the supernal man, so to speak. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself says of Himself, so to speak: I am half a form. As long as I am alone, without a Jew, Hakadosh Boruch Hu sees Himself as half a form. Only afterward, when He joins with man, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins with Jews, does Hakadosh Boruch Hu become “the man,” the man upon the throne; Hakadosh Boruch Hu becomes, so to speak, a complete form. This is a remarkable insight. What does the Midrash say? “Open for me, my sister, my beloved,

24:56 my dove, my perfect one.” Here, Knesses Yisroel is called “my perfect one.” The Midrash says that the word translated as “my perfect one” can also mean “my twin,” one of a pair of twins. Like two twins who are together, each of whom feels that he needs the other, and when the other is absent, he feels that they are one and the same. Similarly, “my twin”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu says of the Jews that He is, so to speak, one with the Jewish people, just as the Jewish people are one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is called two half-forms, two half-forms of silver. What does “silver” mean? The Hebrew word for silver, “kesef,” is related to “nichsof nichsafta”—longing and yearning, an expression of love. And what is explained? A Jew needs to feel within himself—and this is the purpose of love during davening—that he must leave behind all his other loves. He must leave behind all his desires, all the wants connected with matters of this world: all the wants and desires a person has, foreign concerns, empty concerns, material and physical concerns that come from the body and the animal soul, a wife and a home and all these things. When one comes to daven, davening means leaving behind all one’s own wants. He needs to reach the feeling of “Whom do I have in heaven? And with You, I desire nothing on earth”—nothing more; his only desire should be for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the purpose of love during davening. And what is explained? When a person needs to daven, he feels a great darkness. They cite

26:27 the verse said in the vision of the Divine Chariot, the verse quoted here: “And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man.” Before that, it speaks of a “great cloud” and a “flashing fire.” And what is explained? When a Jew needs to daven, there is a great cloud within him. He cannot manage to daven. He feels darkness—the cloud, the yetzer hara with the confusions of the animal soul, the materiality and physicality that do not let him daven. When he is not deterred by this, and he works [unclear] the great cloud, a “flashing fire” arises within him: he begins to burn powerfully and with vitality in the love of davening. For him, this love means giving himself over completely: “Whom do I have in heaven? And with You, I desire nothing on earth.” And as water reflects a face back to a face, when a Jew awakens this feeling—that he is half a form and wants nothing but to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself and become a complete form—it brings about the same thing above. All of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s desire and yearning—“I am my beloved’s, and His desire is for me”—all His yearning and all His desire are only for Knesses Yisroel. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is interested in nothing else and wants to know of nothing else. He wants only Knesses Yisroel, and the whole world exists only for this: so that the Jews will have a dwelling, so that they can connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And this is

27:55 the whole meaning of “Make yourself two silver trumpets”—two half-forms. On this point, he concludes by explaining the verses: When this awareness awakens in Jews—that a Jew is only half a form and his only desire is for Hakadosh Boruch Hu—and this brings about [unclear] that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s only desire is for the Jewish people, then, as a matter of course, “When you come to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you”—when war comes and there is an oppressive enemy, both physically, actual wars in the world, and spiritually, the war against the yetzer—the Rebbe explains: When the matter of the silver trumpets awakens within a Jew, when he feels that he is only half a form and his only desire is for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, [unclear], then, as a matter of course, “you will be saved from your enemies,” from the true enemy, which is the animal soul and the yetzer hara. [unclear] The yetzer hara that exists in the world and within a person. And this is “you will be saved from your enemies”: may we merit salvation, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeem us from these things. Then comes the ultimate purpose of it all, [unclear], and the passage continues: “And on the day of your rejoicing, and on your festivals, and on your new moons,” [unclear], “they shall be a remembrance for you before Hashem your G-d.” Then the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah takes place, the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and Knesses Yisroel, and we reach the true unity, which is

29:27 [unclear] the Geulah, when the Jews will be—when the trumpets of war will cease, along with all the darkness and all the concealments. It will be revealed in the world that the Jews and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are two half-forms, and as a result, the Jews will have only good in the most literal, physical sense, down here below ten handbreadths. And may we indeed merit the complete Geulah, “And on the day of your rejoicing, and on your festivals”—the true joy, the joy of the true and complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach. Amen, may it be His will.