Beha’alotcha בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ - In Your Uplifting
Numbers 8:1-12:16
Reading #3 - Numbers 9:1–14
My Thoughts:
Hashem is reminding His people to celebrate Pesach, the first Pesach in the wilderness (one year after they left Egypt). This is to be a Commandment for many generations, forever. To remind us about Hashem’s deliverance miracle from slavery and His faithfulness to His promises to bring His people to the Promised Land. It’s about them eating unleavened bread in their haste. Hashem knows we need to remember this story. It is the beginning of His people finally coming back to Israel and formally receiving the Torah -- the Book of Life. It is probably one of the most wonderful testimonials in the Bible. And we are to remember it every year. Whether we are Gentile or Jews -- we are invited to celebrate this memorial. As you commemorate this Feast every year you will be so blessed and will draw closer to Hashem.
Challenge:
Take a minute to remember the last Pesach you celebrated. If you did it this year, it was about 6 weeks ago. What I remember this year was just the uniqueness and peace I felt during our “Seder”. We went through a “Haggadah” that my friend wrote and it was so special! As we went through each “stage” of the meal, we remembered something about the original Pesach. The slaughter of the lambs, the blood on the doorposts, the angel of death passing by, the escape and the crossing of the Red Sea. It brought back to mind the emotional experience the people must have felt -- fear, anxiety, worry, doubt, wonder and joy. But, most of all it reminded me of Hashem’s love and greatness. How much He loves us and does not want us to suffer. His greatness and all His miracles. We need to remember this every year. Look back and remember. Then praise Him.
Reading #3 - Numbers 9:1–14
9:1 Hashem spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Let the children of Israel keep Pesach in its appointed season. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season. You shall keep it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances.”
4 Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep Pesach. 5 They kept Pesach in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Hashem commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did. 6 There were certain men, who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep Pesach on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. 7 Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Hashem in its appointed season among the children of Israel?”
8 Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Hashem will command concerning you.”
9 Hashem spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep Pesach to Hashem. 11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of Pesach they shall keep it. 13 But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Hashem in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
14 “‘If a foreigner lives among you, and desires to keep Pesach to Hashem, then he shall do so according to the statute of Pesach and according to its ordinance. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner, and for him who is born in the land.’”
