Shnayim Yomi - Behaalotecha - Chamishi - #5 - Rabbi Ephraim Polakoff - The Nation on the Move

The fifth aliyah the aliyah of kamishi. In kamishi we begin by describing the travels of b israel from midbari to midbar puran. This was almost a year after they arrived in midbari to accept the Torah. The Torah describes now the camps and how Ben is traveled throughout the midbar. Ben was split up into four camps. The first camp was Yehuda and in Yehuda's camp were theatim of Isak and Zulu. The second camp was the camp of Ruain and theatim of Shimon and God accompanied Ruv. The third camp was the camp of Ephraim accompanied by theatim of Manasha and Byam. And the fourth camp was the camp of Dun accompanied by theatim of Usher and Naftali. Now in the midst of those travels, the Mishkan was dismantled. In fact, the Torah describes that after the after the camp of Yehuda traveled, the Mishkun was dismantled and the Mishkan was carried by the Levim, specifically the families of Gerishon and Marari, they dismantled the Mishkan and they carried the Mishkan throughout the Midbar. Following the travels of the camp of Ruv, the Torah describes that the family, the Ley family of Kahus, who would carry the caim, the vessels of the Mishkan traveled at that point. And then the Torah puts in here that whenever they arrived at their new camp, Geron and Marari who were carrying the Mishkun would go up ahead and erect the Mishkan for everyone. And then Kahus would come and would insert the caim and would place the caim in their proper places in the Mishkan. After this, Moshe approaches his father-in-law Yro and asks him to join the Jewish people on their journey to Erit Israel. Israel refuses and he says, "I have to go home. I have to go back and be with my people. The Torah then describes that the ak would travel three days in front of B is almost scouting out the road scouting out the path of where were to go. The Torah describes how the cloud led them in their travels and that leads us to our thought from this aliyah connected to the thought from the previous aliyah. But not just that when we travel through life we have the unknown as we described in the previous aliyah but also here sometimes things are cloudy the cloud is the what led them through the midbar sometimes what leads us in life is cloudy it's overcast it looks like it's not great it looks like our situation is not ideal is not perfect but the message is that we always have to recognize that even though sometimes things in life look cloudy sometimes things in life look overcast it's always that's leading us. It's always Hashem that's at the forefront. And if we remember that, we'll always feel secure despite and through all of our travels and challenges in life.