So Put Away That Hammer

Erevs are important. The lead in. Anticipation. Prep. They say that Rav Soloveitchik said that Americans had yet to learn about erev Shabbos. Guilty as charged. It's meant to be a day preparing inside and out for Shabbos. If only (to quote what Hillel Goldberg once wrote about Shabbos).

Besides preparing fish heads and sweeping the floor (nothing like inside Gemore references) there's a lot of ways to prepare for Shabbos. Even if you're stuck at work till the wire you can pine.

I guess that considering the parsha is part of preparing. I think there is a traditional belief that the parsha is relevant for the week it's read - so we can think about tie ins to our life and the lives of others. And we can simply go diving into the Torah portion of the week for treasures?

What a sad parsha Behaalotcha is. Salvation gets turned on its head like an upside down nun (the Hebrew letter, not the woman belonging to a religious order of the church). As Rav Soloveichik sees it two years into their travels it was time to go to Israel, forever. It was time for the era of Mashiach. That's why there's the talk about the trumpets and war - it was supposed to truly be the war that would end all wars. That's why Moshe invites Yitro to join him. It's metaphorical, Moshe was saying that all people of the world were welcome to sign on to the good times about to come...

I'd right more but it's time to say Good Shabbos.