Torah Thoughts
Parashat Beha’alotcha contains the sources of a great many of our regular practices, including the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashana and the preceding month, and words we include when taking the Torah out of and returning it to the ark. See:
Carrying the Torah through the Desert
Parashat Beha’alotcha also introduces the concept of the Second Pesach; a second opportunity for those either traveling or impure at the time the Seder is to take place to perform the Seder rituals (this does not change the time we are to abstain from eating or owning chametz, a separate mitzvah).
Continuing the narrative of the travels through the desert, however, Beha’alotcha recalls when we were instructed to keep an eye on the cloud that rested above the mishkan day and night. During the day it looked like smoke, and during the night it looked like fire. When it rose we were to pack up, and when it moved we were to follow it to wherever G-d indicated we were to go.
