Return To The Forgotten Path

The thirty-seventh reading from the Torah is called Shelach, an imperative verb that means "send out." The portion is so named from the first few words of the second verse: "Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan" (Numbers 13:2). The Torah reading tells the tragic story of how the spies returned with a bad report about the Land of Promise and influenced the congregation of Israel to rebel against the LORD. Thus God consigned the generation of Moses to wander in the wilderness for forty years.

The third reading from the book of Numbers and the thirty-sixth reading from the Torah is called Beha'alotcha, a word that literally means "When you ascend." It comes from the first verse of the portion, which could literally be translated as "When you ascend the lamps" (Numbers 8:2), a reference to the fact that the priest had to step up to clean and light the lamps of the menorah. This portion is jam-packed, telling the story of the consecration of the Levites, the first Passover in the wilderness, the silver trumpets, the cloud of glory, the departure from Sinai, the grumbling in the wilderness, the first Sanhedrin and the punishment of Miriam.

The second reading from the book of Numbers and the thirty-fifth reading from the Torah is called Nasso, a word that literally means "lift up." It comes from the first word of the second verse in Hebrew, which could literally be translated to say, "Lift up the heads of the sons of Gershon," an idiomatic way of saying, "Make an accounting of the sons of Gershon." This Torah portion finishes up the census of the Levites that was under way at the end of the last Torah portion, before going on to discuss the purification of the camp, the ritual for a woman suspected of adultery, the laws of the Nazirite vow, the priestly benediction and the gifts the heads of the twelve tribes brought for the dedication of the altar.

The Hebrew name of the fourth book of the Torah (also the name of the first reading) is Bamidbar, which means "In the wilderness." It comes from the first words of the first verse, which say, "Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai" (Numbers 1:1). The English title of the book is "Numbers," which is derived from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) version of the Torah. The book of Numbers tells the story of Israel's trek through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, their failure at the edge of the land and the subsequent forty years of wandering. It concludes with the story of the second generation's triumphs over the first Canaanite resistance. The book ends with the Israelites poised on the edge of Canaan, ready to take their inheritance. Woven in the midst of these narratives is a significant amount of legal material.

The first reading from Bamidbar and the thirty-fourth reading from the Torah begin with a census of the tribes of Israel and the Levitical families just prior to the departure from Sinai.