The Siddur Project
ויהי בנסוע ארון
If you’re like me, you probably enjoy the catchy tune of “Vayehee Binsoa Aron”, sang in many Ashkenazic congregations, when the Torah is taken out of the ark. And you also probably haven’t given much thought to the meaning behind this passage. The 1st time I remember thinking about the meaning this prayer was in my recent stint in Israeli reserves. There, in the midst of a war, the words “Arise Hashem, and scatter your enemies, and may your haters run away from Your face” became a sort of rallying cry for our davening chayalim. Our eyes met, and we put some extra firepower into the words! Ok great, we got a nice tune, and it was even meaningful, that’s a great start. But, a question remains - what did scattering of our enemies have to do with the reading the Torah!
Ok, so let’s start with a bit of context: It’s the middle of Parshat Beha’alotcha, the Torah has recounting the journeys of the Jewish people, and kinda out of nowhere, the Torah recounts: (Bamidbar 10:35-36)
וַיְהִ֛י בִּנְסֹ֥עַ הָאָרֹ֖ן וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֑ה קוּמָ֣ה
׀ יְהֹוָ֗ה וְיָפֻ֙צוּ֙ אֹֽיְבֶ֔יךָ וְיָנֻ֥סוּ מְשַׂנְאֶ֖יךָ מִפָּנֶֽיךָ׃
When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say:
Advance, O LORD!
May Your enemies be scattered,
And may Your foes flee before You!
Rav Ovadia Sforno suggests that the Jewish people are just about to enter into the land of Israel to wage war against the 7 Canaanite nations. And so the Torah explains that the Ark would be heading out in front of them, waging the war from the front. In, fact this is the way the war was waged in Sefer Shmuel, Chapter 4. Chizkuni and Ibn Ezra take the idea further suggesting that Moshes's words served as a sort of ‘Tefilat Haderech' for the Israelites as they headed out onto the battlefield!
And so, we recount that momentous occasion, when the Ark went out in front of the people, when which we take out our Torah out to the people. Ok, sounds good in the context of soldiers on the battlefield.
But there’s still one question to tackle:
All this makes sense in the context of war. But, it’s a regular Monday here in Rechavia, or Brooklyn, or wherever, we ain’t fighting no wars, we’re just leining the Parsha! Why are we screaming battle cries in the middle of Davenning?
Perhaps we can suggest that this is the point. Every day is a battlefield, as the Messillat Yesharim, writes in its opening chapter. Every day we wage a war against our desires. One person may be fighting laziness , another battling with anxiety, and another struggling with Emunah, but with Hashem's help, and Beyachad Ninatzeach!
