BEHAALOTCHA 5784

Timing is Everything

Did you ever wonder why there are obscure passages in the Torah that seem to have little or no meaning? And yet, our Sages tell us that every passage in the Torah is pregnant with meaning—with so much to say to us. Take for instance the passage in the today’s Torah reading about 2 trumpets (Numbers 10:1-10): Hashem spoke to Moses saying, “Make for yourself 2 Silver Trumpets—make them hammered out and they shall be yours for the summoning of the assembly and to cause the camps to journey. When they sound a long blast, the entire assembly shall assemble to you, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. If a long blast is sounded with only one, the leaders shall assemble to you … short blasts shall they sound for their journeys …”  

We have no need for these trumpets in our day. It is impossible to gather the Jewish people—who are all over the world—with their sounds. So why is this in the Torah? Not every instruction given to Moses by Gd on how to lead his people is in the Torah. There must be an important lesson here.

One of the lessons of the trumpets is clearly that timing is everything in life. The timing of the notes, the pause between the notes, is essential to communicate its message. Several years ago, a best friend and colleague, Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg and his family, left the Sbarro Pizza restaurant in Jerusalem with his family just minutes before PLO terrorists bombed it. Had anyone in his family ordered another slice, who knows??

There are things in life that occur with a randomness that defies understanding. But then there are other things that seem to carry a great significance and meaning. Rabbi Raphael Kanter tells 2 stories of hospital visits he had made. One was in a hospital room with a family gathered around the bed of a man in a coma. After speaking with them, he suggested that they pray together. They joined hands and prayed, and then Rabbi Kanter recited the Mishebeyrach prayer for healing the sick. Just as they said “Amen” together as he finished—to everyone’s astonishment—the man in the coma opened his eyes and began speaking with his family! Astonishing! Remarkable!

Rabbi Kanter later received a lot of good-natured kidding from the hospital personnel during his next visit: “Hey, Rabbi, would you come and visit my patient today?” But everyone in that room agreed that this was a remarkable moment of connection between them, the patient, and Gd.

On another occasion, Rabbi Kanter entered the hospital room of someone who was terminally ill. The family shared with him the prognosis that he would die in a short time. Rabbi Kanter suggested that he say the special prayer known as Vidui—a prayer for the last moments of life. The family gathered around the bed, and Rabbi Kanter recited: O Lrd, our Gd, and Gd of our fathers, we acknowledge that our lives are in Your hands. May it be Your will that You bring healing, but if it is Your decree that he be taken by death, let it be merciful.

They concluded the prayer with the words of the Shema, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our Gd, Hashem One.” When they said the final word, echad (One), signifying that Gd is one with everything and everyone, the dying man breathed a final breath and died.

Rabbi Kanter later said: Some might say I was lucky. I think that something much deeper was going on. He was not an observant Jew, yet there was this harmony in the room when the Shema was on their lips that made it possible for his dying. It was a powerful moment of harmony on earth and in heaven.

Rabbi Nachman Seltzer and Eli Beer (head of the amazing Emergency Medical organization Hatzalah International), wrote a book, Angels in Orange (p. 272) about the heroes of Hatzalah on October 7^th. On October 7^th, when everyone was running away from Gaza, thousands of Hatzalah EMTs were running toward it. The Israeli Army’s emergency medical staff was overwhelmed. Hatzalah went on to save thousands of lives. In the book there is the story of a young man named Ro’i and his wife who were at the Supernova Music Festival when it was attacked by Hamas. This is how Ro’i tells it:

         During the music festival, I remember standing there, filming everything going on. Suddenly, I noticed that there were rockets flying in our direction. Grabbing my wife’s hand, I said, “We’re running to the car this second!” We started running with rockets flying in our direction and the music still playing. “This could be our last moment together,” Ro’i said.

         My wife said, “Don’t talk shtuyot (foolishness). Hashem is watching over us!”

         Suddenly we passed a car, and I saw man sleeping inside. I knew that if I didn’t alert him, he was going to die. I knocked on the window and yelled, “Get up! Get up!” I kept knocking and yelling for a very long half a minute till he woke up.

         (He called me 5 days later saying, “I can’t thank you enough. You saved my life. I have 3 children”)

         We continued to our car, jumped inside, and drove away. My wife saw 2 pickup trucks—one black, the other white—and each had about 8 terrorists standing on the truck-bed. I looked at the terrorists just as they aimed their weapons at us and started shooting. I pushed my wife’s head down below the window, and continued driving, all the while screaming, “Shema Yisrael ...!” That scream was strong and loud—I don’t even know where it came from.

         Meanwhile, the terrorists were shooting at us, and I was driving. I remember looking up for a second and seeing the bullets corning from every direction, but miraculously, none of them hit us. A few seconds later, I raised my head and looked in the rear­view mirror and saw the 2 pickup trucks turn left in the direction of the festival. As we arrived in Beersheva, a rocket landed close by, and a house went up in flames.

         It’s been 5 days since we almost died, and I find myself asking Hashem, “Who am I? And what do You want from me?” Because of everything we went through and all the miracles, our family has decided to start keeping Shabbat!

As the adage goes: “Timing is everything.” It was timing that saved Rabbi Rosenberg and his family from that PLO bombing. It was timing that created such spiritual moments in the hospital with Rabbi Kanter. And it was timing that saved Ro’i, his wife, and the man asleep in the car.

It’s timing that the Torah hints at today, when it describes those ancient communication devices—the Silver Trumpets—used to summon the people. Moses was told that these 2 trumpets were to be sounded to bring the people together for 2 kinds of occasions: one is to sound an alarm in times of crisis or danger, and the other to proclaim a celebration like a festival or new moon.”

The use of these 2 trumpets points to the 2 situations where we have the potential to become more aware of Gd in our lives: strengthening us in times of crisis and danger, and providing us a way to express our joy in connecting with Gd in times of celebration.

There are occasions in all our lives when we become aware of a special sense of the “flow” of time. The parent who steps into the stream of traffic to snatch a child from the path of an oncoming truck will describe how time seemed to slow down enabling her in slow-motion-time to know exactly what to do.

Remember when you were little, out playing your favorite game and your mother had to find you and bring you home in the twilight, because in the joy of the game, you had lost all awareness of the passage of time.

It can happen when you become engrossed in learning—either in class or in reading a book. It can happen in deep meditation or in prayer. In those special moments, we seem to be “in the Zone”—outside the normal realm of time and fully present in the moment. It is at these special moments that the Shechina, Gd’s presence, can more easily enter our lives. 

And there is one thing more. This awareness works in both directions. If this awareness of Gd comes to you in a time of crisis, it’s possible to call it up later, in a time of joy, and realize the preciousness of that time of celebration. Like: “O’ my Gd, I could have died in that car accident and would not have made it to my daughter’s wedding! Baruch Hashem, thank Gd!”

And if a feeling of gratitude to Hashem comes over you when you’ve received something far beyond what you deserve, pull up that awareness during times of crisis with the knowledge that Hashem always has your back!

My friends, the Torah’s Silver trumpets disappeared long ago when the ancient Temples were destroyed. But if you try, I think it’s still possible to hear their echo—opening up a path for Gd to come into your life, to make you strong in the dark times and able to appreciate joy when it comes. Yes, we no longer have the Silver Trumpets. But Gd still summons us in many different ways. We just have to open our hearts to hear the call. Amen!