14 Jun ZECHARIA, MIRIAM, AND THE MASTER NOVI
Every Shabbos we
read a haftorah
dealing with inyono
d’yoma. Once in a
while the inyono
d’yoma happens to
be that there is a chosson in shul
or that today is erev Rosh
Chodesh. But usually we
consider the parshas ha’shavua
as inyonei d’yoma, and there is
always an obvious connection
between the haftorah and the
parsha. In parshas
B’ha’aloshcho, both the chumash
and the novi deal with the
lighting of the menorah in the
Beis Hamikdosh. Very often, in
addition to the obvious
connection, there is a deeper
connection which is not that
obvious. The Rambam lists the
thirteen principles of faith of the
Jewish religion. Two of these
i’korei ha’emunah are 1) that we
believe in prophecy and 2) that
we believe that Moshe Rabbeinu
was the greatest prophet of all
times. Regarding the uniqueness
of Moshe Rabbeinu’s nevuah the
Rambam (in Moreh Ne’vuchim)
points to the haftorah of parshas
B’ha’aloshcha wherein the novi
Zecharia is shown a
vision/prophecy which he could
not understand. Zecharia then
asked the malach who showed
him the vision to explain what
the olive trees in the vision are
supposed to represent. The
malach responded, “but you
certainly know what they are all
about”, whereupon Zecharia
again requests of the angel to
please explain because he didn’t
understand! Finally the malach
explains the vision to the novi
Zecharia. The Rambam quotes
the gemorah saying that Moshe
Rabbeinu’s level of prophecy
was much greater than that of
all the other nevi’im in several
different ways. One of the
differences is that the
prophecies of Moshe Rabbeinu
were much clearer than that of
the other nevi’im. The Rambam
quotes the passage from the
novi Zecharia to demonstrate
the point that unlike Moshe, it
took Zecharia a while, with
quite a bit of give, to
understand the prophecy.
Moshe Rabbeinu being the
greatest novi is one of the
major themes of Ba’ha’aloscha.
Moshe Rabbeinu’s own sister,
Miriam, made negative
comments about her brother,
not realizing that his level of
prophecy was way beyond hers
or that of her other brother
Aharon. Hashem punished
Miriam for the negative
comments that she made and
formulated this ikar in emunah,
i.e. that all should realize that
Moshe Rabbeinu was the adon
ha’nevi’im. This is the additional
connection between Ba’ha’aloscha
and its haftorah – they both bring
out this ikar in emunah.