In the Torah portion of Beha’alotcha there appears a phenomenon that is found in no other place in the entire Tanach - two sentences are bracketed by two backwards facing Hebrew letters, nuns, as a way to set them apart from the rest of the text.
“And when the ark would journey, Moses said: ‘Arise God and let your enemies be scattered, and let those that hate You flee from before You.’ And when it [the ark] rested he would say: ‘Rest peacefully God among the myriad thousands of Israel” (Numbers 10:35-36).
The first sentence is recited in synagogues around the world when the ark is opened and the Torah removed for public readings, and the second sentence is recited when the Torah is placed once again in the ark.
Rashi, quoting the Talmud, (Shabbat 115b-116a) explains that these two sentences are set apart due to the fact that they are not in their natural chronological place. This alone would not seem sufficient reason as Rashi tells us many times that various events recorded in the Torah are not in a sequential order. What then, according to the Talmud, is the reason that they appear here? Rashi informs us: in order to separate between a series of sins which occurred in the desert.
The Talmud continues by stating that these two sentences actually are considered an entirely separate book! In this manner the five books of Moses are actually seven, as this two sentence book actually divides the book of Numbers into three books.
As with all verses, mitzvot and stories in the Torah, there are multilevels of understanding, especially when there is a one time phenomenon such as inverted letters that create a separate book of just two sentences.
The Slonimer Rebbe quotes a Torah from the Maggid of Koznitch who suggests that the ark represents a Torah scholar who is compared to an ark containing the Torah. The Torah has been so integrated into his being that he is like a “walking Torah scroll.” The word for “journey” in our verse shares the same root as the word for “test.” Therefore, anytime the ark, in this case a Torah scholar, journeys, it is inevitable that he will face challenges and tests. The Slonimer explains that this idea really applies to every person who wants to journey from one spiritual level to a higher, more refined level of consciousness, which is the ultimate goal of Torah and mitzvot.
The first prayer of Moses (in the first sentence) is that God should come to the aid of all those longing to elevate themselves and protect them from all their enemies, that is, from all those forces in the world that oppose positive and constructive spiritual advancement. In this sense, God’s enemies are our enemies, and visa versa, in as much as our greatest desire is to do God’s work in the world and for this very reason we were chosen by Him. The desire to advance spiritually represents the first part of a verse from Psalms – “Turn from evil and do good…”
The second prayer of Moses (in the second verse), represented by the request that God rest peacefully among Israel, relates to the second half of the above verse in Psalms – “and do good.” In truth, once God helps us defeat His/our enemies, our work of doing good only begins. The culmination of all service of God is to draw near to Him in love and create a vessel for God to dwell in the world, and even more, within each and every person. Since, according to the Slonimer Rebbe, the ideas presented here form the very basis of serving God they are separated in order to show their crucial importance.
The question remains though as to why it is the letter nun that was chosen to set these verses apart. Among the many concepts represented by the letter nun is the idea of falling, due to the fact that the word “to fall,” begins with the letter nun. The 145th Psalm written by David is constructed as an acrostic according to the Hebrew alphabet. Only the letter nun is missing as David did not want to even allude to any future “fall” and hardships the Jewish people would go through. Nonetheless, the next verse states that God supports all those who have fallen, in order to strengthen all those who do experience the inevitable setbacks of life.
David is referred to in the Talmud as the “fallen one,” literally a miscarriage. According to tradition the soul of David was not given any time in this world. When Adam saw this he volunteered to give up seventy years from his life. Adam was meant to live till age 1,000, but died at age 930. Despite the time given to him, David experienced each moment of life as if he was in a constant state of existential falling, while simultaneously feeling the constant support of God. When reciting the grace after meals on Succot we add the additional phrase: O Merciful One, lift up the fallen succah of David. All the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people over the years are referred to symbolically as David’s fallen succah.
The inverted nuns therefore represent prophetically the many trials and challenges facing the Jewish people in their attempt to fulfill God’s will in the world. According to Rashi, they come to separate between a series of sins in the desert, times when challenges overwhelmed them, or mistaken judgment or following their baser desires caused them to stray from their appointed course. Moses’ prayer reverberates throughout the generations and addresses each individual as well as the nation to stay the course and know that no cause truly worth it comes without opposition and trial.
In fact, within a very short time Moses would need his prayer answered for himself. Immediately following these two verses the Torah relates how the people complained about the manna and the lack of meat. In a moment of obvious dismay and feeling a lack of strength to carry the whole nation on his shoulders alone Moses cried out to God: “I alone cannot carry all this people, for it is too heavy for me. And if this is how you deal with me, then kill me now” (Numbers 11:14-15). In relation to the time when Moses defended the people after the sin of the golden calf and exclaimed that God could wipe him out of his book if He would not forgive them, this request for God to kill him represents a severe “fall.”
God in fact supports Moses by appointing the seventy elders to assist him, nonetheless the complaint of Moses was very significant. All the elders became prophets as Moses conferred upon them the spirit of prophesy. Two of the members, Eldad and Medad, began to prophesy in the camp and Joshua ran to Moses to stop them. According to the Sifre what they prophesied was: Moses will die and Joshua will bring them into the land.
When the ark traveled in this Torah portion the people were in fact on their way to Israel and very close to entering, but ended up wandering for forty years due to the sin of the spies, as related in the following portion of Shlach. Here we see though that immediately following the complaint of Moses to God, already it was prophesied that Moses would die and not enter the land. In a sense, the words of Moses were a self fulfilling prophesy regarding both himself and all the people. Yet, despite all that the Jewish people have been through, God has never let us completely fall and has time after time scattered our enemies.
One of the names of the Mashiach according to the Talmud is yenun, very similar to the letter nun (Sanhedrin 98b). The Mashiach, like King David, will experience many falls and will in fact fall purposely in order to redeem all the fallen sparks of holiness trapped in the impure shells and allusions of this world. The Baal Shem Tov explains that in order to extract someone from a low level one must be able to descend to their level in order to extract them from where they have sunk. In this sense, falling has a very positive connotation and may account for the nuns being inverted. This would allude to the concept of “descent in order to ascend,” a service of the righteous which will be brought to its manifest completion by the Mashiach.
The numerical value of Mashiach is 358, the same as nachash, the primordial snake of the Garden of Eden, whose name begins with a nun. For when the energy of the snake is rectified and inverted, its power will be used for only good. The Baal Shem Tov taught that each individual contains a spark of the Mashiach and must work at revealing this spark in the world. When a critical mass of sparks have been revealed this will draw the soul of the Mashiach into the world. Until then, each person must struggle and ask, like Moses, for God’s assistance to overcome all obstacles in the way of fulfilling our individual purpose in life and the ultimate mission of the Jewish people to make a place for God to rest among the Jewish people and the entire world.
