Questions — Parshah Be-Ha’alotekhah
Ba-Midbar Chapter 8
Aaron is the one who is supposed to set up the Menorah inside the tent? Even if he is the only one who can perform labor inside the text, couldn’t the work be done outside of the tent and then Aaron could have carried the assembled Menorah into the text whole?
Why is the Menorah made of parts and not forged as a single piece?
Where is the Menorah placed within the tent in relationship to the other objects within the tent? This is important because this would define what is meant by “the front of the lampstand.” Knowing this would help to understand what the dynamics of the use of the space of the tent of meeting are.
Seven is a symbolic number in Israelite religion and in subsequent Jewish history. Although we have made many associations with the number seven and with the Menorah (and this is worth discussing) what symbolic associations would have been present at the moment of the installation of the Menorah? Is the Menorah a symbol of something else or is it a symbol all by itself? What can we make of the floral aspect of the design?
Shaving the entire bodies of the levites would have made them look odd. This wasn’t how they would have looked normally, was it?
The Israelites are supposed to lay their hands on the Levites. When Moses lays hands on Joshua this is a transfer of authority. What does it tell about this transformation of authority that the common Israelites are able to do the same thing without any contact with God at the level that Moses had contact with God? The laying on of hands here is more like the High Priests laying on of hands with the goat for Azazel and the laying on of hands in this case is then used to transfer the guilt that the levites accepted onto the heads of bulls. ]
Must this type of transfer be effected through hands and head?
How are people an elevation offering?
Again, why are the Levites assigned to Aaron? Are they not already from the same tribe? Doesn’t that imply an already existing relationship?
The levitical attendance on Aaron is claimed to be for the purpose of preventing plague from afflicting the Israelites from coming too near to the sanctuary. Had this happened? Will it happen? Don;t the plagues that come on the Israelites come for different reasons?
Why is there a specific age limit on the service of the Levites. What about merit?
Chapter 9
