Beha'alotcha
The Sfat Emet on Parashat Beha'alotcha, read on Shabbat Beha'alotcha — with one of this week's three questions for the two of you.
The parsha opens with a quiet command to Aharon: light the menorah. The Hebrew is unusual — not 'kindle' but 'beha'alotcha,' meaning 'when you cause to ascend.' Rashi, drawing on the Sages, picks up on this: the kohen had to hold the fire to the wick until the wick's flame stood on its own — until it ascended without his hand. The Sfat Emet hears this as a teaching about every kind of love that wants to give light to another. The work isn't finished when you have lit them. It is finished when their light burns of itself, and you can step back, and they can shine without you.
When in our life together has one of us patiently held the flame for the other — staying close until the other's light could rise on its own? Tell me about one moment.
The full week — the passage itself with its source, the other two questions, and the closing verse of hope — lives in the app. Together Tomorrow on the App Store.