CANTOR’S CORNER

Cantor Eyal Bitton shares a few thoughts on prayer and the parasha of the week.

2023-06-10 Parashat Beha’alotcha

Friday evening, during Kabbalat Shabbat, I often sing Psalm 92 (“Tov L’hodot”) to “What a Wonderful World”. The psalm begins: “It is good to thank You, O Lord,” then later, “How wonderful are Your works, O Lord… The arrogant do not understand this, the fool does not comprehend this.” The Psalmist understands that not everyone agrees that God’s works are wonderful. The Psalmist understands that the goodness, the beauty, and the wonder around us are not absolute; they are a matter of perception.

In this parasha, Beha’alotcha, we see how different individuals react to the same event with vastly different perspectives.

The youth and Joshua Bin Nun are outraged by Eldad and Medad behaving like prophets. They see it as a sacrilege and believe that punishment is in order. Moses, on the other hand, praises them and wishes that all of the Lord’s people were prophets.

As prophets, Eldad and Medad were able to see things differently from the average person because they were open. They were open to interpreting what they saw and to understanding things differently. They were open to new perspectives.

The same applies to us. When we look at the world around us, how do we see it? Do we choose to be closed or open to new perceptions? We can choose to see the world as being filled with the worst of humanity, or we can choose to see the world as being filled with beauty, promise, and the grandeur of God.

In the Haftarah, the prophet Zechariah has a vision of a golden menorah and an angel, and asks what they signify. The angel tells him that the future is bright, and the world will transform, not by power but by God’s spirit. But there is no actual menorah or angel. These are all part of Zechariah’s mind, and he is the one who is left with an understanding of those things.

The point is, an object is merely an object. It has no inherent symbolism. It’s all about how we perceive it. If we perceive an object to have a certain meaning, then it has a certain meaning.

So let us be like Eldad and Medad, prophets who were open to new perspectives, and like Moses, who wished that all the Lord’s people were prophets. Let us choose to see the world with open hearts and minds, to see the beauty and promise that is all around us.

Let us approach each day with a renewed perspective, open to the wonders of the world, and the grandeur of God. Let us choose to see beauty around us; we can choose to look at the world that surrounds us and declare, “What a wonderful world!”