JUNE 20 • 2024 | 55
J
N

The Trumpet Call
T

he parshat opens with 
holiness, purity and 
brilliant light from the 
candelabra in the sanctuary. 
The portion ends not with 
Miriam’s nasty words about 
Moshe and his wife, but 
with the response of 
the Jewish people, the 
Israelites, to Miriam’s 
punishment: They do not 
move on — seemingly 
refusing to accept God’s 
authority 

The parshat wants to 
show us the morality of 
the Jewish people: Some-
one as great and giving 
as Miriam deserves the 
respect of the people not 
leaving her behind. The 
Children of Israel rise to the 
occasion and show their ethical 
backbone.
This moral and ethical 
strength is translated into 
the piercing sound of silver 
trumpets that Hashem tells 
Moshe to make. The trumpets 
have many mundane functions, 
such as calling the leaders or the 
people for a meeting or getting 
the nation to start moving again 
through the wilderness. Toward 
the end of this section about 
the trumpets comes a higher 
calling: Ch. 10, v. 9: “If a war 
comes to your land because of 
an enemy that oppresses you, 
sound the blasts of the trum-
pets, and God will remember 
you and save you from your 
enemies.
”
God promises that if the Jew-
ish people do indeed rise to the 
occasion and channel their holy 
relationship with God and their 
ethical and moral backbone, 
then God will hear their shouts 
— represented by the trumpets 
— and God will save them. The 

trumpets are a reminder to us 
and to God of who we are as 
a people, of struggles through 
the millennia against enemies 
who disdain all the good that 
the Torah and the Jewish people 
bring to the world. 
Israel today is fighting 
an enemy that has not 
only hatred for the Jews 
and their aspirations, but 
also a hatred of the mo-
rality and ethics that the 
Jewish people have stood 
for and continue to 
stand for in the Jewish 
state and in the Jewish 
army. In this world of 
media that constantly 
wants us to forget who 
we are and see the 
Jews as oppressors and wicked, 
we need to blow these trum-
pets loud and clear to remind 
ourselves who we are. The brave 
Israeli soldiers strive to fight a 
vicious enemy while trying to 
avoid as many civilian casualties 
as possible. The commitment to 
returning and saving those held 
captive is in the DNA of the 
Jewish people. 
We need loud, piercing 
horns to be blown to make 
sure we can see who we really 
are through the haze of the 
antisemitism and anti-Jewish 
bias that surrounds us. 
Let us continue to have faith 
that with our efforts, with our 
sticking to the ethics that our 
people have taught the world 
for thousands of years, God 
will hear our trumpet cry and 
will bring salvation to Israel, 
destruction to our enemies and 
the immediate return of our 
precious hostages. 

Rabbi Asher Lopatin is rabbi of Kehillat 

Etz Chayim in Huntington Woods.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Asher 
Lopatin

Parshat 

Bechaalotekha: 

Numbers 

8:1-12:16; 

Zachariah 

2:14-4:7.

(818) 970-6046

(248) 327-2124

jack.wiener@HealthMarkets.com

HealthMarkets.com/jack.wiener

33302 West 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334

Jack Wiener

Licensed Insurance Agent

(818) 970-6046

Health | Medicare | Small Group | Life | Supplemental

Let Old Friends be your 

Michigan-Florida Connection

Keyes Real Estate

Estate Property Sales from
Listing to Clean-Out!

Buy • Sell • InveSt

Throughout South Florida, Including Boca, Boynton, 
Delray, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties

Nina Spinner-Sands

NinaSpinner-Sands@keyes.com

(954) 290-8293

Rita Morse

RitaMorse@keyes.com
(305) 609-7559

PUZZLE ANSWERS

Solution to puzzle in 6/13/24 issue.

1. The Blue paintbrush (lower right)

2. The bracelet on the girl, bottom left

3. The pink graphic on the black shirt 

 of the girl in the middle on the left 

 side of the table

4. The tamborine on the furthest end 

 of the table.

5. The hand of the girl on the 

 bottom right

