Behalothescha: seeing the path forward. 

We are all  in a wilderness without reliable guideposts, advancing toward goals, retreating from threats, never sure of the best path.  The roads are studded with impediments and  dangers.  The signs are misleading, so many mirages. How do you know which path to follow? 

This week's parsha offers too many guides.  It would seem that the cloud that hovered over the Tabernacle should have been enough.  The parsha says that the people moved according to the signal of the cloud.  If it moved, the people moved according to their divisions.  The cloud was the presentation of  Divine direction.  Where the cloud stopped, there they would camp.  It is hard to beat Divine guidance for directions (comparisons to phone apps deferred)

The trumpets, blown by the Kohanim, was an auditory signal ( in case one did not see the cloud).   This is a very different, more diffuse neurologic pathway. Loud noises wake you up. 

When Moshe asks his father in law, Hobab, to join Israel in its journey through the wilderness, he offers him the role of guide.    כִּ֣י ׀ עַל־כֵּ֣ן יָדַ֗עְתָּ חֲנֹתֵ֙נוּ֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר וְהָיִ֥יתָ לָּ֖נוּ לְעֵינָֽיִם׃  inasmuch as you know where we should camp in the wilderness and can be our guide

Why do Israelites need a guide? Rashi recognizes the problem and offers 

והיית לנו לעינים — The verb is in the past tense and we have to understand it just as the Targum renders it: and all the mighty deeds that have been wrought for us thou hast seen with thine own eyes. Another explanation is that it is the future tense: whatever things will be hidden from our eyes, you will enlighten our eyes about it.

Hobab, the son of Reuel ( seer of the Power) recognizes the Divine interventions involved in this journey better than the (jaded) Israelites.  We remember that  Moshe discovered Gd when he was living in the house of his father -in-law.  We remember that Jethro ( Moshe's  [other?]father-in-law) greeted him with a statement recognizing the enormity of the Divine intervention. 

The Ramban seems to allow the conflict: Please do not forsake us, for, because you know of our encampment in the desert and you will be our eyes — that is, since you are familiar with the Wilderness you will be our eyes in conquering the lands, and you will show us the way to go

Hobab would (also) be a guide.

From our interaction with phone apps, we know that a mortal human being is helpful in interpreting and carrying out the  extra-human guidance.  The interaction between the rational and the prophetic is a very important theme in this parsha.  It is brought to an unusual level of clarity in the last story: when Miriam asserts her prophetic status vis a vis  Moshe.  We are told that Moshe had clarity of vision, whereas other prophets saw dreamlike ( unreliable) visions and riddles.

Hobab  could see Gd's involvement in miracles.  He could see miracles when they existed. If this is not a step toward prophecy, it is certainly a prerequisite.


Seeing reality is not easy.  It is not natural.  What we think we see is a highly processed product, suggested by our interaction with stimuli  We are looking for something  before we see anything.  The dream invades the vision, the riddle penetrates the thought. The prophet glimpses both "realities": the objective and the consensus.

The Torah gave us a direction for all time.  All we need is clarity