In the Torah portion of Beha’alotcha, we find a phenomenon that occurs nowhere else in the entire Tanach: two sentences are bracketed off from the rest of the text by two backward-facing and inverted Hebrew letters, two nuns, to be exact:
And when the ark would journey, Moses said: “Arise God and let your enemies be scattered, and let those that hate You flee from before You.” And when it [the ark] rested he would say: “Rest peacefully God among the myriad thousands of Israel.” (Numbers 10:35-36)
The first verse is recited in synagogues around the world when the ark is opened and the Torah removed for public readings, and the second verse is recited when the Torah is returned to the ark after having been read.
Rashi, quoting the Talmud (Shabbat 115b-116a), first explains that these two verses are set apart because they are out of chronological order. This, however, would not seem to be reason enough since Rashi often explains that events recorded in the Torah are out of sequential order, and, indeed, this reasoning is also disputed by Rabbi Judah Hanasi in the Talmud. Why then, according to the Talmud, do the nuns appear in this specific case? Rashi, offering a second Talmudic opinion, proposes that the Torah is separating two sets of sins that occurred in the desert, both of which are recorded in this portion.
The Talmud also offers a third possibility, which Rashi does not mention: these two verses are set off because they are actually a completely separate book! In light of this proposal, the five books of Moses would actually be seven books, as the creation of this two-verse book splits the book of Numbers into three separate books. As we have noted repeatedly when discussing PaRDeS, each word, verse, story, and mitzvah in the Torah can be simultaneously understood on multiple levels. This is especially true when the phenomenon under discussion occurs only once in the Torah, such as these inverted nuns.
The Slonimer Rebbe in Netivot Shalom quotes an insight from the Maggid of Koznitch who suggests that the ark symbolizes the Torah scholar, for both are external vessels that contain Torah inside. Indeed, sometimes Torah scholars are referred to as “walking Torah scrolls” because the Torah has been so wholly integrated into their beings. The Hebrew word for “journey” (nesi’ah) used in our verse shares the same root as the Hebrew word for “test” (nisayon), thus implying that anytime the ark or a Torah scholar goes on a journey, challenges and tests will inevitably arise. The Slonimer Rebbe explains that this paradigm applies to anyone who wants to journey from a lower spiritual level to a higher, more refined level of consciousness, one of the vital goals of learning Torah and performing mitzvot.
In the first verse, Moses utters the prayer that God come to the aid of all those longing to elevate themselves and protect them from their enemies, that is, from all those forces in the world obstructing positive, constructive spiritual advancement. Within this rubric, God’s enemies are our enemies, and vice versa, as we become closely identified with God: our greatest desire is to do God’s work in the world and for this very reason we were chosen by Him. Chassidut points out that the first part of Psalms 34:15 – “Turn from evil and do good” – expresses this desire for spiritual advancement.
In the second verse, Moses utters a request that God rest peacefully among the people of Israel. The second half of Psalms 34:15 – “Turn from evil and do good” reflects this aspiration. In truth, only once God helps us defeat His and our enemies can our mission of doing good truly begin. The culminating point of a human being’s service to God is to draw near Him with love and create a vessel for Him to dwell in this world. Even more significantly, this culminating moment is achieved when we allow Him to dwell within each and every one of us. Since, according to the Slonimer Rebbe, the ideas presented in these two verses form the very basis for serving God, they are separated from the rest of the Torah in order to stress their crucial importance.
The question remains though as to why the letter nun was chosen to set these verses apart. Among the many concepts represented by the letter nun is the idea of falling, as the verb “falls” (nofel) begins with the letter nun. Psalm 145, which David wrote, is constructed as an acrostic following the order of the Hebrew alphabet. Only the letter nun is absent as David did not want to even allude to any future downfalls or hardships the Jewish people would suffer. Nonetheless, aware of such potential downfalls, the very next verse states that God supports all those who have fallen. This verse provides crucial encouragement for all those who do experience life’s inevitable setbacks.
David is referred to in the Talmud as the “fallen one,” a term that literally denotes a stillbirth or miscarriage. According to tradition, David’s soul was not granted any time in this world. When Adam prophetically witnessed David’s stillbirth, he volunteered to give David seventy of his one thousand years. Despite Adam’s generosity, David experienced each moment of life as if he was in a constant state of existential freefall, although he also simultaneously experienced God’s constant support. The following phrase is added to Grace After Meals on Sukkot: “O Merciful One, lift up the fallen sukkah of David.” All the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people over the years are referred to symbolically as David’s fallen sukkah.
The inverted nuns therefore prophetically allude to the many trials and tribulations facing the Jewish people in their attempt to fulfill God’s will in the world. In explaining the purpose of the inverted nuns, Rashi actually alluded to this as the two nuns separate two sets of sins that occurred in the desert; the Jewish people in the desert fell either because the challenge overwhelmed them, causing them to experience a lapse in judgment, or because they followed their baser desires. Moses’ brief two-verse prayer reverberates throughout the generations, for he addresses both each and every individual and the nation, encouraging them to stay the course with the knowledge that no truly worthwhile achievement is ever attained without overcoming opposition. Indeed, despite all that the Jewish people have been through, God has never let us completely fall and has time after time saved us and scattered our enemies.
Ironically, within a very short time Moses himself would need his prayer answered. In the narrative following these two verses, the Torah recounts how the people complained about the manna (the heavenly bread) and the lack of meat. In a moment of obvious discouragement and futility, Moses cried out to God: “I alone cannot carry all this people, for it is too heavy for me. And if this is how you deal with me, then kill me now” (Numbers 11:14-15). Moses’ request that God kill him is startling when compared with the lengths to which he went to defend the Jewish people after the sin of the Golden Calf. There, he even exclaimed that God could wipe him out of His book if He would not forgive the people. Here though, Moses seems to have suffered a severe “fall.” However, God recognizes Moses plight and legitimizes his complaint by appointing seventy elders to assist him.
All the elders became prophets as Moses conferred upon them the spirit of prophecy. When two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, began prophesying in the camp, Joshua ran to tell Moses, assuming that he would stop them. According to the Sifrei, Joshua’s concern stemmed from their prophecy that Moses would die and Joshua would bring the children of Israel into the Land. Even though at this point in the Torah’s narrative, the people were very close to entering the Land of Israel with Moses as their leader, Moses’ complaint and request to die if he did not receive assistance are immediately followed by a prophecy that he would die before entering the Land. In a sense, both Moses’ complaint and prayer function as self-fulfilling prophecies with regard to both himself and the nation, for he died in the desert and did not lead Israel into the Promised Land. Furthermore, God has always prevented the nation of Israel from being completely annihilated by its enemies.
The Talmud teaches that one of the Mashiach’s names will be yenon, a name that sounds very much like the letter nun (Sanhedrin 98b). The Mashiach, like King David, will experience many falls and will deliberately descend in order to redeem all the fallen sparks of holiness trapped in the impure shells and illusions of this world. The Ba’al Shem Tov explains that in order to elevate others who have sunk to low spiritual levels, one must at times risk lowering one’s self, in a certain sense, to their levels. Seen from this perspective, falling has a positive connotation, which may account for the nuns being inverted. The inversion hints that not all falling is negative; there is also the very important principle of “descent in order to ascend,” a vital service performed by the righteous, which will be brought to its consummate level by the Mashiach.
The numerical value of the word “Mashiach” is 358, which is the same as the numerical value of the word “nachash” (the primordial snake of the Garden of Eden). The latter word begins with a nun. When the energy of the snake is rectified and inverted, its power will only be used for the good. The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that each individual contains a spark of Mashiach and he or she must work at revealing this spark in the world. When a critical mass of sparks has been revealed, the Mashiach’s soul will be drawn into the world. Until then, we all must struggle and ask, like Moses, for God’s assistance in overcoming all the obstacles blocking our paths to fulfilling our own individual roles as well as the ultimate mission of the Jewish people.
