Bemidbar

My community has a small minyan for Kabbalat Shabbat that accepts Shabbat early, and no second minyan (there is a larger minyan for the rest of Shabbat). Must I accept Shabbat at the time the early minyan does, which is sometimes difficult for me?

Jewish communities have the minhag to read ch. 5-6 of Micha as the haftara of Parashat Balak. The simple explanation is that in this section, the navi mentions Balak and Bilam and their plot to destroy Bnei Yisrael, which Hashem foiled. We would like to suggest an additional rationale.

The significance of the passing of Aharon’s clothes to Elazar, before the former’s death, of which we read this week, represents passing on his job and the authority of the Kohen Gadol from father to son. We have explained in the past that when Melachim begins with David’s lack of benefit from the warming powers of his clothes, it means that he had a problem passing on his kingdom to his heir apparent. That is why Chazal understood that David was criticized for cutting off the edge of Shaul’s garment when hiding in a cave as Shaul pursued him (Shmuel I, 24:4-5). It is not simple that he should be criticized, considering that he could have killed Shaul instead. According to what we have said, the matter is clear. Kingdom is something that one needs to receive, not take. By cutting off the piece of the garment, he was demonstrating taking it by force from Shaul, and this was wrong even as a symbolic act.

In parshas Korach, the kodoshim part given to the kohanim is referred to as a “covenant of salt,” thus providing an opportunity to explain: This is the way we salt our meat

Korach came with two claims against Moshe (Bamidbar Rabba 18:3): Could a house full of holy books require a mezuza? Could a garment that was fully techelet (a shade of blue used in the strings of tzitzit) require tzitzit? Indeed there are two types of complaints that we have been dealing with, generation after generation, and they have broken Israel into splinters and caused discord.