In the middle of Parshas Behalos’cha, there is a very unusual occurrence in the written text of the Torah. The passage relating the travel of the Aron is separated from the rest of the text by two large, backward nuns that are bracketing it. Rabbeinu Bachye mentions a few explanations for this that he gathered from other commentators, and then develops his own approach. One thing that is clear from the context, and is cited in the Mishna, is that this bracketed section is surrounded by difficult experiences stemming from the defiance of Israel.
Rabbeinu Bachye emphasizes a different point to establish the uniqueness of this section. He quotes the Tosefta (from Pesachim 94a) dividing the physical world into three equal parts - settlement, wilderness, and oceans. Accordingly, during the Exodus from Mitzrayim until the settlement of the Land, Israel passes through each of these. In each location, we witnessed amazing miracles. The challenge of confronting the wonders of nature - of the wilderness - is that one might begin to believe in the eternity of nature and to question the power of the Creator who made it all. The same Creator will also endure after all that has been created fades from existence.
Thus, the account of the travails of the wilderness, as well as the wonders of the wilderness is broken up by an explicit reference to the eternity of Hashem that transcends all of Creation - embodied in the Aron and its supernatural contents, the tablets of the covenant. The durability of the physical world, as well as its ephemerality, is represented by the Shemittah cycle. We explored this idea in depth when we read Parshas Behar, where the Mitzvah of Shemittah is given. As we saw there, the passage of time is divided into sets of forty-nine, crowned by a fiftieth representing the Divine Will that shaped it all.
We count this period in days before Shavuos and in years during the Shemittah cycle but it is also measured in millennia and in eons. Ultimately, the lesson to be drawn from all of this vast expanse of time and the apparent eternity of the universe is that nothing lasts forever. Nothing, that is, except for Hashem and the Torah. So, the bracketing nuns, which have the numerical value of fifty, represent this cycle of Shemittah and Yovel on a cosmic level and they set apart the movement of the Aron and by extension the Torah, to demonstrate how the Torah is not included in the vicissitudes of material existence or the trials of the wilderness. The Torah is truly separate from the physical universe, it is outside of space and time.
This idea calls back to Rabbeinu Bachye’s introduction to our Parsha, taken as is his practice from the book of Mishlei. Shlomo Hamelech wrote (Mishlei 13:9), “The light of tzadikim rejoices but the candle of the wicked will be extinguished.” He ties this to the opening Pesukim of our Parsha, concerning the elevation of the candles in the Mishkan. Indeed, although the language differs slightly, both the candles and the Aron are elevated. Rabbeinu Bachye explains that for the righteous the most important thing is the light itself - the Torah they learn, the acts of kindness they perform. These things endure forever, even - and especially - after their physical body has passed from existence. Yet, the wicked only live in the moment and seek pleasure in their bodies. The body is like the candle itself, upon which the flame depends. When the body is gone so is the pleasure of the wicked, and they have gained nothing.
We see here a persistent theme of Torah and faithfulness to Hashem elevating our purpose and separating us from the “wilderness” of the material world. Everybody must choose upon which side of those brackets they stand - in the trials of defiance or in the eternal blessing of the Torah traveling through the desert, carrying those who carried it (Sotah 35a).
