Parasha Bamidmar
SAN DIEGO — The wilderness. To some it may seem freewheeling, perhaps even disorganized, chaotic and confusing. In this week’s parasha, Bamidbar, always read on the Shabbat prior to Shavuot, we learn about not just any wilderness, but the wilderness of Sinai, through which we embark on a forty-year passage with a very specific goal, the Promised Land. To help organize and provide focus to people in the midst of a vast expanse of open land, the parasha tells us of Hashem’s command to Moshe to take a census, not just to count (some of) the people, but perhaps more importantly to help assure that people know they count and for us to remember that every human being has an important contribution to make.
During this time of pandemic, we face fears, obstacles, uncertainty. Some liken it to being in a wilderness. Our guidebook, our Torah, is our GPS system to help us through. We learn the values of faith, daring, modesty, appreciation, and not taking anything, especially our health, for granted. Certainly, a key requirement for understanding and carrying out Hashem’s word, is humility. After all, Moses is described as the most humble person on earth, we receive the Torah in a desert on the lowest of the mountains, Hashem speaks to Moses from a lowly burning bush. It seems the message is in the midst of a wilderness, we can more easily awaken to a life filled with Torah, and more easily disavow a life filled with greed for toys.
Perhaps we all need the uncertainty and adventure of a wilderness from time to time to create a strengthened appreciation for life, and to recognize the opportunities we have in tough times to learn, mature, grow spiritually and develop our inner strength and self-reliance – necessary for our survival, anchored in mutual dependence and respectful relationships, one to another. Medical science tells us how important it is to spend time in nature. The wilderness, nature, brings with it the opportunity to see, learn, try new things, write new stories, and strengthen our link to the awe we see in the handiwork of Hashem. In other words, ha’midbar m’daber, the wilderness speaks to us.
Whereas the wilderness took Egypt out of us, what is the present isolating, shelter-at-home, detachment from “normal” life, taking out of us? What does the wilderness we are in presently, say to you? Do you recognize the opportunity that comes from being in a wilderness, a time of confusion, as a place in which we grow from living lives of slavery to freedom, a place in which we receive the Torah that we’ll celebrate this coming week? Can we envision inside of our current pandemic uncertainty, the COVID-19 wilderness, other such rich opportunities for growth?
Keep in mind that the opportunity the parasha teaches us that comes in the vulnerability of the wilderness…the Torah. The lesson inside is that the Torah is best acquired when we humble ourselves, as we do in the vast expanse of the wilderness.
In a sense, we are all living in the danger of the wilderness, in a desert filled with obstacles, achievements and failures. We are surrounded with our bitachon, our trust in Hashem, and even if virtually, by our loving family, friends, fellow congregants, esteemed teachers. And yet, we do our “hishtadlus,” our own self-help, whether it be for parnassa, shidduchim, health and sustenance. After all, it is in the wilderness where our ancestors encountered Hashem and where our Torah is revealed. And we can do the same even now.
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Michael Mantell, Ph.D., prepares a weekly d’var Torah for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family worship. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com