 |
Desert Generation
This section of the Torah
is entitled, Bamidbar, in the desert.
It is hard for us to imagine, though it may be less
hard in our current situation than it was before we were put into
quarantine, how the Jewish people lived in the desert for four decades. Since they had no gainful occupations and they had
no struggle to feed themselves for the miraculous bread from heaven
fell and the well of Miriam and of Moshe
provided them with water and sustenance. What did they do with their
time? The apparent
answer is that
they absorbed themselves in understanding, studying, and assessing the laws and
values of the
Torah. In any event,
they had to raise a new generation of people, a generation that
would pursue the goal
of entering the land of Israel and settling it and creating
a more normal, so to speak,
Jewish society.
Our rabbis have characterized the
generation of the desert as being one of great intelligence, knowledge and understanding. Yet it was a generation of seemingly no purpose
because it was doomed
to die in the desert
and not accomplish the goal that was entrusted to it when
it left Egypt.
It was told that it would accept
the Torah and
then march into
the land of Israel. Moshe was successful in having them accept the
Torah, but he was unsuccessful in attempting to have them
move to the
land of Israel.
In fact, an element of the
people would say that not only would
they not go forward to the land
of Israel, but they
would be willing to retreat
and go backwards into the land of Egypt, the land of affliction and of plagues.
It is hard
for us to imagine such
a generation, with
its sole task
only to mark
time until it passed away and
made room for
the next generation, which would inevitably enter the land of
Israel and build
there a society. The desert had however positive aspects to it as well.
The Talmud teaches us that the Torah was given to a generation that could live in the desert. If one
can relieve oneself
of desires and of outside
pressures and live as though
one is in a desert,
then the Torah
can find a real home
and purpose in the life
of that person.
The generation of the desert
represents to us a two-faced and double-edged society.
On the one hand,
negative because of its refusal
to progress towards
its ultimate goal,
the land of Israel and, on the other, a society of blessedness, free
from daily wants
and pressures with the ability to intellectualize Torah
into its very
being.
In Jewish tradition, the generation of the desert is always represented not so much as a transitional generation but as a wasted generation. One who has
opportunity and ability and does not employ
that ability to fulfill the opportunity presented, is seen, in the eyes
of the Torah, as wasting one’s
existence. And the
Torah has a prohibition against
wasting anything, certainly time and opportunities.
Because
of this, we are always
troubled when reading
these portions of the Torah
that will follow for
the next few weeks and
this section of the Torah
which bears the
name of the desert as its title.
We are struck
with a feeling of pity
and sadness that
the generation that had the possibility of being the
greatest ended up being a wasted generation, dying in the desert, having no home,
and little or no opportunity, after its great
start when freed
from Egypt.
Every generation must
be on the watch, that
it should not be a generation of the desert.
We can learn to take advantage of situations which
allow us to study and to employ
intellectual realism, but we have to also beware
that a generation of the desert
that does not
build for the future
and does not take hold
of its opportunities will not be remembered as a positive and great generation amongst
the story of the people
of Israel. We are faced
with great challenges, but with great opportunities.
And our generation certainly will not be remembered as a generation of the desert, but rather as a generation of Jews who helped build the land of Israel and who have rebuilt the Jewish world, wherever Jews exist.
|
Always Small • Torah.org
Population numbers have always
meant a great
deal in human
history. We do not find
tribes or influential societies that were composed
only of a very small
number of people.
All the great tribes
in the ancient
and modern world
were built on large populations that would be able to fuel
the economy of the Empire
and provide sufficient numbers of soldiers for its armies.
Naturally the exception to all of this has been the story of the Jewish people. The Torah itself warned Israel
in advance that
they never would
be numerous, relatively speaking. The
Torah did not mean
this as a curse or as a completely negative
fact. Rather, it was a simple
declaration as to the price, so to speak,
of persecution, poverty
and powerlessness. Yet the
very same verse in the Torah guaranteed the survival of the Jewish people and the eventual triumph over all would-be adversaries.
In light of this it seems surprising that in this fourth book of the Bible, a count of the Jewish people is taken
a number of times, and that count
is detailed to the ultimate degree. If numbers do not matter when it comes to Jewish society and the story of the Jewish people, then why did the Torah
put such an emphasis upon
numbers and detail
for us regarding the exact population of the Jewish people at the time of Moses?
I think that perhaps the answer to this lies
in the statistics and numbers
that the Torah details for us in this week’s Torah reading. The number of the Jewish people at the time of Moses constituted over 600,000 males
between the ages
of 20 and 60. By adding into
this
some female population, those over 60 and those
under 20, we arrive at a population figure of perhaps 3 million people. If there were 3 million Jews that existed 3300 years ago, simply by natural increase and according to trends
of population, there should be hundreds of millions of Jews existing in today’s world. Yet the actual count of Jews in our world, at its most optimistic level,
is about 15 million people.
This fact, when seen in the background of the account of the Jewish people when they were in the desert
of Sinai, and
the fact that
numerically speaking we have been
at pretty much of
a standstill over all of these long
centuries, is itself
the confirmation of the words
of the Torah
that we will
be a small people in terms of population.
Certainly, there are many
rational, practical and correct reasons
that are advanced
for the lack of growth in Jewish population – persecution, conversions, forced and otherwise, disease, poverty, and the continual erosion of the Jewish population by assimilation and a low birthrate. But no matter
what reasons we accept to account for this historical anomaly, it is clear that
Heaven, in its usual hidden
way, somehow accounts
for this as well.
|
The Sparkle of Truth
And HASHEM spoke
to Moshe in the Desert
of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting…
(Bamidbar 1:1)
Why is it called the Desert of Sinai? It is because
of the “sina”-hatred by the nations of the
world that resulted from them
not accepting the Torah on Mt. Sinai.
(Tractate Shabbos 89B)
Why should hatred
enter the hearts
of the nations of the world because
of the reception of the Torah by the Nation
of Israel? Does
not the Midrash
tell us that
they were offered
the Torah and they
refused to accept
it?! Why should
such a lasting
hatred ensue? What’s
the benefit of having to endure a blood soaked
gauntlet of history
for having accepted the Torah?
The Talmud tells
us that the
2nd Chapter of Tehillim (Psalms)
is a direct window, a futuristic
vision of the attitudes and schemes of the nations
of the world
on the heels of the advent of the Messianic Era.
It begins like
this: “Why do the nations
congregate and why
do the peoples
think of worthless plans? Why do the kings
posture themselves and
the rulers take council together against
HASHEM and His
anointed!?”
About this prophetic verse Rabbi Shimshon
Raphael Hirsch ztl.
explains, more than
150 years ago, that the reason why the nations
gather noisily together
is specifically to conspire
against HASHEM and His anointed. He writes, “They all, consciously or unconsciously, have one common goal, namely to emancipate themselves from the sovereignty of
the one supreme principle, that
of the dutiful
obedience to the moral Law of G-d which came
to their awareness through the
historical fact of the existence of His people
and of His anointed. Only to this law
did G-d promise
His aid and
furtherance. Upon this
law did G-d build His world
order, and only
through the observance of this law
can nations attain enduring peace in their domestic
and foreign relations. The refusal to swear allegiance to this moral law because of considerations of personal interest, power, fame, and wealth is
the reason for the unhealthy internal and external relationships in the lives of the nations. Instead of seeking a cure for this state
of affairs upon
the only path that leads
to the true goal, all the leaders of the lives and activities of the nations
are perversely engaged
in a fight against this
sole principle of salvation. The cure actually lies precisely there where they think they can find the cause for
their troubles, while
they seek the cure in that which
actually only aggravates the lingering evil.”
A disciple and
descendent of Rabbi
Hirsch, Dr. Isaac
Breuer ztl. observed, “The “people of the Book” among
the nations is the most
fantastic miracle of all, and the history
of this people is literally one of miracles. And one who sees this
ancient people today,
after thousands of years
among the nations
of the world, when he reads the
Scripture (The Torah- Old Testament) and finds that they relate
clearly and simply
the ever-transpiring Jewish phenomenon, and does not fall on his face and exclaim, “G-d, the Lord of Israel, He is G-d!” then
no miracle will
help him. For,
in truth, this
individual has no heart to understand,
no eye to discern, and no ear to hear.”
A French author from the latter part of the 19th century, Jon DeBileda wrote the following before the Russian
Revolution, the rise
of Nazi Germany, and prior to the ingathering of millions of Jews to Israel; “In essence the Jewish people chuckle at all forms of anti-Semitism. Think all
you want and you will
not be able
to find one
form of brutality or strategy that
has not been used in warfare against the Jewish People. “I cannot be defeated” says Judaism. “All that you attempt
to do to me today
has been attempted 3,200 years prior
in Egypt. Then tried the Babylonians and the Persians…Afterward tried
the Romans and then others
and others…” There is no question that the Jew will outlive us all. This is an eternal people…They cannot be defeated, understand this! Every
war with them
is a vain waste of time and manpower. Conversely, it is wise to sign
a mutual covenant with them. How trustworthy and profitable they are as allies…Be their
friends and they
will pay you
back in friendship one- hundred fold!
This is an excellent and exalted people!”
The same
way a diamond’s strength, beauty,
and perfection is revealed, after
3321 rugged yet glorious years we can only hope
more perceive the
sparkle of truth.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment