Bamidbar: Crossing Our Modern Wilderness

“On the first day of the second month, in the second year after the exodus from the land of Egypt, God spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai…” (Numbers 1:1).

This week we begin reading the fourth book of the Torah. In English, we call it Numbers, a reference to the two censuses taken of the Israelite nation in its chapters. In Hebrew, the book is known as Bemidbar, which means “in the wilderness.” Bemidbar documents one great transition for the Israelites. It covers thirty nine years of the Israelites' forty years of wandering on their way to the promised land. 

More so than in the other books of the Torah, the physical setting, the cruel and uncompromising Sinai desert, plays an outsized role in the narrative. As Dr. Erica Brown, Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University, describes, “the wild – the midbar – is a place of anarchy, unexpected hardships, and harsh physical conditions that can bewilder and swallow visitors.” It is into this crucible that the nascent Israelite nation walks. 

The Israelites attempt to make order in their unfriendly surroundings: they take censuses, create a standing army, arrange the tribes in the camp according to their role. Yet the wilderness, entirely devoid of care for the plight of the living creatures passing through it, eventually overtakes them. The wilderness creates deep crises. There is a crisis of survival: the Israelites’ source of both food and water dries up, threatening the lives of thousands. And there are crises of leadership: spies bring back contradictory reports from The Land of Israel sending panic through the nation; a group of rebels rises against Moses and is literally swallowed up by the land as punishment for their actions. The Israelites are tossed about, questioning every pillar upon which their lives were based. 

The experience of the wilderness - the deeply unsettled feeling, the chaos bordering on anarchy that invites apathy as a coping mechanism - always felt distant from me. Yet as we mark this week 600 days since October 7th and consider what has occurred, both in the Middle East and globally, to the Jewish People, the thought that perhaps we are currently moving through our own midbar has crossed my mind more than once. It is a period of deep uncertainty. We face a landscape that has been shockingly indifferent at times to our pain. And, in every direction we look, there are no simple pathways out. 

Yet we must hold onto the memory that the midbar is not endless. Eventually the Israelites emerge from the other side and enter into a land flowing with milk and honey. Yes, we were thrust into this wilderness against our will and by nearly complete surprise. And, yes, from where we stand today the horizon seems far away, and it feels like this period will never end. But we can learn from King Solomon, considered the wisest to ever rule, who wore a ring inscribed with the Hebrew inscription gam zeh ya’avor - this too shall pass. 

If we accept that this too shall pass, we can ask ourselves, as we begin to read about our ancestors sojourn through the desert, how will our contemporary journey through unfriendly surroundings shape us? While the wilderness challenges us, as it challenged our ancestors, we should be wary of allowing the stark indifference of midbar to permeate our souls and shape who we are. Because if we allow it to do so, we will not be fully able to enjoy the milk and honey that awaits us on the other side. 

May our journey through our ancestor’s path through the wilderness inspire us to move through ours with bravery and compassion. Shabbat Shalom.