WHEN THE TABERNACLE IS TO SET OUT, THE LEVITES SHALL TAKE IT DOWN, AND WHEN THE TABERNACLE IS TO BE PITCHED, THE LEVITES SHALL SET IT UP; ANY OUTSIDER WHO ENCROACHES SHALL BE PUT TO DEATH. THE ISRAELITES SHALL ENCAMP TROOP BY TROOP, EACH MAN WITH THIS DIVISION AND EACH UNDER HIS STANDARD. BUT THE LEVITES SHALL ENCAMP AROUND THE TABERNACLE OF THE PACT, THAT WRATH NOT STRIKE THE ISRAELITE COMMUNITY; THE LEVITES SHALL STAND GUARD AROUND THE TABERNACLE OF THE PACT.

(Bamidbar 1:51-53)

 

 

Another story is told of a gentile who was passing behind the House of Study and overheard the voice of a scribe reciting [the verse] These are the garments which they shall make: the Hoshen and the Ephod. He said: "To whom were these instructions given?" They answered him: "To the High Priest." The gentile said: "I shall go and convert myself so that they appoint me High Priest."

He came before Shammai. He said to him: "Convert me on condition that you appoint me High Priest." He pushed him away with the builder's cubit he was holding.

He came before Hillel, who converted him. Hillel said to him: "Is it not so that only one acquainted with the conventions of monarchy is appointed king?" The convert went and studied. When he reached the passage And the stranger who comes near shall die he asked: "To whom does this passage refer?" He replied: "Even to David, King of Israel."

The gentile analyzed his situation with a kal va'chomer. "If Israel, who are called Sons of the Omnipresent, and because of His love for them he called them Israel, My firstborn son, are nonetheless subject to [the law of] And the stranger who comes near shall die - a convert who comes but with his stick and pack, all the more so!"

He came before Shammai: He said to him: "In your estimation, am I worthy of being a High Priest? Does it not say in the Torah: And the stranger who comes near shall die?"

He came before Hillel. He said to him: "Hillel the humble, may blessings be heaped upon your head, for you brought me beneath the wings of the Divine Presence."

One day, the three of them happened to meet. The convert said: "Shammai's strictness sought to drive us from the world; Hillel's humility gathered us under the wings of the Divine Presence."

(Shabbat 31a)

 

Let Us Go to the Wilderness

Avigdor Shinan

While the Torah's account of the Israelites' wanderings in the wilderness on their way to Canaan begins in the book of Shemot and continues through Vayikra, it is the book of Bamidbar - which we currently have begun to read - that relates the major events that occurred during those forty years. The wilderness is mentioned many more times in this book than in any other book of the Torah. Its accepted title (Bamidbar = in the wilderness), which is of course taken from the book's opening verse, is quite appropriate to its content and language. Ancient sources do refer to the book as Sefer Va'yedaber [The Book of "Then Spoke"] (i.e., Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 64:8), but the more usual title likely reflects the feeling that the wilderness rather than speech is of chief importance here.

What was the wilderness for our Sages? How is it depicted in the Mishnah, the midrashim, and the Talmud? The wilderness stands for three things in this literature: danger, freedom, and wonder.

Danger. How is this so? In those days the wilderness's special conditions and remoteness from civilization made it a dangerous place to be. One was obligated to bless God upon emerging from the wilderness unscathed. When setting out the foundations for the prayer known to us as Birkat Ha'Gomel, the Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 54b) states that, "Four must give thanks: those who travel by sea, who travel through wildernesses, one who was ill and recovered, and one who came out of prison."

Freedom. How is this so? The Sages emphasize that the wilderness lacks boundaries and belongs to no one; it is all a public domain and everything in it can be taken freely by all. It is a place of complete ownerlessness, but not of complete anarchy. When the Sages wanted to explain why the Torah was given in the wilderness, they sought similarities and connections between the Torah and the wilderness, teaching us that, "Just as the wilderness has no end - so too there is no end to words of the Torah' (Yalkut Shimoni, Yitro, 273), and they said that, "The Torah was given in three things - in fire, in water, and in the wilderness... just as fire, water, and the wilderness are free for the taking, so too the words of the Torah are free for the taking" (Bamidbar Rabbah 1:7). Infinity, free-for-the-taking, liberty and freedom are characteristics of the wilderness.

Wonder. How is this so? It is a place beyond human settlement, a place where conventional law does not apply, a place where water has sprung from a stone and manna descended from heaven, where the bitter waters were made sweet and the people were wrapped in clouds of glory. It is a place where wonders and miracles can always be expected; the Sages injected even more miracles and wonders into the biblical stories and also told of wondrous happenings in the wilderness of their own day, as in the adventures of Rabbah bar bar Hannah, some of which took place in the wilderness.

The wilderness is a most dangerous place. In it, life depends on God's grace and salvation. It is a place where it is very easy to transgress laws and slide into anarchy and sin. According to the Torah, God chose this place to transform a nation of slaves into a chosen people, often by setting up challenges to galvanize them. This is also the place where He chose His messengers, subjecting them to various trials. So, for instance, tradition speaks of the election of Moses and David - the father of all prophets and the first among kings - by testing their abilities as shepherds in the wilderness:

The Lord tests the righteous (Psalms 11:5). How does He test him? Through the tending of sheep. He tested David with the sheep, and found him to be a good shepherd, as is written and took him from the sheepfolds (78:70). What is meant by sheepfolds? It is like the verse And the people held back from bringing (Shemot 36:6) (Trans. note: The Hebrew for sheepfold - michla'a - and for held back - va'yichlu - share the common root אלכ). He would pen up the large sheep and take the smaller sheep out to pasture first, so that they could feed on the tender grass. Then he would take out the oldest sheep, which would eat the tougher grass. Finally he would take out the young adult sheep, which would eat the toughest grass. The Holy One, Blessed be He said: "Whoever knows how to tend sheep, each according to its ability, let him come and lead my people." Thus it is written: He brought him from minding the nursing ewes to tend His people, Jacob (Psalms 78:71). Moses was also tested by means of sheep. Our Rabbis said: When he tended Jethro's sheep in the wilderness, a kid escaped and he ran after it until he reached a sheltered spot. Upon reaching shelter, a pool of water appeared, and the goat stopped to drink. When Moses arrived, he said "I was not aware that you ran away from me because of thirst." He carried it on his shoulders. The Holy One blessed be He said: "You are merciful in tending mortals' sheep, by your life, you shall tend my sheep, Israel." (Shemot Rabba 2:2)

The formation of the people as worthy of their name and status required conditions of extreme isolation, free of any stable ties to other peoples and cultures, and of constant testing and effort, challenge following upon challenge. The notion that a new people and a new religion could only take form in the wilderness underlies many midrashic traditions relating to Abraham, the nation's father. He took in guests in the wilderness, taking them under the wings of the Divine Presence. Thus a new religion and faith was born, as we see in the haggadic tradition relating to Abraham's performance of righteousness [tzedaka] and justice [mishpat] (Bereishit 18:19). According to the author of the midrash, tzedaka refers to soft means of persuasion, while mishpat refers to harder, more aggressive tactics. Abraham used both means to enlist people in the new faith:

Abraham would receive passersby [in the wilderness]. While they drank and ate, he would tell them: "Say the blessing." They would say to him, "What should we say?" He said: "Blessed be the God of the world, for we have eaten of His [food]. If [the guest] agreed to say the blessing - he would eat and drink and go on his way, but if he did not agree, he [Abraham] would tell him: "Pay what you owe!" And he [the guest] would say, "What must I pay?" He would tell him: "A log of wine goes for ten polerin [a large sum of money] and a pound of meat costs ten polerin, and a loaf of bread costs ten polerin. Who gives you wine in the wilderness? Who gives you meat in the wilderness? Who gives you bread in the wilderness?" One who saw that he had gotten himself into trouble would [give in and] say: "Blessed be the God of the world, for we have eaten of His [food]." Thus it is written: first tzedaka [i.e., gentle persuasion] and latter mishpat [tough persuasion]. (Bereishit Rabbah 49:4)

Biblical Israel was not the only group to undergo most of its genesis and formation in the wilderness. The Dead Sea sect - whoever they were - escaped to the wilderness in order to separate from the sinful populace and isolate themselves there to study Torah, to pray, and to practice asceticism while awaiting the end of the world and the revelation of the light of their own salvation. The literary traditions regarding Christianity's origins offer similar examples, such as that of John the Baptist, who would "preach in the wilderness" (Matthew 3:1) his call to recognize the coming kingdom of God. It turns out that in the context of ancient Judaism in the Land of Israel, one needed that element of "wilderness" in order to deliver a new message of change. Islam was also born of the wilderness, and Jews who wrote in the age of their encounter with the new religion were certainly awake to this fact.

Who is this rising up from the desert, leaning upon her beloved? These are among the expressions used by the author of the biblical Song of Songs to describe the special affection that binds man and woman, lover and beloved. The Sages lent a new and surprising dimension to the Song of Songs, reading it as a love song between the God of Israel - the lover - and his beloved - the congregation of Israel. Almost the entire book was interpreted in this spirit. Thus the midrash understood the words Who is this rising up from the desert, leaning upon her beloved? as referring to the beloved Israel, leaving the wilderness. The expression rising up was understood metaphorically as referring to spiritual elevation and exaltation. The midrash states: "Who is this rising up from the desert - its excellences come from the wilderness." The midrash continues to number the nation's excellences, tying each to the wilderness: "The Torah is from the wilderness, the Tabernacle is from the wilderness, the Sanhedrin is from the wilderness" and so on. The midrash concludes with the statement that "all the good gifts that the Holy One blessed be He gave to Israel are from the wilderness (Shir Ha'Shirim Rabba 3:4). According to this, the wilderness serves as the source of the Jewish People's spiritual wealth and power.

The roar of the celebration of the State of Israel's fifty-eighth Independence Day is still ringing in our ears, and it is hard not to mention the opening words of the Declaration of Independence in this context: "The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books." I do not intend to disagree with the authors of this important document, but the classical Jewish sources teach us that according to the Sages it was the wilderness - the place that is not a place - which served as a cradle for the Jewish People and all that is good about it came from the wilderness. And so it shall be in the future: "Now there are no trees in the wilderness, but in the future there shall be, for it is said I shall give forth a cedar in the wilderness. Now it is all sand and has no roads... in the future there will be a road there, for it is said, I shall place a road in the wilderness (Tanhuma Masa'ei 3). We witness the settlement of the wilderness and the planting of trees there with our own eyes. May we know to continue making it blossom, for "the Holy One blessed be He said, ‘This desert is better than all the countries'" (following Tanhuma Bamidbar 2).

Prof. Avigdor Shinan teaches in the Department of Hebrew Literature of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

 

 

Take a census of the whole Israelite community by clans of its ancestral homes, listing the names, every male, head by head.

(Bamidbar 1:2)

 

The king said to Yoav, his army commander, "Make the rounds of all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-Sheva, and take a census of the people, so that I may know the size of the population."

 (II Samuel, 24:2)

 

Did David Sin?

...In my opinion, David's sin demonstrates that he depended upon mortals and the large size of the nation was the source of his confidence. However, it was improper for him to trust in anything save in God alone. In addition, (as we explained in the parasha of Ki Tissah) the Torah commanded us to count people indirectly, by having each man give a certain amount of money, and then counting the total sum collected, so that no plague may come upon them through their being counted (Shemot 30:12).

(RaLBaG on II Samuel 24:1)

 

...It would seem from the chapter's (II Samuel 24) details that this census has a military purpose, since Yoav, his army commander and the other officers were placed in charge of it, and only soldiers ready to draw the sword (24:9) were counted.

One might ask: The Torah never prohibited people from taking active steps in the fight for survival - quite to the contrary, it demands of people work, activity, assiduousness, and devotion of strength, energy and spirit to the preservation of life and settlement of the world. The army which defends its people and land from enemies are part of all this. In that case, what was the RaLBaG's (and Abravanel's) point...?

The root of the matter is this: The army cannot serve as an instrument of self-aggrandizement or as a value in itself. Rather, it is a means that is needed only when the necessity arises.

(Prof. Nehamah Leibowits, z"l, Iyyunim be-Sefer Bamidbar, pg. 22)

 

In that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; I will also banish bow, sword, and war from the land. Thus I will let them lie down in safety. And I will espouse you forever: I will espouse you with righteousness and justice, and with goodness and mercy, and I will espouse you with faithfulness; then you shall be devoted to the Lord.

(Hosea 2:20-21, from the haftorah for parashat Bamidbar)

 

With righteousness and justice - Which should guide your behavior.

And with goodness and mercy - Which you shall receive from me in recognition of them [i.e., in recognition of your righteousness and justice]. It is written of our father Abraham: For I have singled him out, that he may instruct...to do what is just and right (Bereishit 18:19). In return, his sons were given goodness and mercy from God, as it says, and [He] will show you compassion (Devarim 13:18) and the Lord your God will maintain for you the covenant and the goodness (Devarim 7:12).

Desist from the just and the right, as it says, you who turn justice into wormwood and hurl righteousness to the ground (Amos 5), and God will withdraw his goodness and mercy, as it says, for I have withdrawn my favor from that people, the goodness and the mercy (Jeremiah 16:5). And when you resume doing the just and the right, as it says, Zion shall be saved by justice (Isaiah 1:27) God will add goodness and mercy to them, making a crown of the four of them [i.e., justice, righteousness, goodness, and mercy], which He will place upon your head.

(Rashi Hosea 2:21)

 

As one for whom Jerusalem takes a central place in his life, as one who accompanied his comrades who fell on the way to the city,

as one who was Chief of Staff of the I.D.F.'s soldiers when they rushed forward to plant the Israeli flag on the stones of the Western Wall, I would like it that here, in the city which has seen thousands of years of yearning and suffering, that here the conflict between us and our neighbors will come to an end, and that here in Jerusalem of gold, peace treaties will be signed.

(From P.M. Yitzhak Rabin's z"l speech at a celebration

of the 25^th anniversary of Jerusalem's liberation,

as quoted in Dovi Tal and Moni Haramati's Kav Ha'Ofek - Yerushalayim)

 

 

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