Bamidbar 2022
Isaac’s Parsha Corner · 2022
“Bamidbar”, “The Desert”, is the both the name of last week’s Parsha and of the fourth Book of the Chumash. The entire Book is referred to in the Midrash as “Chomesh Hapekudim” or “The Book of Numbers”. Both of these names create challenges for we do not understand fully the message or the point of these names.
However, when thinking about the challenges associated with an entire nation of over two million souls wandering in the desert, the names begin to crystallize and become clearer. The desert is a place of no food or water, hot scorching days and cold nights, dangerous living creatures such as scorpions and snakes, and endless wind that tend to destroy even the hardiest clothing. The Jews were chased out of Mitzrayim with little in the way of either food or water. Normally, for a trip of this magnitude it would take months of preparation just to go straight from Mitzrayim to Canaan. And we know that they took a circuitous route. Being slaves they had few possessions and were actually burdened with a collection of Egyptian pots and pans that they were told to take with them! That they survived was itself a great miracle. We read about Manna and Miriam’s Magical Well and about the Slav Birds that followed them throughout so we know how it happened. We read about the “Ananei Kavod”, the clouds in the day and the pillars of fire by night. The clouds protected them from the scorching sun while the pillar of fire provided warmth during the cold desert nights. The clothing didn’t wear out and the scorpions and snakes didn’t bite. Without divine assistance the numbers would have been decimated. So we understand through the Numbers that they survived the terrible hardship normally associated with desert travel. However this divine assistance was available only as long as they were deemed worthy. The sin of the golden calf was forgivable but the sin of the spies was not and as a result the divine supernatural existence was reduced and eliminated such that the normal dangers associated with the “Desert” returned and the Numbers were reduced.
Over eighty years ago our Numbers were reduced but we have recovered and are thriving. May we continue to merit God’s assistance and may our Numbers continue to grow in the wilderness that is our present world.
Dedicated to the memory of Joel Shulman A’H.