{"id":46268,"date":"2018-12-23T18:29:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T16:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=46268"},"modified":"2022-07-17T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T12:55:09","slug":"whats-in-a-name-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whats-in-a-name-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s In A Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The book of Numbers is called in Hebrew \u201cBemidbar.\u201d The English names of the books of the Torah are usually synopses of the contents: Genesis tells of beginnings, Exodus of leaving Egypt, Leviticus, priestly laws. The Hebrew designations make no pretense at summary; they are simply the first significant word of the book.* <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet with the fourth book, the chance opening word, Bemidbar \u2013 \u201cIn the Desert\u201d, or \u201cIn the Wilderness\u201d\u2014is far more apt than the topic-based title, \u201cNumbers,\u201d which refers to censuses that take up only a few chapters.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this book, the narrative shifts to the nitty-gritty of what it was like for the Children of Israel to actually live in the wilderness. The Bible provides grounds for argument about the nature of that experience. In one view, it was a time of hardship and chastisement. No sooner do they set out, then they start complaining: No meat to eat, though they had been subsisting on divine manna, none of that fresh Egyptian produce, seemingly never enough water. Later we learn of the people\u2019s terrified response to the intimidating reports of the spies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or was it an awe-filled time of feeling God\u2019s closeness through daily divine miracles? Manna and quail\u2014bread and meat directly from God\u2014water gushing forth from the rock, pillars of fire and clouds to guide them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anybody who has ever gone camping knows it was almost surely both. Wilderness experience can be arduous, uncompromising, harsh, lacking in creature comforts. And yet precisely those qualities can open one up to deeper encounters. <\/span><\/p>\n

The book begins, \u201cGod spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai\u2026.\u201d In the midrashic collection of Bemidbar Rabba, the rabbis ask: Why was the Torah given in the wilderness, in the desert? \u00a0The midrash answers: \u201cAnyone who does not throw himself open to all, make himself master-less like the desert cannot acquire wisdom and Torah.\u201d Note: \u201cWisdom\u201d and \u201cTorah\u201d are not identical. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner has written: \u201cThe wilderness is not just a desert through which we wandered for forty years. It is a way of being\u2026 A place that demands being present with all of yourself. In the wilderness\u2026 you are left alone each day with an immediacy that astonishes, chastens and exults. You see the world as if for the first time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The wilderness as the place of Torah contrasted with the mighty civilization of Egypt and its corruption that the Israelites left behind. God can speak (<\/span>medabber<\/span><\/em>) better in the desert (<\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>). Or maybe we can just hear better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without wildness, and wilderness, and our direct experience of them, our lives become dominated by numbers; we become calculating creatures. And numbers can be numbing. Maybe it\u2019s time to leave Numbers behind, and go out In the Wilderness, where revelations can still happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Interestingly, the last Hebrew words of each of the Five Books provide a neat synopsis of the entire transformation and growth of Israel as a people, from slavery to freedom to independence: Egypt, journeys, Sinai, Jericho (at the edge of the land), Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

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