BAMIDBAR, 1:1-4:20, JERUSALEM DAY, SHAVUOT
This week we start a new Book, Bamidbar, במדבר, in the wilderness or the Book of Numbers. It begins with a head count, military census. Males of a certain age individually step forward and are counted. Although individuals, as a totality they represent the nation. Everyone is counted and everyone counts.
The nation is comprised of 12 Tribes. Individual Tribes are encamped around the Mishkan. At the center of the Tribal encampment and its focus is the Mishkan where HaShem lives among us.
Today, Israel is where HaShem dwells. It is the place to be. I feel at home here.
“Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by families following their fathers' houses; a head count of every male according to the number of their names.
From twenty years old and upwards, all who are fit to go out to the army in Israel, you shall count them by their legions you and Aaron”.
It is the Mishkan that unites us. Today, we no longer have a tribal identity. Jews are still a diverse lot. By way of example: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Secular, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Litvish, Chassidic, etc. If you want to know more about Jewish movements, check out the excellent attached work by Sara Metzger. Although diverse, we are still one people, the B’Nai Yisrael.
----------------------------------------------------------
The men of the Tribe of Levi, the “Levites” or the “Leveim”, לויים, were counted separately and number 22,300 from age one month and on up.
The Leviim have replaced the first born B'Nai Yisrael for service in the Mishkan. Originally during the time of the plagues when the Egyptian first born were slain, Hashem granted the Jewish first born a special place in their service to God. However, because they participated in the Sin of the Golden Calf, in contradistinction to the Levites, they lost their special standing.
How would it have turned out if the first born had not lost their special position?
What would have been the status of the Levites?
The Levites have the burden of carrying and protecting the Mishkan, the dwelling place of Hashem. At Hashem’s direction, the where and the when of His choosing the B’nai Yisrael, that is us, we move on out.
And for those of us who have made Aliyah: Don’t think for one moment that it was you alone who decided it was time to make Aliyah. And don’t think for one moment that there are not still amongst us, people chosen by Hashem who share the burden of carrying His Sanctuary.
The Tribe of Levi served particular religious duties for the Israelites and had political and educational responsibilities as well. In return, the landed tribes were expected to give a tithe in order to support the Levites
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Haftarah portion comes from the Book of Hosea, Chapter 2:1-22.
The setting for the Book of Hosea is in the Northern Kingdom where Jeroboam the 2nd is King, at around the mid-8th century BCE. The Kingdom is very prosperous but continues to worship Canaanite gods and to also perversely worship Hashem using golden calves as an idolatrous representation.
Hosea uses his personal life as a metaphor to describe the fractured relationship between Hashem and us, and perhaps between the two Jewish kingdoms. It may be a foretelling of the fate that was to befall a divisive Jewish people in the years soon to come.
Hosea learns that his wife (in the role of Israel) is an adulteress, a prostitute. As a symbol of Israel’s estrangement from Hashem, Hosea names one of their children Lo-ruchamah, which translates as "not pitied", and another as Lo-ammi, which translates as "not my people".
These children as well as the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are redeemed at 2:3.
It is a positive message of reconciliation.
---------------------------------------------------------
COUNTING THE OMER
Adapted from Rabbi Shimon Jacobson:
This week’s Sephirah is Malchut or Sovereignty
Malchut is a state of being rather than an activity.
Malchut manifests and actualizes the character and majesty of the human spirit. It is the very fiber of what makes us human. Malchut is a sense of belonging.
You know that you matter and that you make a difference. It tells you that you have the ability to be a proficient leader in your own right. It gives you independence and confidence and a feeling of certainty and authority.
When a mother lovingly cradles her child in her hands and the child's eyes meet the mother's affectionate eyes, the child receives the message that I am wanted and needed in this world. I have a comfortable place where I will always be loved. I have nothing to fear. I feel like a king in my heart. This is Malchut, kingship.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JERUSALEM DAY
When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, the public school system celebrated Brooklyn Day. It was held on the first Thursday in June, a welcome day off from school, even though we did not have a clue about the why’s and wherefores’.
Now I am in Israel. I do not celebrate Brooklyn Day. I celebrate Jerusalem Day which falls on the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. This year the 28th of Iyar begins on Sunday evening of the 25th of May.
Jerusalem Day commemorates when in 1967 the divided city of Jerusalem became one. Two year ago thousands of Jewish celebrants paraded through the city waving Israeli flags. The march culminated in a spectacular demonstration through the Muslim Quarter. Israeli police sealed off entry to Palestinian residents for their own safety. Those Palestinians who live in the Muslim Quarter were encouraged to close their shops and stay indoors.
What will happen this year?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
JERUSALEM DAY
Sunday evening, May 25, the 28th day of Iyar marks the beginning of Jerusalem Day. It commemorates that in 1967 Israel gained control over the entire city as part of the Six-Day War.
Jerusalem Day is a religious holiday as is Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZichoron, and Yom Ha'atzmaut. The day is very much celebrated by Israel's Religious Zionist community with parades and additional prayers in many synagogues.
The military victory over the surrounding Arab armies is regarded as a bona-fide miracle worthy of thanksgiving.
This victory clearly affects the entire Jewish people. Israel is a place of refuge for all Jews , and serves as a source of deep Jewish pride throughout the world.
Jerusalem Day ( יום ירושלים) is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in the aftermath of the June 1967 Six-Day War. The day is officially marked by state ceremonies and memorial services.
Religious Zionists recite special holiday prayers including the Hallel prayer. Various Jewish groups follow differing practices. Personally, I avoid praying with a group that does not celebrate Jerusalem Day.
I consider them to be anti-Zionist or worse.
In opposition to the Jerusalem Day celebration, many Muslims worldwide celebrate Al-Quds Day which falls on the last Friday of Ramadan. Al-Quds is an Arabic name for Jerusalem.
On May 15th Muslims celebrated their Day of Catastrophe, Nakba Day. It is in opposition to Israeli Independence Day, Yom Ha'atzmaut. Israeli independence is equivalent to an Arab catastrophe.
My friends and I always celebrate the Naqba catastrophe with a l'Chaiim or two.
---------------------------------------------------------------
WHERE DOES ISRAEL STAND TODAY?
This is an excerpted Opinion Piece published by Aljazeera in 2015. The analyst, Sharif Nashashibi summed up where the Israeli government stood then.
In the years since his analysis the political parties have changed, but his message today if anything would be more bleak and very much the same B”H:
“Arguably the most right-wing, extremist government in Israel's history - and that is saying something - consists of five parties: Likud, Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism, Shas and Kulanu. ( And that was 10 years ago in 2015.)
Between them, they either explicitly rule out a Palestinian state, or accept one with conditions that make the likelihood of its establishment, let alone its viability, impossible.
These conditions include:
Israel keeping East Jerusalem,
being recognized as a Jewish state,
and keeping the largest settlement blocs,
which are built on the West Bank's water aquifers and most fertile land, and hinder the territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state.
That [Palestinian] state, meanwhile, would have to be demilitarized and renounce the rights of Palestinian refugees.”
I THINK SHARIF HAS NAILED IT: ALL THIS SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD TO ME! Shavua tov
-----------------------------------------------------------
I'm getting ready for Shavuous which starts Sunday evening the 1st of June For me the dairy foods are a killer. I'm talking the about the store-bought or home-made cheesecake and the home-made eggplant parmigiana, macaroni (organic) and cheese with fried cabbage and onions, and the potato knishes.
I plan to do 60 minutes on the Tyelet tomorrow morning at a fairly good clip for me, trying to forestall the inevitable belly bulge; I know it's hopeless, but what can you do.
Have a joyous Chag (burp!).
------------------------------------------------------------
Shavuos commemorates the giving of the Torah.
Rabbi Sacks tells us how the Torah is first given to women before it is granted to men.
The festival of Shavuot begins Sunday night, the 1st of June. Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah. In referring to Shavuot, we say: the giving of our Torah “Z’man Matan Torateinu”, זמן מתן תורתנו,
Looking at the word מתן (giving), you can see in it the word for “gift”, מתנה.
In our weekly Talmud class some years ago where were studying Tractate Bava Basra, we participated in a discussion at 65a: A person owns a house that has two apartments, an inner one and a surrounding outer one. If the apartments are sold, the buyer of the inner apartment does not acquire the right to walk through the surrounding outer apartment.
However if at the time of the sale of the outer apartment, the owner of the house simultaneously makes a gift of the inner apartment the situation changes. There is a presumption that when a gift is given, it is given with generosity. Therefore the recipient of the gift acquires the right to walk through the outer apartment and thereby to enjoy his gift.
In much the same fashion, when Hashem gave us the gift of the Torah, He gave it to us with generosity. It is as if along with the Torah we acquired the wherewithal to enjoy our gift.
What that wherewithal is I leave it up to you. There are a multitude of possibilities. I like to think our gift from HaShem is the ability to have Torah and dwell in the Land of Israel in peace and harmony.
-----------------------------------------------------
Ruth in Boaz’s Field, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794–1872).
On Shavuot we read the Book of Ruth.
Professor Jacob Wright and Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi; published an essay contrasting Intermarriage as represented in the Books of Ruth and Nehemiah:
https://www.thetorah.com/article/contrasting-pictures-of-intermarriage-in-ruth-and-nehemiah
