Challenge #1: In twenty-five words or less—What is Torah? In
ten words? In one word? Did your definition contents (the Five Books of Moses),
components (laws, legends, religious history, social and ethical values), what
Torah means to you, or something else altogether?
Challenge #2: We begin reading Sefer B’midbar (the Book of
Numbers) this week and usher in Shavuot the moment shabbat departs. Is there a
connection between the Wilderness experience and Matan Torah (the Giving
of the Torah), or is this just a curious juxtaposition?
Sefer B’midbar opens where Sefer
Shemot (the Book of Exodus) leaves off: the beginning of the Israelites’ second year in the Midbar (“wilderness”). Before them is
wilderness in every direction, and 39 years of wandering to go. With the Torah
safely tucked away in the ark, the Israelites set out into the Wilderness. The
first chapter of B’midbar paints a picture of exceptional organization and efficiency. On the
first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the
land of Egypt (Numbers 1:1), God commands Moses to take a census of the 600,000
males of military age: 20 year and up, and capable of bearing arms. Torah names
the chieftains of each tribe and reports the census tallies, tribe by tribe.
(It is not for naught that the book is called “Numbers” in
English.) We are then told precisely where each tribal grouping was camped
around the Tabernacle: the Israelites, counted and catalogued, are arrayed in
perfect precision. Here is one depiction that captures this sense of the
Israelites’ orderly and efficient encampment:
As marvelous as the literary image is, it’s only an image. The
reality is turmoil and chaos. From their plaintive cries at the shores of the
Reed Sea that slavery is preferable to freedom, to their worship of the Golden
Calf at the base of the very mountain at the very moment where God was
delivering the Torah to Moses, to the endless complaints, quarrels, and
rebellions that characterize the Israelites’ next
39 years in the wilderness, we can confidently say that the Israelites’ time in the wilderness is characterized by
discord, dissent, and disorder.
The one semblance of order and continuity in
all this is the Torah itself. Shavuot comes to celebrate the gift of Torah, a
gift that truly keeps giving. How so? I turn to a commentary by the hasidic
master, Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev in Kedushat Levi. Commenting on כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה, אֶת-מֹשֶׁה; וַיִּפְקְדֵם, בְּמִדְבַּר סִינָי
As Adonai commanded Moses, he counted them in the wilderness of
Sinai (Numbers 1:19), the Berditchever rebbe writes:
The verse would have made
more sense in reverse order: Moses counted them, as God had commanded him
[which, indeed, accords with Numbers 1:2-3, where God commands Moses to take a
census]. But this appears to be the meaning: God gave the Torah to Israel, and
the souls of Israel form the body of the Torah. There are six hundred thousand
Jewish souls, parallel to the number of the letters of the Torah.[1] Israel,
in other words, are the Torah. Each one of us constitutes one of Torah’s
letters. By counting Israel, therefore, Moses was learning the Torah. This
is the meaning of the verse’s order. As Adonai commanded Moses means that
the Torah’s commandment to Moses was the very act of counting
Israel. That is also why it says, but do not count the tribe of Levi or lift
up their heads among the Israelites (Numbers 1:49). Israel represents the
Written Torah while the Levites stand for the Oral Torah. Therefore, of the
Levites it says, [Moses] counted them by the mouth of God as he was
commanded (Numbers 4:49).
Here’s Rabbi Levi Yitzhak’s answer to Challenge
#1: Torah is people. Certainly it contains the Five Books, and we can
categorize its contents as laws or legends or history or ethics or social
values, but Torah is people. How do we learn Torah? By counting people,
by attending to the needs and concerns of those around us. Torah is all about
creating a compassionate and just society; it is about counting people and
making people count in our lives. To keep the commandments without regard to
the needs of people is unthinkable. To treat Torah as a mere compendium of
arcane ritual laws for the “truly
devout” or worse, as a vehicle for boosting one’s stature based on
scholarship—without regard to
the needs of everyone, the concerns of the poor, and justice for those
suffering—is to violate Torah’s core and thereby
nullify its holiness. The Berditchever Rebbe understood this well. He is often
called the “defense attorney” of the Jewish people before God. Filled with
compassion for people, he would plead with God on their behalf.
The
Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) expresses this understanding in another way,
one that has more universal sensitivity. It interprets verses in Sefer B’midbar chapter 21 that
preserve a song the Israelites sang concerning their route through the
Wilderness, with stops at Midbar, Mattanah, Nachaliel, Bamot, and Pisgah:
וּמִמִּדְבָּר, מַתָּנָה. יט
וּמִמַּתָּנָה, נַחֲלִיאֵל; וּמִנַּחֲלִיאֵל, בָּמוֹת. כ וּמִבָּמוֹת, הַגַּיְא אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׂדֵה מוֹאָב--רֹאשׁ, הַפִּסְגָּה; וְנִשְׁקָפָה, עַל-פְּנֵי הַיְשִׁימֹן
And from Midbar to
Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nachaliel, and from Nachaliel to Bamot and from
Bamot to the valley that is in the country of Moab, at the peak of Pisgah,
overlooking the wasteland. (Numbers 21:18-20)
In tractate Nedarim 55a,b the Sages explain:
[55a] What is meant by, And
from Midbar to Mattanah; and from Mattanah to Nachaliel; and from Naxhaliel to
Bamot? — He
replied, When one makes himself as the Midbar (wilderness), which is free to
all, the Torah is presented to him as a gift [mattanah means “gift”] as
it is written, And from the Midbar to Mattanah. And once he has it as a
gift, God gives it to him as an inheritance [nachaliel comes from the
root meaning “inheritance”], as it is written, And
from Mattanah to Nachaliel. And when God gives it him as an inheritance, he
ascends to greatness, as it is written, And from Nachaliel to Bamot [bamot
means “heights”]. But if he exalts
himself, the Holy One, blessed be God, casts him down, as it is written, And
from Bamot to the valley [the valley is lower than the “heights”].
Moreover, he is made to sink into the earth, as it is written, Which is
pressed down into the desolate soil [“pressed down” is a
play on the word Pisgah, meaning “overlooking;” here
it is understood instead as “pressed down” or “stepped on”]. But should he repent
[of exalting himself], the Holy One, blessed be God, will raise him again,
[55b] as it is written, כָּל-גֶּיא, יִנָּשֵׂא Every valley shall be exalted
(Isaiah 40:4).
The Rabbis describe the spiritual and emotional
process of making Torah our own. If we view Torah as free such that all are
welcome to subscribe to it and draw wisdom from it, then it is truly a divine
gift. Once we understand it to be God’s gift, we come to see it as our sacred
inheritance, something that is intimately a part of who we are: where we come
from and who we ought to be in the world. But if we misunderstand the
inheritance of Torah as a vehicle for self-exaltation—a means to raising
ourselves above others, be they fellow-Jews, or non-Jews—then we sink into
the earth. The greatness we might have brought to the world through Torah is as
if it were trampled underfoot or buried in the ground; it is lost to the world
when Torah has become a means of self-aggrandizement. This is a trap it is all
too easy to fall into. One who repents of such arrogance, however, will be
raised up again by virtue of Torah to participate with humanity in tikkun
olam, the repair of the world.
Challenge #2: Is there a connection between the
Wilderness experience of the Israelites and Matan Torah (Giving of the
Torah)? I believe the answer is yes. The Wilderness experience was one of
turmoil and chaos amidst the vision of order and peace. Torah is the means to
transforming turmoil chaos into order and peace, person by person, problem by
problem, moment by moment. Torah is more than text(s). It is an attitude and a
value system and a connection with the divine that inspires us with a vision of
what ought to be and suffuses us with the conviction that much is possible.
© Rabbi
Amy Scheinerman
[1] In point of fact, there are 304,805 letters in the Torah.
I’m not sure what the precise source of
the tradition is that the number of letters in the Torah corresponds to the
number of souls who left Egypt with Moses.It is mentioned in Zohar Chadash,
Shir ha-Shirim, p. 74: “There are 600,000 letters in the
Torah, just as there are 600,000 souls in the twelve tribes of the Israell".
It may well be that Kabbalah is the source of this tradition. A popular
tradition has it that “Yisrael” is an acronym for “Yesh
Shishim Ribo Otiot la-Torah”
(“there are 600,000 letters in the Torah”).
No comments:
Post a Comment