Iyar 24, 5771 ~ May 28, 2011
by Susan Somerville
For anyone who’s not familiar with Torah, it might seem that a people who was assigned to dwell in a desert for 40 years was given a kind of harsh sentence. It could be seen as harsh because of the vicissitudinous nature of this people’s wandering throughout an endless wasteland; or the fact that a desert/wasteland is so isolated and master-less. Yet, was it really a harsh existence when you consider the prior 200 plus years in a foreign country under oppressive conditions?
Rereading Torah over many years, we find the opposite to be true: G-d was raising a generation of Bnai Israel who would be totally changed and different from the preceding generation, (like parents raising children to be more successful than they). Why? Simply put, the Bnai Israel could be able to live freely in the land that they would own, (with certain conditions, of course).
First, we would have to live in an inhospitable area without the usual distractions so that we could learn all that had been derived from our standing at Sinai. That was a “knockout” experience: We were suddenly hit over the heads with Torah! Via Torah and our “wholehearted” contribution in the endeavor to build a Mishkan with its accoutrements, we could learn to do a T’shuvah Sh’lemah and rid our hearts and souls of all of the accumulated impurities which had become our second nature from so many years in Mitzrayim.
VahY’dabayr HaShem El Moshe B’Midbar Sinai B’Ohel Moed B’Echad LaChodesh HaShayni BaShanah HaShaynit L’Tzaytam MayEretz Mitzrayim Laymor:
G-d spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Appointed Meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year of their exodus from the land of Mitzrayim [saying] (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Pentateuch:Trumat Tzvi, Book IV, Chapter I, verse 1.)
The desert, “Midbar,” has the same root as speech or matter, “Davar,” (, Dalet, Bet, Resh). Not only did we absorb matters of Torah, but the desert absorbed Torah. Why? It is because “Torah transcends all temporal as well as spatial conditions.” (From 2002 notes via Rabbi Manis Friedman and based on a Sicha by Rebbe M.M. Schneerson.) In the fluidity of this context, G-d proclaimed the Truth. Every one heard, saw and accepted it; and so did the desert. This could be because Truth is something that can only exist in a very special atmosphere where it can grow and spread. The Truth that was, is, and shall be is a seal (Chotam) and it cannot be altered or broken. It is fixed. It had to be – and still has to be - deeply internalized and then it can be taken outwards.
In an endless wilderness where we were periodically and methodically commanded to uproot ourselves at specified times, there had to be a particular structure by how we lived in order for a transformation of such magnitude to have been realized. Thus, brilliantly executed, G-d and Moshe okayed the ultimate architects’ blueprint for the building of the Miskan and how all the B’nai Israel and the airev rav would be encamped, around it.
V’Asu Li Mikdash V’Shachanti B’Tocham.
They shall make me a sanctuary and then I will dwell in their midst. (Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, Book II, Chapter XXV, verse 8.)
The order of encampment around the centrality of the Mishkan, from stipulating where Moshe’s and Aaron’s families and those of the Levites would be to the most external areas for the airev rav, was both practical and profound. All could face the Ohel Moed from whence G-d spoke to Moshe. We were magnetically focused inwardly on G-dliness which had to have a purifying affect on us. With this depth of Torah structure and inwardness, we were spiritually preened to be able to go outwards with Torah in order to manage settling Eretz Israel and to benefit ourselves and HaEretz by the entire process and experience.
I want to conclude with a poem that I wrote 11 years ago. It is called Matzah and Midbar, and it incorporates some of which I have written above.
Life in the Midbar was one of humility
A shifting beginning
lived on a web of parched ground
that did not resemble the fertile delta
from which we came
But days were sparkling and the air was
clean and clear
And HaShem gave us clarity and
sustenance there
Matzah looks like the ground of the Midbar
It is flat and cracked and dry
It is a crinkly, crispy, crunchy delight that
is otherwise
Known as the Bread of Affliction
Hey Lachmah Anyah
But they, the Egyptians, were our affliction
And certainly never the bread itself
Yet this bit of the taste of haste
reminds us
That our people, Israel, can not be
inflicted
With any other peoples’
indigestibly idolatrous habits – ever again
In the Midbar we were commanded to
purify ourselves
Before appearing before HaShem
at the foot of Har Sinai
Kail Shaddai from on High, Havayah
Who came down towards Earth to gift us
with Torah
Who lived in our midst both fostering
and fathering to keep us from waywardness
The Well of our Lives for every era
Now each raised and sanctified
K’zayit of Matzah
Reminds us of who we are and
from whence we came
And to Whom we sing our songs of praise
For the awesome wonderment of our days
Those that were, those that are,
and those that will be ~ in all ways, always
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