16 May BAMIDBAR: WHO OWNS JUDAISM? WHY THE DESERT WAS THE MOST SUITABLE SPACE FOR TORAH
The Desert
This week’s Torah
portion, named
“Bamidbar,” which
means “in the desert,”
is always read
preceding the holiday of
Shavuos, when we celebrate the giving of
the Torah at Sinai, more than 3,300 years
ago, in the year 1313 BCE.
One reason for this is because the Torah
was given “bamidbar,” in a desert. It was at
Mt. Sinai in the Sinai desert where the
Hebrews were molded into a nation and
given the blueprint for repairing the world.
But that only carries the question over: Of all
places, why indeed was Torah given in a
wilderness? What is more, our sages describe
Sinai as the marriage between G-d and
His people; whoever heard of getting
married in a barren desert? The Torah should
have been given in the Hilton or the Waldorf-
Astoria, not in a desolate desert?
Let us introduce one more question: Why
was it necessary for the Jewish people to
wander 40 years in this desert before entering
the Promised Land? Was 210 years in Egypt,
including more than 80 years of hard labor,
not enough? Why liberate them from Egypt
only to put them through another 40 years in
the wilderness?
There are many explanations for the unique
relationship between Torah and the desert.
Here are three.
Absolute Sublimity
1) Had the Torah been given in a civilized
city or community, people might have
defined it as a product of a particular culture,
milieu and environment. Sophisticated
academics would explain to us the particular
“genre” of Torah, as if it were an outdated,
modern or post-modern piece of literature,
an epic or lyric, a work of history, law,
tragedy or philosophy. They would enlighten
us as to whether Torah belonged to the time
of the Athenians, the Hellenistic age, the
Greco-Roman period, the Byzantine age or
another period of civilization. Torah would
be labeled, classified and qualified. It would
be “put into perspective.”
But Torah cannot be put into a particular
cultural or artistic perspective. Torah is not
culture, literature, art, history, law or fiction.
Torah embodies the eternal
truths about existence, life
and destiny that speak in
every language, in every
culture, in every age, to
every soul. The Torah
cannot be reduced to a
particular time frame or
reference point. It benefits
all the arts but never
competes with them.
Professor Abraham Joshua
Heschel put it thus:
“Why does the Bible surpass everything
created by man? Why is there no work
worthy of comparison with it? Why is there
no substitute for the Bible, no parallel to the
history it has engendered? Why must all who
seek the living G-d turn to its pages?
“Set the Bible beside any of the truly great
books produced by the genius of man and
see how they are diminished in stature. The
Bible shows no concern with literary form,
with verbal beauty, yet its absolute sublimity
rings through all its pages. Its lines are so
monumental and at the same time so simple
that whoever tries to compete with them
produces either a commentary or a
caricature. It is a work we do not know
how to assess. Other books you can
estimate, you can measure, compare; the
Bible you can only extol. Its insights
surpass our standards. There is nothing
greater. In three thousand years it has not
aged a day. It is a book that cannot die.
Oblivion shuns its pages.”
“Absolute sublimity.” Such a work
must be taught and transmitted in a
desert. A desert is not associated with
any particular culture or form of living. A
desert is barren, raw, plain. A desert is
not sophisticated; it is real.
Ownerless
2) Had the Torah been given in a
particular city or community, its
inhabitants would have claimed
copyrights on it. Had the Torah been
given in BoroPark, CrownHeights,
Williamsburg or Monsey, these
communities would claim “ownership”
on Torah. “We know how to interpret
Torah, how to assess it, how to appreciate
it. It belongs to us.” The same would
hold true if the Torah was given
in Lakewood or the Upper West Side.
The desert, on the other hand, is
ownerless. Nobody wants the desert
(besides the Arabs, once the Jews settle
it). It belongs to nobody. Torah, too, is
ownerless. It belongs to every Jewish
soul on earth. Nobody holds any “rights”
to the Torah. It is the living, vibrant
conversation of G-d with every living Jew.
Life in the Fast Lane
3) Had the Torah been given in a civilized
and splendid terrain, we might have believed
that its objective was to guide the beautiful
life and the splendid heart.
But that is not Torah.
Torah does not tell us that life is easy and
that faith is bliss. On the contrary, we were
placed in a personal and global wilderness,
and life is a battle. And it is precisely this
battle that G-d intended us to face, day in
andw day out. Do not be disturbed or
demoralized, the Torah teaches, by your
challenges, your demons, your
inconsistencies and your weaknesses. Do not
be shaken when you do not live up to your
highest aspirations, and often do not actualize
or maintain your inspiration. Do not be
discouraged; because the Torah was given
precisely to help us pave a road in the barren
desert of the human psyche, to create a
highway in the jungle of history.
Had the Torah been given in a beautiful
city, then all we would have is a guide on
how to live in beauty, in ecstasy. But Torah
came to teach us how to confront our
wilderness and to transform a desert into
paradise.
That is how the spiritual masters explained
the reason for the Torah being given on a
mountain. Why a mountain, and not flat
land?
A mountain is essentially elevated earth.
That is the profound message of Torah: With
earth, gravel, dirt and mud, you must battle.
That is intrinsic to the human condition and
the reality of our world. Yet you must
remember that your mission is to elevate the
earth, to introduce holiness and G-dliness
into a mundane and soiled world.
G-d did not desire holy people doing holy
things; he wanted unholy people doing holy
things. He desired that earthly human beings
become mountains of moral dignity and
divine grace.