Two Minute Torah Podcast

Bamidbar 5771 by Rabbi Tracy Nathan

Shalom, I'm Tracy Nathan, rabbi of Temple Beth Israel of Waltham, Massachusetts. Welcome to KOACH's Two-Minute Torah; a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

The philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset is quoted as saying: "Tell me the landscape in which you live and I will tell you who you are."

Although the land of Israel is connected intimately with our Jewish spiritual lives, I would propose that it is the midbar, the wilderness, that tells the Jewish people who they are.

Parashat Bamidbar begins by referencing this landscape as the place where Torah was given. It is always read close to Shavuot, which prompts us to ask: What is the significance of the landscape in which the Torah was given?

We are told that God purposefully led the Israelites into the wilderness after taking them out of slavery. The Mechilta (Beshalach 1) teaches that God thought, "If I lead them on the short route, each person will take hold of his field and vineyard, and will neglect Torah. Instead I will lead them through the wilderness, and they will eat the manna and drink the water of the well, and Torah will settle into their bodies."

The wilderness is hefker – ownerless. The Israelites had forty years to define themselves through all things other than their possessions. They were taught about the dangers of acquisitiveness for they were given enough manna for one day, and anything they hoarded would rot. Torah would have a chance to settle into their bones, and they would learn to be a people who carried a message of equality and gratitude.

Another midrash teaches us that we ourselves are to become hefker in order to receive Torah. "Kol mi she'eino oseh atsmo k'midbar hefker eino yakhol liknot et hakhokhma v'hatorah - One who does not make him or herself like an ownerless wilderness – is unable to acquire wisdom or Torah." (Bamidbar Rabbah 1:7)

To hear the divine voice and acquire wisdom, we need to listen with openness and humility; we need throw our minds open – letting go of entrenched ideas and beliefs, however attached we are to them and beloved they are to us.

This is not calling for anarchy of behavior but rather a freeing of the mind; of course, a freeing of the mind may determine new behaviors. This is the power of Torah – it has the potential to break down the social order, and create a new one.

On this Shavuot, may we make ourselves like a hefker midbar, listening for the voice that still calls to us with love in the wild lands of Sinai.