TORAH PORTION
inspiration may fluctuate, but the time and order of our prayers do not. As a result, we can take comfort in our siddur the way we take comfort in a loyal companion who sticks with us when times are good and steadies us when times get bad. This sense of order helps guide us in all of our endeavors. If we applied ourselves to our marriages or jobs or friendships only when we felt like it, we would surely struggle to maintain them at all. If we only give to charity when we feel flush, few people would give much of anything. Life can be very confusing, and we often feel besieged by conflicting choices and feelings. So, it can be reassuring to follow the rules for proper behavior set out in the Torah. Such structured guidance for how to live and what to do can offer a sense of stability in a world of uncertainty. Reb Yerucham Levovitz, one of the great educators in the Mir Yeshiva, offers the following analogy. When stringing a necklace of pearls, we typically tie a knot at the end to keep the pearls from slipping off. Reb Yerucham says the value of order is like that knot. The individual pearls represent the many values of Judaism — devotion to Hashem, prayer, kindness, charity, Shabbos, learning Torah, etc. What holds these values together is the knot at the end of the string of pearls — structure and order. Most people crave structure in their lives. Because we like to know where we are going and what we are doing, we tend to find comfort in patterns and routines. Physically, we function best when our
days heed a certain order, such as when we go to sleep and wake up around the same time every day, and in the same bed. Spiritually, too, we are nourished by predictability. Because prayer and gratitude are baked into our daily routines — we know to say the Shema when we wake up and to bensch after meals — we are sure to make time for such things. Our sages note that one of the questions we are asked in heaven is kavata itim laTorah — “Did you set aside time to learn Torah?” Notably, we are not asked whether we learned Torah but whether we set aside time for it. This is because the Torah prescribes set times for everything: when a person learns; when a person davens; when, how and how much a person gives charity. All of this goes to the heart of how important the concept of seder is to the philosophy of Judaism. To live as a Jew is to embed righteousness into the routines of ordinary life. This helps us understand the importance of the encampments in the desert. Each tribe had its designated flag and location, its identity and sense of duty. In a period of great change and uncertainty for the Jewish people, as they wandered the desert and wondered which direction was forward, this sense of order must have been a source of comfort, an existential balm of sorts. In these uncertain times, the structure and order outlined in the Torah is no less comforting today. Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein is the chief rabbi of South Africa and the founder of The Shabbat Project. This essay was written for the Shabbat Project in 2017.
For Team Israel
W
hen my wife, the banner of their ancestral Susan, and house (Numbers 1:52).” I moved to With 12 tribes making Michigan 24 years ago, one their way through the desert, of the first things we were it must have been at least a prompted to do was to pick little bit easier to keep everya college team that we could one together by having them make our own. march alongside their tribal I had what I thought was flag. It also allowed them to a great idea: I would simultaneously take root for both U-M pride in their extended and MSU. Little did familial connections I know, it must have within the larger been written someIsraelite community; where —perhaps in each of the 12 tribal the charter from when Rabbi Joseph groups distinguished Krakoff the state of Michigan themselves with colorformally entered the ful, embroidered flags. Parshat Union on Jan. 26, 1837 Marching each day Bamidbar: — that to root for and then camping each Numbers both the Wolverines night around their 1:1-4:20; and the Spartans was Hosea 2:1-22. respective flags allowed tantamount to treason. the people to feel conAfter all, who would I root for nected both individually to when they played one another their families and collectively each season? to the entire community. I actually didn’t realize the The people all stood proudly serious intensity of it all until beside their tribal banners, Michigan and Michigan State feeling united in their comcompeted for annual bragging mon purpose and shared herrights and the Paul Bunyan itage while never losing track trophy. During that week in that as a larger human comour first fall, I saw more block munity, each person was on M and block S flags flying the same squad: Team Israel. around the region than I had The time has come for ever seen to date. Even the our modern human comlocal bakeries were selling munity to take a page out of both blue and green bagels to the playbook of our desert mark the occasion. ancestors. We must find a So, too, as we begin the pathway for everyone’s voicBook of Numbers this week es and opinions to coexist with Bamidbar, we are given together in a way that makes a glimpse into the age-old room for everyone. Only then power and import of getting will we see the day when we behind team colors as a procan proudly proclaim in one found expression of human voice: “Go blue … Go green!” identity. We read: and mean it. “The Children of Israel shall Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff is the encamp troop by troop, each chief executive officer of the Jewish person within their division, Hospice and Chaplaincy Network. next to their flag and under JUNE 2 • 2022
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