I was at Riki Fishbein’s shiur this week, BH I made it. As an aside, HKBH blessed me with an amazing block. Pirkei Avoth on Shabbos with Rebbetzin Chanie Wolowik, parshah on Wednesdays at Rebbetzin Riki Fishbein, and Estelle, Tzippy, Matana, Leba, Rochel, Lisa, Ilana, Fran, Melody, Ilana, Rivkie and Mindy are role models of living Torah bein adam l’chavero. A lot of hakarat hatov/gratitude on this, Chaf Vav Iyar, my Jewish birthday. More about that later.
Jeremiah 2:2: G-d tells the Jews in a moment of intimate reminiscing: Zacharti lach chesed neurayich, ahavat kelulotayich, lechtech acharai bamidbar, b’eretz lo zeruah/I remember you during the days of your youth, the love when you were a bride, your walking with me in the desert/wilderness, in a land unsown.”
I was imbued in my youth with a really negative view of the 40 years that the Jews travelled in the desert. It was as a result of their sin with the golden calf [idol] that they were punished with not being able to enter Israel immediately, and having to wait until the generation of the calf died out before entering Israel.
Then when you read about the Jews trial and tribulations in the desert, focusing on how they complained constantly about food, water and leadership. How they constantly tested G-d and sinned against Him, and the whole experience left a negative experience with me. Then there were the minute details of the Mishkan/Holy Tabernacle and the details of the sacrifices, which made you wonder why it was included in the bible at all and not left to the oral law, where only those to whom it pertained would read it and do what was necessary.
Over the years, as I learn it over and over, a whole different view appears to me, a whole new perspective. Sure the Jews just want to get to their homeland and start building a permanent home, but it teaches us about the process. Savlanut/patience. You have a goal, but there are steps to attaining that goal, and there are no shortcuts. I think about this often as I sit on a plane to Israel to visit my children in yeshiva. By the time I am on the plane, it has been months since I have seen them. They are metamorphing into bnei torah and independent adults, and for the first time since birthing them, I will not have seen them in months, I haven’t seen them develop, and I am dying to hold them in my arms and hug them, and see how they have changed, developed and grown. But 12 hours have to pass, thousands of miles have to be flown, there is absolutely no way around it. So I sit myself down in my plane seat, and I start the sefer of tehilim. Inevitably, there is some nap time, and then more time and more time, and then I land, and by that time, I’ve had plenty of time to anticipate and build the joy of the reunion, and I walk out the plane and there he/she is, and oh the joy of finally arriving, and having my baby back in my arms, and he/she has grown physically and spiritually. Oh the joy.
The raison detre of the forty years in desert. What was missing from my torah lessons in my youth was the focus of G-d in all this. What I mean, is that we were so focused on the people, that we lost G-d in all this, other than His being angry at us all the time for testing Him. So let’s focus on G-d. Very simply put, think of it this way, for 210 years the Jews were enslaved. They were given nothing. They had to fend for themselves.Think of the contrast in the desert for 40 years, where they were given food, drink, meat, shelter, sustenance for their livestock, their clothes never grew small, they were sustained by revealed miracles throughout the day. They, in their defenseless bedraggled state, were victorious over amalek and other enemies.
G-d says through Jeremiah, I remember you in your youth, when you followed me and my mitzvoth before I even gave you the torah. You did them as children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And even though you were not given the torah, you were singled out as Jews and enslaved by Egypt because you were Jews. And for 210 years you sanctified My name by keeping your Jewish names, your modest dress and your holy language.
Jeremiah continues, I remember the love you had for Me when you were My bride. G-d offered the Torah to all other nations. They wanted to know what laws were written in the Torah, and when they heard the restrictions they rejected the Torah. The Jews answered that they would accept the Torah and its laws, sight unseen.
Lastly Jeremiah finishes with your[ the Jews] walking in the desert, in unsown land. Really? We weren’t given a choice. There were times the Jews begged to return to Egypt, but were not permitted. So why does G-d want to remember a time when the Jews tested Him constantly?
Because it is a lesson in parenting to us all. G-d understood that something in their youth, when they were slaves AND G-D’S PRESENCE WAS HIDDEN FROM THEM, that they were insecure in G-d’s love. He understood that they were testing Him even though they saw the miracles of the plagues and the exodus. That it would take 40 years, and the death of the generation of the slaves, that it would take the new generation who were raised with G-d’s daily miracles to build that connection with G-d and enter the land filled with enemies and have faith G-d would be with them to conquer the land and settle it.
What does all this have to do with this week’s torah portions? First, it talks about what would happen if the Jews rebelled against G-d, and they would lose the land. It makes sense, then that G-d, who knew children have to rebel some time, took the Jews through the desert where they could act out without risking the loss of the land.
Secondly, throughout these Torah portions there is the discussion of the seventh agricultural year, shmittah, the year we are commanded to let the lands lie fallow. During this period of time, we have to believe that G-d will have given us enough food in the sixth year to sustain us during the seventh and eighth years. Where is the root of this faith in the desert? In G-d’s lesson that on Fridays He would provide us a double portion of Manna to sustain us for Friday and Saturday when we cannot gather the Manna.
Then comes the stretch, for every 50 years, there is the jubilee year, where, again, there is no agricultural activities permitted, and we have to have super faith that G-d will sustain us the seventh, eighth and ninth years. 7 x 7 = 49, the number of days the Jews travelled in the desert from the time of their Exodus/Passover until the giving of the torah on Mt. Sinai/Shavuoth. Seven is a natural number in that it relates to the days of the week. On the 50th day, G-d appeared to us on Mt. Sinai and spoke to us and told us the commandments which represent the entire Torah. This 50th day is supernatural. It is the day that G-d wed Himself to the Jews, and the Jews accepted G-d’s supremacy. It is this bond that is the root of our ability to have faith that G-d will sustain us all the years. That He is omnipotent, as long as we have the faith to believe in Him.
The shmitah and Jubilee years return us to our days in the miraculous desert, where we could sit back and have faith that G-d would care for all our needs. G-d’s actions in the desert were a reminder to G-d that although we sin and act out, that G-d as our parent, brings understanding to us and sustains us always despite our acts of rebellion.
So, on this, my Jewish birthday, I bless you my dear friends with the wisdom to see all that with which G-d has blessed us, good health, shefa/abundance of spiritual and material wealth, chassidishe and yiddishe nachat from our family, perspective, insight and all that you wish for yourselves should come true only for the good.
Shabbat shalom.
Suri