Bamidbar
Bamidbar is the name both of this week's sidra and of the book in the Bible it starts (in English the book of Numbers). If you think of the most hair-raising table plan for a huge wedding or the biggest accommodation logistical nightmare for a Limmud conference, you're only beginning to understand the complexities described in this sidra. It describes the camp of Israel in loving detail of how many people there were in each tribe and where they were positioned in the camp.
The following Taste of Limmud contributions were written for Parashat Bamidbar in 5768/2008 and 5769/2009 respectively.
Bamidbar - Kevin Sefton
Kevin's professional life is a smorgasbord of ideas mixing technology, finance and education. He's also the trustee for Limmud International, and considers meeting groups worldwide to be like visiting family.
After struggling through a long sedra about the building of the mishkan a few weeks ago, I asked the Rabbi "wouldn't it have been easier and clearer if the Torah had been given with a few explanatory diagrams?" Were they missing because the law needed to be read out, was it because it's harder to reproduce diagrams faithfully, perhaps there have been diagrams lost along the way, or was it just because Ikea hadn't taught us how to follow pictures properly yet? Without an answer to satisfy me, he suggested I have another whisky and think about it.
This week we find another case where a picture might come in handy. After the children of Israel line up to be counted, they're sent around the camp in a defensive formation: some to the north, some next to them, some marching first, second third and so on. Please, someone, a little diagram to say who went where might be more straightforward than trying to work out who was next to whom (it reminded me of a Highgate street sign 'enter only from the East'). This was getting me frustrated, curious, and wanting to draw a little pencil diagram to accompany this email.
Then I saw my answer staring me in the face as I re-read the text. It's the power of the word. Bamidbar - 'In the wilderness' - a word that encapsulates so much of Jewish history, tradition, expectation and hope over many generations. A picture may be worth a thousand words; in Judaism, one word is worth a thousand pictures. Shabbat shalom.
