Rabbi's Blog

Life is a journey and our challenge is to navigate to the destination where we want to end up. Some people move aimlessly from point 'A' to point 'B' and from 'B' to point 'C', and so on and on without having a goal of really where they want to end up. Without proper direction, focus, and a set of plans, a man will waste his life wandering around, occupying time and space from the time he is born until he dies. In order to accomplish something in this world, each of us needs a focus and central theme in life. On one of my excursions to Israel, I took a Jeep tour of the Judean hills and desert. It's amazing how easy it is to get lost going off- road driving in the desert. I clearly remember saying, "if they put a blindfold on me and spun me around a couple of times and left me on my own, I would never have been able to find my way out." Heaven forbid if I ever actually found myself under these conditions! What would I do? Thinking about this long and hard, I realized that the answer to finding my way out of a desert would be to look inward towards the Torah, and there is no better place than the book of Bamidbar - In the Desert. Many people are aware of the obligation to thank Hashem for saving their lives from four major life-threatening situations. Anybody who has been released from prison, who survived a life- threatening illness, who crossed over the sea and the desert and lived to talk about it should give special thanks to God. During Temple times a man would bring a korban todah- a thanksgiving offering - while today we get away with just saying a bracha of thanks. Surely in today's day and age, if someone were to get lost in the desert (even with a cell phone), he would surely give thanks for surviving a potentially deadly situation. Did the Jewish people have to give thanks to Hashem when they reached Eretz Canaan, surviving the desert? The answer is no, because they were with Hashem the entire way and probably gave thanks to God every single day. Even more so, the Jewish people were protected throughout their journey of the forty years in the desert; they were never in mortal danger to begin with. This week we begin Sefer Bamidbar. After the Jews were counted by their tribe, the Torah recounts three tribes per quarter section that surrounded the Mishkan. The Jewish peopled traveled in a very specific b'osos l'beis avosam yachanu bnei yisrael, mineged saviv l'ohel Moed yachanu": "The children of Israel shall encamp, each man at his division according to the signs of their fathers' house, at a distance surrounding the Tent of Meeting shall they encamp". Nachmanidies mentions that each 'degel' - flag - had a colored map attached to it. I would imagine the reason for this was so that each tribe could be immediately identifiable for other tribes to see. The color and design of one flag was completely different in color and appearance from all the other flags. The importance of a tribe to be recognized was so every tribe (brother) could see how their kinsmen could be of assistance to them if the need arose. The flag and symbol of each tribe was used to inculcate into their psyche that others were available to help if necessary, and that all members of the other tribes were ready to be of assistance to each other, whenever necessary. The Kli Yakar explains the idea of the Degalim/flags, based upon a Midrash. At the time of Matan Torah, when the Jewish people were receiving the Torah, they saw the angels with banners and flags, and the Jews desired to be like them. This is derived from a verse in Tehilim 20:6: "U'V Sheim Elokeinu Nidgol" - 'and in the name of God, raise our banners". At this point the nations of the world saw the greatness of the Jewish people clinging and clamoring to get close to Hashem. The non-Jews looked at the Jews and saw their greatness and offered them to return to them and to make the Jews leaders and heads of state among the gentiles. Even the non-Jews wanted to be associated with us and were willing to give greatness to the Jews. But we, the Jewish people, are cognizant of where our greatness comes from - from Hashem. All the Shvatim looked inward toward the Mishkan, the dwelling and residence of Hashem, for guidance and direction. Every once in a while each of us should stop, think, and ask ourselves the following:' Where am I, how did I get here, and where am I going'? Breaking down these three questions will determine our place in life. All too frequently, a person who does not center his life through focusing on God will discover that the many facets of experiencing the world, of knowing genuine enjoyment, lack true fulfillment. Surely, he will feel good for the moment, and that moment doesn't literally mean that second,but after it all wanes, the person is left empty, literally lost as to where he "fits" in this world and where he is going with his life. Following a life of Torah and Mitzvos leads a person to come to make the right choices. When a person centers his life on spirituality and God, the flow of life is understandable. When we stop and think of all the different scenarios and decisions made to get to a point after doing mitzvos and being close to Hashem, we appreciate the closeness of the Almighty. If we want to feel fulfilled in life we must turn toward the centrality of where life comes from.....Hashem. The symbol of the Mishkan in the middle of the four sections of the Jewish people travelling reminds us of this. Let us prepare for the road of Torah and the journey that we accept every year and undertake during the yom tov of Shavuos. Through genuine, deep introspection we will each find a deeper purpose and meaning in life, in our understanding of the real meaning of our journey through life, of where we end up at the end of the day. Ah Gut Shabbos Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky