This Friday (and, outside of Israel, Saturday) marks the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, or Pentecost, which commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The tradition is to stay up all night, studying various aspects of Torah.
I recently began studying the "Mishneh Torah" of Maimonides, his attempt to organize Jewish practice and thought in a categorial, rational way. It is an astonishing intellectual achievement and has already inspired me significantly.
One of the first sections is about prophecy. Maimonides spends a lot of time explaining how to recognize a true prophet -- no doubt because Judaism in the Middle Ages found itself under pressure from both Christianity and Islam.
Without, at least in this section, challenging either of those two religions, Maimonides explains the basis for Jews' continued faith in the original Torah, delivered by Moses at Sinai: we were witnesses to it ourselves, with Moses.
"What is the source of our belief in him? The [revelation] at Mount Sinai. Our eyes saw, and not a stranger's. Our ears heard, and not another's. ... Thus, those to whom [Moses] was sent witnessed [his appointment] as a prophet, and it was not necessary to perform another wonder for them. He and they were witnesses, like two witnesses who observed the same event together."
Hence the emphasis, on Shavuot, of reenacting the receiving of the Torah. Through study, we repeat the action of witnessing the revelation -- not just of the Ten Commandments, and of the written law, but also of the Oral Law, which Moses was taught on Sinai and later transmitted to the people.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/904992/jewish/Yesodei-haTorah-Chapter-Eight.htm
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
