This week's reading kicks off the fifth and final book of the Torah. It is a speech -- one of the greatest in history -- by Moses, right before his death, recalling the travels of the Children of Israel through the desert and restating the moral commitment to God's Covenant.
Why recall the whole story? Because Moses has been though all the ups and downs of the journey, which each had their own moral lessons. The journey itself is a moral statement, one that shows the limitations of the people -- but also their incredible moral potential.
This Sabbath is also before the observance of Tisha B'Av -- the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, marking the destruction of both the First and Second Temples. It is the outcome Moses warned the people about in this very speech, before his death.
But Moses also holds out hope, telling the people that God will not forget them, and that they can avoid destruction if they follow His ways. In the same way, the days after Tisha B'Av are among the happiest in the Jewish calendar, leading to the High Holidays of fall.
So this Sabbath is called Shabbat Chazon -- the Sabbath of Vision. Even as we mourn the destruction of the Temples and the near-destruction of the Jewish people, we see a more positive future, and we imagine what it can be. If you will it, as Herzl said, it is no dream.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/703951/jewish/Shabbat-Chazon.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
