Thus begins the end. Moses takes his position at the front of the Children of Israel for the last time, to offer a valediction and a blessing. He must, in one grand speech, prepare them to enter the Promised Land -- and without him.
He summarizes the journey so far -- a journey that almost none of the people in front of him experienced personally, at least in its entirety, since the generation of the Exodus died in the desert, almost without exception.
And he brings the narrative to the present moment, foreshadowing the end of his speech and the next phase of the journey, where he will hand over the reins to Joshua. This is a classic introduction, telling his audience where he is going.
This Saturday is a special Sabbath, called Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. It always precedes the Ninth of Av, the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, when the destruction of the Holy Temples took place.
Just as Moses points to the eventual role of Joshua, and the entry into the land of Israel, after his death, so, too, we contemplate the eventual redemption that lies beyond the sadness of the Ninth of Av, and the happiness that is to come.
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
