As we approach Shabbat the Yom Tov of Shavuot, having just read Parashat Bamidbar, there are a few questions that need to be explored:
1) Why did we, the Jewish people, have to travel in the desert in tribes? Why twelve of them? Isn’t this creating unnecessary factions within the Jewish people?
2) Is there a hidden connection between Parashat Bamidbar and Shavuot? Is there some message to support our reading this Parasha the week before Shavuot?
My Rabbi, Rav Moshe Weinberger, explains that each of us is created with a unique mission that we must fulfill. Our life’s journey is to navigate challenges and celebrations to fulfill this mission. In fact, the Medrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 16:1) says that “there is nothing as precious to Hashem as an agent who is sent to do a mitzvah and gives his soul in order to be successful in his mission.” Giving of one’s soul means that you invest all of your talents and energy into fulfilling the mission, regardless of the personal sacrifice required. In other words, to be successful, you need to be totally devoted and focused on the mission. Put another way, you need to make the most of the journey.
Just as every individual has his own unique mission, every Jewish community has its own mission as well. It is for this reason that each of the twelve tribes camped in separate groups around the Mishkan; each tribe had to express its unique inner essence. Just as when I fulfill my personal mission, it does not detract in any way from someone else’s, so too, when one community fulfills its mission, it does not detract from another community’s mission. On the contrary, it should motivate the other to be focused and succeed in its mission.
Today, while we no longer have camps per se, but we have different groups: Sephardim, Ashkinazim, Modern Orthodox, Chassidim, Yeshivish, etc. Each group has no shortage of complaints about the others. They feel that the others do not value their tradition. Why is this? Why do we many begrudge others who are on a path of service to Hashem that is different that his own? Perhaps we have not truly dedicated ourselves to our own mission, or we feel insecure about ourselves and have to put down others’ paths to drown out our feelings of guilt for not being truly committed to our own.
Rabbi Weinberger suggests it is because we are “lost in the desert.” Certainly Hashem could have flown us directly from Cairo to Tel Aviv! It must be that the journey “through the desert” is significant.
ויחן שם ישראל נגד ההר - פירוש רש׳׳י -איש אחד בלב אחד
The Torah says that when the Jews sat around Har Sinai, they were united, like one. This was not magic. It was the result of a long and hard journey of growth.The journey is crucial. We needed forty years of being encamped with our own tribe to understand that there is life outside of the camp. There is value to the traditions in the other camps. We could not magically land at Har Sinai to receive the Torah. We needed a mission and a journey to grow together as a nation.
Now it is clear how Bamidbar and Shavuot are connected. If Shavuot is the marriage between Hashem and the Jewish people, then the Shabbat before Shavuot is the Afruf. So if we want to be successful in accepting the Torah on Shavuot, we need to focus on our own mission; know who we are and what our traditions are. Then we can come to love each Jew. Not to love him in some superficial manner, rather, we need to love each Jew from the depths of our heart, without any speck of negativity or blemish.
Let us all recommit ourselves to our own Torah learning, to our own personal growth. Then let us recognize the value of every Jew and come to love him.
Now isn't that a journey worth experiencing?
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