Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Bamidbar, Yom Yerushalayim Numbers 1:1 - 4:20

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - The name by which this fourth Book of the Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch) is most popularly known is Bamidbar, or in the Desert - an apt description of the forty years of the Israelite desert-wanderings which the book records.

Indeed, this desert period serves as the precursor of - as well as a most apt metaphor for - the almost 2000 years of homeless wandering from place to place which has characterized much of Jewish history before the emergence of our Jewish State in 1948.

The Hebrew word for desert, midbar, is also pregnant with meanings and allusions which in many ways have served as a beacon for our Jewish exile. The root noun from which midbar is built is dabar, which means leader or shepherd. After all, the most ancient occupation known to humanity is shepherding, and the desert is the most natural place for the shepherd to lead his flock: the sheep can comfortably wander in a virtual no-man’s land and graze on the vegetation of the various oases or their outskirts without the problem of stealing from private property or harming the ecology of settled habitations. And perhaps dabar means leader - shepherd because it also means word: the shepherd directs the flock by meaningful sounds and words, and the leader of people must also have the ability to inspire and lead by the verbal message he communicates; indeed, the Ten Words (or Ten Commandments, aseret hadibrot) were revealed in the Sinai desert, and they govern Israel - as well as a good part of the world - to this very day.

Moreover, it must be noted that wherever the Israelites wandered in the desert, they were always accompanied by the portable desert mishkan, or Sanctuary, which literally means (Divine) Presence (Shakon). However, G-d was not in the Sanctuary; even the greatest expanse of the heavens cannot contain the Divine Presence, declared King Solomon when he dedicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. (Kings I, 8) It was rather G-d’s word which was in the Sanctuary , in the form of the “Ten Words” on the Tablets of Stone preserved in the Holy Ark, as well as the ongoing and continuing word of G-d which He would speak (vedibarti, Ex 25:22) from between the cherubs on the end of the Kapporet above the Holy Ark. It was by means of these Divine Words that even the desert - a metaphor for an unhospitable and even alien exile environment which is broilingly hot by day, freezingly cold by night and deficient in water which is the very elixir of life - can become transformed into sacred space. And indeed the word succeeded in sanctifying the many Marrakeshes and Vilnas of our wanderings!

Allow me to share with you a story from my previous life (in the exile of the West Side of New York City) which taught me how the word can bring sanctity into the most unlikely of places. In the early 1970’s, a disco opened up in a window storefront building on 72nd Street and Broadway; despite the fact that it was called the Tel Aviv Disco and was owned by Israelis living in New York, it remained open every night of the year, even Kol Nidre night. I must have placed at least two dozen calls to the owners to try to persuade them to close at least on the night of Yom Kippur, only to have finally received a message from their secretary informing me that the owners would not speak to rabbis!!

During this period, Rav Yitzhak Dovid Grossman - a beloved and respected friend who is the Rav of Migdal HaEmek - spent Shabbat with us at Lincoln Square Synagogue. He is a charismatic religious leader who is well-known for the many prisoners and other alienated Jews whom he has brought back to religious observance. After a delightful Friday evening meal at my home, replete with inspiring Hassidic melodies and words of Torah, he suggested that we go for a “shpatzir” (Yiddish for leisurely walk). I tried to explain that the general atmosphere of the West Side streets of Manhattan were hardly conducive to Sabbath sanctity - but to no avail. His steps led us in the direction of 72nd Street and Broadway, right in front of the window revealing the frenzied disco dancers. “Did you ever see a mosquito captured in a glass jar?,” he asked me in Yiddish (our language of discourse). “The mosquito is moving with all sorts of contortions, and appears to be dancing. In reality, however, the mosquito is gasping for air. That is the situation of those “dancers” in the disco. They are really gasping for air, struggling in their search for a real Shabbos. Let’s go in and show them Shabbos.”

Before I could say “Jackie Robinson,” he was inside the disco - and as a good host, I felt constrained to follow him. He sported a long beard and side-locks, and was wearing a shtreimel (fur hat) and Kapote (silk gaberdine), and I was dressed in my Sabbath Prince Albert, Kippa and ritual fringes out; as we entered the disco, the band of Israelis immediately stopped playing. I immediately recognized three young men from the Synagogue - who seemed totally discombobulated; two ran out covering their faces, and the third tried to explain to me that he wasn’t really there, that his mother had had some kind of attack and he thought that her doctor might be at the disco… Rav Grossman began to sing, Sabbath melodies. Almost miraculously, the men danced on one side, the women on the other. After about twenty minutes, he urged me to speak to them in English. I told them of the magical beauty, the joy and the love of the Sabbath, and they listened with wrapt attention. Rav Grossman led them in one more song - and we left.

I cannot tell you that the miracle continued, it didn’t take five minutes, and we could hear the resumption of the disco band music. However, before the next Yom Kippur, the Tel Aviv Disco closed down; I don’t know why, because the owners wouldn’t speak to rabbis. And for the next two years, at least a dozen young singles joined Lincoln Square Synagogue because they had been inspired by our Disco visit….

In a few days, we shall celebrate Yom Yerushalayim. The vision of Jerusalem is the City of Peace, from whence the “word of G-d” (davar HaShem) will emanate to all nations of the world, will sanctify and uplift every spiritual desert. And if the word can sanctify a disco, it can sanctify every desert out-post as well!

Shabbat Shalom & Yom Yerushalayim Sameach.