Numbers | Bemidbar
This is the beginning of the fourth book of the five books that comprise the written Torah. A year and one month has gone by since the going-out (exodus) from the-place-where-people-are-enslaved the-land-of-mitzrayim) and ruled over by life-alienated (pharaoh). The people have gone out, but to where?
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These opening verses of the Torah portion can illuminate, deepen and open up the NVC request process and the practice of non attachment. Jewish tradition uses the verse to introduce the concept of “ownerlessness” by asking, what is Torah getting at by restating the obvious, that Sinai was in the desert wilderness?
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Naso, the name of this week’s Torah portion, is the sixth different word used in Torah for counting the Children of Israel in the desert. Torah is telling us something about the multi-faceted relationship between inclusion, making space for everyone to count, and building a free society.
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What do I want to illuminate my wanderings? What source of life energy and experience do I want to illuminate for myself and my path through life? Ma norah in Hebrew signifies that which comes from the awe and reverence I feel when I see myself as part of the vast, interconnected web of life.
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This week’s Torah story presents a pivotal moment in the human journey from enslavement to true freedom. It shows how fragile and vulnerable we humans feel when we live close to the possibility of getting what we want in our lives. We have to be willing to step into the unknown to taste freedom. And Torah asks, can we find freedom in the midst of this human vulnerability without shaming ourselves or making enemies of “the other?”
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This week’s Torah portion tells the story of an open rebellion led by Moses’ cousin Korah, himself a prominent Israelite priest, against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. What did Korah do? The opening verse tells us only that he “took” (vayikach), also translated as “he divided,” “he separated,” or he “betook himself.” What did Korah take or divide or separate?
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This rich Torah portion wrestles with the mysteries of life and death, asking: How shall we live and how shall we die?
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This week’s Torah story takes a 180-degree turn. After weeks of following the forty-year journey of the Israelites through the desert wilderness, we are dropped into a dramatic narrative centering on Balak and Bilaam, leaders and prophets of other desert dwellers. What’s going on here?
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This week’s Torah portion begins after a horrifying act of zealotry…or a courageous act of skillful compassion, depending on your point of view, perspective, and perception.
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Matot and Masei are the names the ancient Rabbis gave the last two chapters (parshas) of the book of Numbers/ BaMidbar. As this fourth book of Torah closes, after forty more years of wandering in the midbar (a wilderness), the people still have not developed the capacity to see or enter the Promised Land. The book ends abruptly, without resolution.
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