Feature Tidbit
for Parshat BaMidbar

The Road Not Taken

In last week's sedra, immediately following the Tochacha, the Torah "summarizes what has been going on since shortly after the Exodus from Egypt. "And these are the laws and the statutes and the Torahs (the Written Word and the Oral Law) that G-d gave from Him to Bnei Yisrael at Har Sinai by the hand of Moshe." One getsthe impression that the purpose of Har Sinai has now been fulfilled, not just by the experience of Matan Torah but by the almost a year spent there learning about the Torah. It is now time to move on to the next phase of G-d's plan for us - to go to Eretz Yisrael.

Yet following the conclusion of Vayikra with B'chukotai, we begin the book of Bamidbar with the sedra by the same name. Bamidbar. In the Wilderness. We shouldn't have been there so long. There shouldn't have been a whole book of the Chumash focusing on the Midbar. The Midbar should have been a brief transition from Egyptand Sinai to Eretz Yisrael. Instead, we took the wrong road. We should not see the book and events of Bamidbar as ideal. We should see much of it as an embarrassing series of B'DI'EVEDs. Bamidbar should have been a relatively brief transition from Egypt and Sinai to Eretz Yisrael.

Is this just crying over spilled milk, or an expression of sour grapes (to use just two cliches)? No it isn't. And it is Shmot 19:1 (among other p'sukim) that shows us that this is not merely an exercise in empty talk. In the third month since the Exodus, on the THIS day, they (the People of Israel) came to Midbar Sinai.Rashi's comment on THIS day, as opposed to THAT day, which is how one tells a story, is that every day the experience of Matan Torah should be fresh in our eyes as if we received the Torah today.

That means that we are constantly (or at least continually) at the same crossroads as Bnei Yisrael with the same roads to choose from and the challenge to take Robert Frost's road not taken. We come out of Mitzrayim every year. We receive the Torah anew, and we have the ever-present challenges of the Tochacha. So too arewe offered Eretz Yisrael all the time. We have but to avoid the mistakes of Dor HaMidbar and other generations and improve our commitment to the G-d, the Torah, the People, and the Land.

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