LEAD TIDBIT
When Parsha & Calendar Meet
Parshat Mishpatim this year was at the end of Shvat. Anything to say about that? Don't know. Parshat Balak in early Tammuz? Don't know. Sometimes it isn't easy to find a Parsha-Calendar connection. But sometimes it is. Like the fact that Parshat No'ach is in Cheshvan. The obvious common factor is Rain. And the sedras that deal with Yosef and his brothers are read around Chanuka time. There's something there to make a connection.

How about reading Parshat Bamidbar, beginning the book of Bamidbar, and benching Rosh Chodesh Sivan on the same Shabbat? With the Molad of Sivan being on that Shabbat. With Rosh Chodesh Sivan beginning even before Shabbat Bamidbar is over? Seems as if we have what to say.

This Shabbat, we read of G-d's command to Moshe to count the people. It was on Rosh Chodesh Iyar 2449, that's 3317 years ago and one month. It was more than a year after we left Egypt, a little less than a year after arriving at Sinai. It was almost 10 months after the golden calf fiasco and a little more than three months before the Sin of the Spies. The first annual Pesach was; the first Pesach Sheni was still to come. In addition to the Meraglim still to happen, we also know that Korach and his rebellion as well as several other events that angered G-d (so to speak) will soon be occurring.

Now take a step back. Rosh Chodesh Sivan will be Machar, on Yom Rishon. So let us ride the Wayback Machine (without Mr. Peabody and Sherman) to 11 months before when our sedra begins. To our arrival at Sinai, and the experience of camping at the foot of Har Sinai "as one person with one heart". Everything is potential. The good and the bad. Once again we relive the challenge of accepting the Torah AND Eretz Yisrael and maybe this time to skip past Galut and punishment straight to the Geula Sh'leima BIMHEIRA B'YAMEINU AMEN.

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