Humans are fascinated with numbers. We need to number our days, our years. Some folks are absorbed by numbers in financial reports, game scores and polls. Numbers also inform our sense of spirituality, giving meaning to our lives and our seasons. Life is unimaginable without numbers.

 

This summer week we conclude reading the Book of Numbers.  While in Hebrew it is called BaMidbar, in the Wilderness, it begins with a census of the Israelites and so the name Numbers. The Book of Numbers ends with a review of the forty two stopping points on the journey to the Land of Canaan.

 

In numerous commentaries we learn of the significance of these locations as places of learning and spiritual growth on the way to Canaan, the Land of Promise. Throughout rabbinic and Jewish mystical lore we see how the number 42 has significance.  The Kabbalists talk about a name of God with 42 letters and how the world came into being from the first 42 letters of Genesis.  There are 42 words in the V'Ahavta, "And you shall love God with all your heart..." in the Book of Deuteronomy. A first century rabbi wrote a poem-song (Ana B'Koach) using the 42 letter name of God as an acrostic. It is still considered a prayer of great ascent in our liturgy today.  Our people treasure this kind of enrichment.

 

Each of the places mentioned in this week's Parsha marks a stage of growth in our people's life. A closer look at the meaning of the names reveals this. Interpreting the names of the specific places mentioned we can, in Kabbalistic and Jungian fashion see how they moved from Restriction to Fragility to Existential Awakening to Freedom's Mouth and Birthing to taste of Bitterness to Nourishment to the Wilderness of Hope and so on... One can have a lot of fun exploring the steps taken toward the Land of Promise. We can do this with our own lives. We are also on this journey.  Are we fully aware of those places or points of ascent in our own journeys?   

 

Come for Shabbes at Sanctuary, August 13!

 

B'Shalom,

Reb David