May 15, 2010 | 2 Sivan 5770

I really relate to the story of Hillel who was challenged by a heckler to teach him all of the Torah while he balanced on one foot.  I relate to this story because important theological questions are often asked of me and are accompanied by a list of conditions; a collection of stipulations that must be considered and accounted for in the answer.  Like Hillel, I often feel like the questions are asked on one foot, asked with background and history that make my ability to answer much more challenging.

Unlike Hillel, however, I am very rarely questioned by a heckler.  Instead I am approached by thoughtful, inquisitive minds that are sending forth these questions from a very real and serious place.   The conditions that are placed upon my answer often come from religious ideas assimilated from our participation in this great American society, which is an amalgam of various and often conflicting theologies and philosophies that have been brought together from every corner of the earth.   This colors the way in which we experience God.  Before I am asked the question, “Why did God let this happen?” there is learned theology that presumes a certain role for God in our life.  All of this makes answering these questions more difficult than simply thinking back to my own learning or reaching into traditional sources and pulling out an answer.  

This is not a new challenge for our people.  Even God had to deal with the issue of presupposed theology that affected His interaction with the people.  Think about the Golden Calf incident.  This debacle was a prime example of the theological expectations of the people colliding with the reality of the Israelite/God experience.

So now we find ourselves beginning a new book, Bamidbar (Numbers).  After our exodus from Egypt and trek to Mount Sinai, the people are now escorted into the wilderness to learn this new, revolutionary text called Torah. 

Our parsha begins as follows: 

On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying… (Numbers 1:1)

Our midrashic tradition wonders why the teaching of Torah continues into the wilderness.  Why not complete the learning at Mount Sinai before heading off into the wilderness towards the Promised Land?  The Talmud tractate Nedarim 55a posits that to truly learn Torah a person must make themselves like a wilderness, i.e. ownerless.  This is why God leads the people into the wilderness – because the bareness and expanse of the desert landscape was to remind the people that they must be willing to let go of old ideas that don’t make sense and to grasp onto new ones that come from a place of holiness and truth. 

For us today, the pursuit of truth through the study of Torah is much more complicated than for our ancestors that lived during the biblical period.  Rituals and spiritual rites like the sacrificial service, employment of the priestly class and temple worship are so foreign to us that we must utilize all our imagination simply to visualize the meaning of the words in our holy scripture.  However, the attempt to look at our tradition and wisdom literature with fresh eyes and a clean mind is a worthy endeavor.  Real questions are difficult to answer.  Knowing what lies behind our inquiries is an important piece of information.  It is impossible for us to have completely clear and unadulterated minds.  However, as long as we strive to open them, as wide and unreserved as the desert landscape we have the best chance of understanding God.

Shabbat Shalom!