Cancelling Cancel Culture

Seeking Inspiration

This weekend we will celebrate the last Shabbat before Shavuot. Since Shabbat is the source of blessing for the following week it is fitting to reflect upon the upcoming holiday during the course of this Shabbat.

The mystics teach us that the festivals of the Jewish calendar are reflected in the Torah portion chanted on the Shabbat before and after the festival. When seeking inspiration for the upcoming holiday it is natural that we turn to our Torah portion.

The name of our Parsha is Bamidbar, which means, “in the desert.” Our sages taught that a Jew must always study Torah in the manner of a desert. What does this mean?

Six Links

1. We must study Torah with a sense of humility and feel, in comparison to the Torah, barren as a desert.
2. We must drink from the fountain of Torah as enthusiastically as a parched person would drink fresh water in the dry desert.
3. We must resist our ego-based control over ourselves just like a wild desert resists human dominance
4. We must study Torah with a sense of self-sacrifice just as our ancestors followed G-d into the desert despite their meager provisions.
5. The Torah was given in the desert to teach us that even if we are spiritually barren, as a desert, the words of Torah will transform us.
6. The Hebrew word for desert is “Midbar,” the same letters as the Hebrew word for speech. When we study Torah we must articulate the words of Torah as if echoing the words of the Almighty.