Numbers - 0101-0420 - BeMidbar - Cycle 2

Who are we?

In BeMidbar we are people (b’nai y’israel), tribes (matot), princes (n’siyay), the whispers, the touch, the vision beyond the vision. Like Abraham, we are each molecules revolving into universes, the one who wakes in the morning and goes to work….or waters his camels.

Before looking at BeMidbar though let’s do a quick flash back. In Exodus we are directed how to build a connection with God. In Leviticus we then focus on the laws of the kohen to discern the threads closest to the center, merge them and set the solid basis in order to expand.

Now we focus back on the Israelites. Here as well, God shows how to create distinctions within intricate patterns, how to re‐connect them into a stronger unit. A simple example is the dismantling of the mishkan, the movement (towards wholeness) and then the re‐assembly (1:51). This is so holy that only the Levites can do it. A stranger will die. In my opinion even God’s words…that action of separating ideas then merging them for greater meaning… is a palpable expression of this process. The more primal and intuitive behavior…the search…is expressed by Abraham in Genesis.

Getting back to BeMidbar, it’s as if God is untangling the gossamer threads of a web, strengthening each then re‐weaving and binding them into something more functional. Those nearest the eye (but not near the eye of the eye) are the most complex, almost forming a web unto itself, a glistening miracle slowly unfolding for us to touch and breathe. Each letter is a tool for this miracle. Each flow of white space is the love that gives the miracle shape. (Rashi says that God counts the Israelites often because we are dear to Him).

I can’t possibly express the beauty here. Abraham, in attempting this process (intentionally or not) certainly exposes our human weakness when he forgets to protect the kadosh. The akeda is the turning point but that’s another d’var Torah. What’s interesting is that Abraham is the sacred receptacle for this ultimate merging.

Prayer and offering (as well) show the sacred process. Even the word olah (burnt offering) can be translated as whole. There’s the choice of offering (the discernment) the earthly action (wholeness) and the heightened merging. In terms of prayer, the Sh’ma demonstrates the power of separation, wholeness and merging in six words.

Here, in BeMidbar, the word legulegelotam (1:2) manifests the eternal cycling. You can hear the resonance, the repetition. You can see it happening, the beginning of metamorphosis. In reading the list of names (1:5) you get a chill up your spine. It’s the first cut into the morass; the first discernment.

Then, the leaders do a head count of men ages 20 and older who can go tzava (into the army). In the reporting of these numbers, we get the word toledoth…or chronicles/history. There’s a world in each toledoth and one for each tribe. There’s a filling out, the sense of singularity, wholeness emphasized by white space…and still a sense of connection with one long sentence.

Then, God tells these tribes where to place the tents so we can merge more efficiently and protect our kadosh. The tribes are placed in the same relative places (north south east or west) as when they carry Jacob’s coffin. We are told who goes when on the march to consciousness. We connect in a way that adds to and emphasizes our purpose.

Enter the Levites. Ah, we realize, separation, wholeness and merging happen on more than one level….and more than two. It happens in our hearts, our minds. It isn’t a maybe action. It’s a must do (s’u). It’s the revolving of love and it joins like solid gold wings with others to get beyond the maybes into the tzava and joy of consciousness. It’s about give and take, patience, doing the separation, wholeness and merging, breath after breath, tear after tear, smile after smile… with meditation, chanting, healing, kindness, patience, compassion and a rhythm until you, yourself are the action of metamorphosis, the sometimes joyous sometimes broken sometimes magnetic miracle of God.

Now let’s look at Abraham. In Lekh Lekha (Genesis 12:11) he separates from Sara. Here, Abraham is not protecting his kadosh. Still, separation brings about wholeness then merging. We can see this in God’s promise that he will have offspring (13:16). Soon after, Abraham divides his forces to conquer. I personally don’t think that he understands the sacred process he is discovering and rediscovering, stumbling through, the legulegelotam. He is a poet struggling like the rest of us. He is doing it. He is becoming a miracle of God.

Eziekiel (1:10‐16) describes the eternal cycle in this prophecy: As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side…of an ox on the left; they four had also the face of an eagle…two wings of every one were joined one to another…and they four had one likeness and their appearance and their work was as if it were a wheel within a wheel.

So, may we all do the work to cycle in deeper, get closer to our hearts. May we have clarity of the process, see the beauty and joy in the first steps, the exquisite organization, delineation, wholeness, merging and practicality in the necessary sacred march. May we protect the kadosh from north south east and west…from all faces… and merge our wings and chant legulegelotam with joy. And may we walk in the steps of Abraham and act to become the miracle of the eye within the eye, the continuum of love.