For the week of Friday, May 7, 2024

The poet wrote: “between the dream and the reality falls the shadow.” Shadows reveal a host of images that may be both real and illusory. Where do shadows appear most strikingly? In the desert, where few objects compete for the attention of the observer. Imagine the shadow cast by hundreds of thousands of Israelites trudging through the wilderness of the Sinai. The desert offers a clear canvas, a litmus test for a person’s actions and reactions.

The fourth book of the Torah begins with the words from the wilderness, as well as a census and a naming of the tribes. In these sands, a people has been marked by exile and redemption, traversing forty years of history until they rest on the shores of the Jordan River, deep in Moabite territory.

What happens in our desert experience? First we see faults exacerbated and challenges surmounted. The people face tests, and must count on themselves, for there is no prince nor pharaoh to save them. In a land where a stream becomes a parched ‘wadi,’ the people learn honesty, self-sufficiency and a faith based on God’s redeeming

powers.

 Join us for Torah study this coming Shabbat morning!