Transcendent Space
While we inhabit the world of time and space, we can transcend it, when we take refuge in the Tent of Meeting—houses of Worship and Torah study. BAMIDBAR BAMIDBAR
The Beginning
This week, we begin reading the fourth book of Bamidbar or Numbers. In Jewish thought the beginning of a book is considered to be more than just an opening and introductory remark, it is the very “head” and life-force of the entire book.
However, when we read the opening verse of the Book of Numbers, we do not immediately appreciate its significance.
This is how the book begins:
And G-d spoke to Moses in the Sinai desert, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first of the second month in the second year of the Exodus, saying.
At first glance this opening verse simply describes where and when G-d spoke to BAMIDBAR Moses about counting the Jews, which is mentioned in the second verse.
What deeper message can be gleaned from this introductory verse?
Generalizations and Specifics: Which Come First?
One of the classic commentators on the Torah, Or HaChaim raises another question, the answer to will shed light on the first question:
When the Torah describes the location where G-d spoke to Moses, it begins with the general location, “the Sinai desert,” and follows that with the more specific location, “the Tent of Meeting.” However, when the Torah describes the time G-d communicated to Moses, it begins with the more specific time, “the first of the second month,” followed by the more general time “in the second year.”
Why, the Or HaChaim asks, does the Torah not begin with the more specific location first BAMIDBAR as it does for the time? (Indeed, this would also be consistent with the way we address a letter: first the street, then the city and then the state.)
Above the Constraints of Time and Space
The Or HaChaim answers his own question:
In fact, he writes, the term, “in the Tent of Meeting” is the more general location. Although, from our perspective, the Sinai desert occupied a much larger area than the Tent of Meeting, from G-d’s perspective and the ultimate reality was that the Tent of Meeting was vastly larger than and indeed incorporated the Sinai desert. The Tent of Meeting contained the Ark, concerning which our Sages declared, “All of Israel stood comfortably between the carrying poles of the Ark.”
We are bound by the constraints of space. A large object cannot fit into a small container. G-d has no such limitations. And the Tent of Meeting, the place where G-d would meet our physical reality, the laws of physics did BAMIDBAR not necessarily apply. The barriers that separate us from our fellow Jew, just like the barriers that separate us from G-d, would disappear in the Tent of Meeting. Everyone could experience that while they were definitely within the confines of a given area, they would see how everyone would fit into it.
Whenever we come to a synagogue, a center of Torah, a true House of Meeting, the laws of physics are temporarily suspended. We can be in Buffalo and in Jerusalem, simultaneously, and there is ample room for everyone.
Transported to a Higher Place
We can now appreciate why this introductory verse to the Book of Bamidbar (which means “In the desert”) is so crucial.
Whenever we find ourselves in a midbar, a desert-like situation; we feel abandoned, lonely, alienated, parched and devastated, it is imperative that we realize that there is always a place, a “Tent of Meeting” through which BAMIDBAR we can be transported to a higher state of awareness and find comfort and inspiration. The Tent of Meeting had the advantage of being a limited and intimate area, where we could feel cozy in our relationship with G-d, unlike the vast and impersonal state of the “desert” outside. Yet, the Tent of Meeting also possessed the ability to transcend the constraints of space, allowing us to connect with our fellow Jew in every other part of the world.
Living in the Tent of Meeting Now!
Exile has been Biblically named “a desert of the nations.” We feel overwhelmed by our enemies, alienated from our G-d, and distant from our fellow Jew.
Redemption is when we will all enjoy the Tent of Meeting experience, especially in the Third Temple, whose rebuilding we are awaiting. Meanwhile, we can take refuge in the “Miniature Sanctuaries,” in the Houses of worship and Houses of Torah study that give us a foretaste of transcendent space.
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More specifically, when we engage in Torah study concerning the future, it is as if we are living in the future. If we study the Torah’s teachings about the Bais Hamikdash---the ultimate Tent of Meeting—it is as if we are there.
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From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Bamidbar by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
