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The Book of Numbers, which we are currently reading, is a very messy book.  Despite the saving grace of God, the Israelites are unable to appreciate freedom, and regularly complain to Moses about the food, the water and the continuous wandering, questioning why they were brought to this wilderness to die, that life was better being a slave in Egypt. While God doesn’t exactly say so, God must be thinking: You ungrateful wretches! I brought Ten Plagues upon Egypt to free you, parted the Reed Sea for your escape route and caused it to drown the Egyptian charioteers pursuing you, provided you with water and manna, and swore to safely bring you to the land that I promised to your forebears. What did you do to thank me? You constructed a golden calf and worshipped it. 

Throughout the book of Numbers, the Israelites display a lack of faith. Despite Divine assurances that they will be able to settle in The Promised Land, God acquiesces and lets them send twelve spies to reconnoiter the land. Ten come back with a disheartening report, and despite the positive report of Joshua and Caleb, the people panic. Korach arises with like-minded peers to attempt a coup d’etat.  God demonstrates complete support for Moses and Aaron by causing the “earth’s mouth to open” and swallow up the rebels as well as a plague to cause the death of nearly 15,000. What is clear, according to one commentator, is that the Israelites may have left Egypt, but Egypt never left the Israelites. The enslaved generation were emotionally unable to create a new society in The Promised Land; it would be their children to do so. By the time we reach the Book of Deuteronomy, that generation had passed on, and a new one was poised to inherit the land that God had promised unencumbered by the baggage of their parent’s slavery.

I look upon the forty years as a necessary prerequisite, as the mindset of the enslaved generation could not evolve sufficiently to grasp the concept and responsibilities of freedom. While I cannot note a defining moment that started a downward spiral, the global rise of nationalism combined with religious fervor has all of us concerned for our future and that of our offspring. I do believe in the silent majority of good, decent people who take Leviticus 19:18 to heart: Love your neighbor as yourself. Events cause the pendulum to swing to the far right or the far left. Eventually the pendulum swings back the other way as the extreme is both unsustainable and unwelcome. The average for the pendulum is at mid-point, where respect for different points of view and collaboration for the common weal prevails. Alas, there are times where severity takes hold until it is too much for the pendulum, and the movement back to equilibrium begins. 

Judaism continues to be relevant to a world that seems to model indecency too frequently. Through mitzvot, the Divine guidance for a world of equality and peace is sorely needed. The command to be mindful of the orphan, widow and stranger is something we must model even more. Eventually the the most well-known commandments must be re-emphasized. We idolize too much, we ignore the spiritual nourishment of the Shabbat, we murder, we steal, we commit adultery, we lie, and we covet the unattainable. The guidebook for a humane society is in our hands. We must answer the ancient call to teach it to a world that ignores it. That is the Divine, eternal mission of the Jewish people. It is most certainly timely and urgent.