In The Wilderness

As May begins, the counting of the Omer, the counting of the days between Pesach and Shavuot continues. We are on a journey that recalls the journey taken by our ancestors over three thousand three hundred years ago, as they walked through the desert from Egypt to Sinai. Day after day after day we count – for seven weeks. But all we do is, literally, count the days, and say a blessing. They walked and walked; trekking across the barren wilderness. Only the very few adventurous ones amongst us, who have actually been on that kind of hike in that kind of arid landscape, for that long, can really imagine what it was like.

And then, after seven weeks, where were they? Safely installed in a new home? No – they found themselves at the foot of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. That is where they encountered the Eternal One. And for all the wonder of that transformative experience, the very next day, they were still there, in the rocky, inhospitable desert. And not just for a few weeks. The Torah suggests that it took almost two years to reach the river Jordan (Numbers 9: 11-12; 12:16; 13:1). And then, because the people were too fearful to enter the land beyond the river, their sojourn in the wilderness extended to forty years! (Numbers 14:28-35).

In order to understand the significance of the Revelation at Sinai, we have to really make an effort to take on board where it all happened: In the desert. From the moment they left Egypt, the fleeing slaves, did not head direct for Canaan, but started on a course that would take them the long way round (Exodus 13:17-18). The Eternal One, who spoke to Moses achar hamidbar – literally ‘behind the wilderness’; at the furthest corner of the desert ( Exodus 3:1) – chose that remote place to address the people (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 40, 41). Why? One of the midrashim, rabbinic commentaries, explains that: ‘The Torah….was given in public, openly in a free place. For had the Torah been given in the land of Israel, the Israelites could have said to the nations of the world: "You have no share in it"’ (Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishma’el, Exodus 19:2).

The Torah ‘was given in the wilderness publicly and openly in a place free for all’ (ibid.). The Creator of all things speaks to everyone and all peoples without distinction. The challenge for all of us today, Jew and non-Jew alike – as it was for all the generations of our people, going right back to Sinai – is to listen. Chag Samei’ach!