B'Midbar: Don't Run From the Wilderness!

Interesting things happen in the wilderness. I'm not necessarily referring only to the Bible, but if we stick with the Torah for now, you can certainly see plenty of examples of this. Abraham travels through the wilderness, at God's command, to find his new home; he sends a servant back through the desert to find a wife for his son, Isaac; Jacob disappears off into the outback to go live with Laban; Joseph is sold into slavery somewhere in the fields; Moses flees from Pharaoh's wrath into the hinterland; centuries later, King David escapes various plots by hiding in the wilderness, and on and on and on. Of course, the entire story of the Exodus is itself about life "in the desert," "B'Midbar"! As a theme, a literary device, the wilderness serves a crucial function, and not only for our Biblical ancestors, but for you and me as well.

The wild is vulnerable, it's dangerous, it's unknown. And yet, it also represents opportunity, excitement, plot development, and - perhaps most importantly - a clean start. Time and again, our ancestors travel into the bush to reset, to shed an old life and begin again. For Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and 

indeed the entire population of the Children of Israel, they go into the wilderness one way, and come out the other side changed, evolved, matured, and enlightened. Well, that's the hope anyway... This week, our Torah portion is called B'Midbar, as it is the first parashah in the fourth Book of the Torah, which is also called B'Midbar in Hebrew. The entire book focuses on the life of the Israelites in the desert over the course of their forty years of wandering. In addition, this weekend we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, when we received the Torah at Mount Sinai... in the wilderness. Shavuot is the holiday when we read another story from our ancient tradition, namely the Book of Ruth. And Ruth ALSO has a story about beginning her life anew by sojourning through the desert.

After her father-in-law and her husband both die, Ruth leaves her home in Moab, and sets forth with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to make a new life in Canaan. Along the way (in the wild...), she basically converts to Judaism. There is much we could focus on in this story, but for our purposes here, let's just acknowledge the significance of the journey itself. Ruth has a transformative experience of traveling through no-man's land and emerging on the other side a changed 

woman. What happens to her in the desert? What happens to ALL our ancestors when they disappear off into the sandy, desolate, sun-baked unknown? I'd like to suggest a couple of things. First, it's quiet. All the other voices in our lives, the narratives we hold onto, the "should's" and the "must's," they all melt away. Alone with our own minds and hearts, we can achieve some clarity, and perhaps see a new path forward that was much too obscured before. Second, it's vulnerable. This seems like a bad thing, but it really isn't. We strip away all our securities and the guarantees we tell ourselves we MUST retain, and something amazing emerges. All the "stuff" we held onto, that we were certain we couldn't live without, really wasn't so essential after all. Not only that, it might have actually been holding us back!

In the desert, we rely on ourselves. An internal strength and bravery arises that we never knew existed. Our eyes open up, our hearts expand, and our lungs breath new air that seems fresher and sweeter. But again, the wilderness is scary, it's risky. There are no assurances, and the dangers are real. Yet somehow, for every, single one of our ancestors - from Abraham, to Ruth, to her great-grandson, King David - it was worth it. The reward of 

self-discovery and a life of purpose and meaning was precious enough that they were willing to take that first daunting step off into the unknown. I'm sure you've figured this out by now, but the wilderness is a metaphor. For us it can be a scary, lengthy trip abroad, a silent retreat, transitioning to a new job, contemplating having a child, entering the housing market as a buyer OR seller; whatever it might be, there ARE wildernesses in our lives today. The desert is the journey, NOT the destination. Don't focus on the end result; the thing you're working or moving towards. Instead, look at that step (or steps) in between. What does THAT look like? And what could it look like for you? There is so much we can learn in there - in that awkward, risky, unpredictable middle stage - after we've taken the leap but before we've landed. Don't let that opportunity go to waste. Spend some time in the wilderness; you never know how it might change you.

Photos in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of Yuvalr on Wikimedia Commons
2. CC image courtesy of brewbooks on Wikimedia Commons
3. CC image courtesy of Jim Padgett on Wikimedia Commons
4. CC image of Fyodor Kamensky's "First Step" courtesy of Stebanoid on Wikimedia Commons