B'Midbar (and Erev Shavuot): Why Do You Wanna KNOW??

What REALLY happened? That is the eternal question, right? If you didn't witness it with your own eyes - whatever IT is; an exciting moment, a terrifying accident, a hilarious blunder, an unbelievable coincidence - it's impossible to know what

ACTUALLY took place. Usually, multiple versions emerge, narratives shift, grow, evolve, devolve, and we drift further and further away from ever being able to fully answer this pressing question. As we begin the Fourth Book of the Torah, and immerse ourselves in the wilderness of the Exodus, and as we also recount the story of God speaking to Israel on Mount Sinai in conjunction with the Festival of Shavuot, it's tempting to want to ponder this question. Are these stories "true"? Were these people "real"? Did God, who may or may not exist, really participate in these stories in as tangible and physical a way as the text suggests? If you don't know this about me by now, you probably should; I like to answer questions... with more questions.

What is underlying our curiosity? Why do we so desperately want answers? Especially when, ultimately, we know that much of what we're yearning for is unknowable. How could we go back and VERIFY the moment-by-moment

accounts in either the desert travels described in the Book of Numbers, or Revelation at Mount Sinai in the Book of Exodus?? You weren't there, and neither was I, so I maintain my first point above; you can't KNOW something with certainty if you weren't an eye-witness. And even if you WERE, memories get murky, porous, and elastic. So, for me, we are actually asking the WRONG questions. The Torah *never* purports to give facts, to lay out chronology, or to try and offer scientific data and corroborating evidence. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel asserted: The Torah is a moral, not a chronological, text. The Torah is addressing questions like, "Why are we here on earth?", "What are our obligations to ourselves, our fellow organisms, and to our planet?", "What does it mean to be 'good' or 'bad'?", and "What's the deal with this God-character???"

Do you see what a shift that is? How inadequate our fact-based questions become?? This Saturday morning, we are celebrating Shabbat Shevatim, "The Shabbat of the Tribes," where we honor and explore the massive art project we installed in our Main Sanctuary in 2016, The Children of Israel Mosaics.

And again, the questions we might ask revolve around how this was meaning-making for us, and looking back at the Torah, we might wonder how tribal affiliations and desert wanderings solidified their sense of community and togetherness. It may be LESS relevant to ask, "Were these images REALLY on the flags of each tribe in the desert?" Then, on Saturday evening, we will celebrate Shavuot and discuss the approaches of different religious faiths to The Theology of Resilience. What texts/traditions/rituals/customs do we turn to when we are struggling or in crisis? Does the story of Revelation at Sinai perhaps inform this question, and help us lean on our ancestors to grapple with difficult and chaotic times in 2019? And again, a less relevant concern might be, "Did God ACTUALLY carve each letter of the Ten Commandments into the stone tablets?" Do you see where I'm going with this??

I know these questions don't just go away. We want to know!! And I like discussing the historical origins of our traditions too, and I also enjoy challenging the accepted
explanations that don't pass muster. But sometimes we feel that society is *forcing* us to choose - you either have blind, obedient faith, or you're a skeptical, jaded heretic. I reject that dichotomy! It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other. We can maintain our curiosity about the lives and details of our ancestors, and muse about the origins of our texts and our traditions... while also recognizing the underlying - and often eternal - values and beliefs that permeate our history. So again, what REALLY happened??? I honestly don't know. But I DO know what is happening today - in my own life and in the world - and I know that the Torah helps me make sense of it all. Wherever this Torah ACTUALLY came from... I sure am glad we've still got it with us today.


CC images in this blog post courtesy of:
1. Pixabay
2. Adafruit Industries on Flickr
3. Right side of Sanctuary, seven mosaic panels; image courtesy of Rabbi Gerber
4. dollen on Flickr