The Garden Within | BAMIDBAR בְּמִדְבַּר - Portion 34

Class PDFs and Audio at: immlutheran.org/garden

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Teachers of Torah have coined the Hebrew term PaRDeS (פרדס – a word literally meaning “garden” or "orchid") to refer to a four-tiered system of biblical interpretation, which reveals that each word, verse, and story in the Bible could be simultaneously understood on four different levels.  

Through this year-long course, we will explore the very words of God from these levels of the garden.  The name The Garden Within was chosen for this teaching series because it adopts the PaRDeS system of learning and because it delights in the spiritual pleasure through reaching new understandings and being pierced by lightning flashes of the intellect. The pleasure gained, of course, also refers to the nearness we feel to God when learning His Word.

One of the primary goals of The Garden Within is to demonstrate that the “stories” in the Torah are not merely one-time occurrences, temporal incidents undergone by specific individuals long ago. Rather these stories are archetypal in nature, reflecting or representing various physical and spiritual energies ever present in all aspects of reality and within each and every person.  That is, the Torah is deeply personal and speaks directly to each individual reader for where they are in their life.  So, come, take a walk with God in the Garden of the Torah!

#immlutheran #drchadfoster #christian #lcms #messianic

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Good evening, everyone, ever of Torah. Welcome to the garden within tonight as we continue our journey in the Torah. This week, this evening takes us into a new book in the Torah, the fourth book of the Torah. Sephra Bamidbar, that is the book of numbers. But in Hebrew, it's not called the book of numbers, it's called the wilderness. We'll talk a little bit about the difference in the two names a bit tonight. And also always recommend you look at the archives online because in different years, different uh parts of the book or and so forth are emphasized. And I know I've talked uh in greater depth about the title and the differences and so forth between it being called numbers and wilderness and so forth, and the theme of the wilderness and previous um uh kind of entities of our Torah class, and I'll go into tonight. Uh, but so always uh check into that. But uh let's get started first with the blessing before the study of Torah. Let's pray. Baruchata Adanai Elahenu Melakoilam, Ashekidishano Bomisfita Vesevanu le sok vidire Torah. Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and has commanded us to be immersed into the words and the matters of the Torah. Amen. All right, a couple of announcements before we get started officially this evening, so I don't forget. One, uh, we won't meet for the next two weeks. Uh next uh Monday evening I have uh an obligation, and then the week after that is Memorial Day, and so I figure most of you will have obligations or be uh engaged in some of those activities. And so for the next two weeks, we will not meet. We'll pick it up on the first Monday in June. So the first June and Monday, we will re-engage in the Garden Within. The good news is because of some special readings with Shavuot, which is known in English as Pentecost, uh, we will only miss one Torah reading. Um, and so we won't uh we'll be able to kind of quickly pick back up almost where we left off this evening. Um, but just know two weeks off. Also want to make you aware, if you were not uh aware because of this past Sunday, uh I do have a new book available uh on the Beatitudes. It's called The Ascent of Blessedness. And kind of the premise behind this book is a couple of uh inspirations for it. One is uh a book that I had been reading and studying that's about 1,600 years old by Gregory of Nisa. And it was his commentary on the Beatitudes. Uh kind of it was a way of keeping my Greek fresh, but also just a way of looking at uh an early church father's approach to the gospels and so forth. And I thought it was very impactful his take on the Beatitudes and his understanding of them, especially from that of what is known as theosis. That is, that uh the understanding that within the Beatitudes was this uh understanding that as you kind of grew them, grew into them, that they were levels, and that as you started with them and progressed through them, you became more and more like Christ. And so I kind of took that kind of structure from Gregory and kind of modeled this devotion after Gregory. Uh, that is, kind of took you or being at the bottom of the mountain, the Mount of Beatitudes, and kind of took you on a journey up to the top of it uh to kind of mirror that kind of thought. And then I also took some of through the years, whether it was teachings from Mosaic, sermons I have preached on the Beatitudes, uh, just took a lot of my uh archives and so forth and kind of um glean them, tune them, uh tweak them and so forth, and kind of put them together uh in conjunction with some other uh thoughts and ideas. Uh, and so kind of combine that. And in the back also kind of gives you a study guide to look at additional scriptures, uh, ways to kind of like weekly assignments. So, like if you wanted to take a beatitude a week or something like that, uh a goal where you could take that beatitude, particular beatitude, put it to uh work application and to action for that week and so forth uh in there. So uh the Ascent of Blessedness is uh available if you are interested. So um you can check that out. All right, so with that, let's get into this week's portion. It is the 34th portion of the Torah, of the Torah's 54 portions, and it takes us into the book of Numbers. And so it is a portion known as Bamidbar, which is the name of the book of Numbers in Hebrew, and also the name of the first portion in Numbers. It covers Numbers chapter one, verse one, and goes through chapter four, verse 20. Uh, in it, uh, where the title for numbers comes from in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of it, is because it'll talk about taking a census. And in many ways, the book of Numbers does deal a lot with numbers. And so it's not an accidental title, it's just not the original title of the book, it's not the title that the Hebrew has for it. And so this week's portion will have some of that census taking as well as uh part of the taking of the census of how to structure uh as this now mobile nation is moving through the wilderness, how they will establish themselves, how they will travel, how they will encamp with the tabernacle at the center. Uh that would be known as the Shekina in Hebrew, with uh Shekinah meaning God's presence, right? That's at the center, how will they encamp around it? It's very detailed in the numbers of each tribe and the makeup of all of that, uh, and some of the details of that. But we're gonna kind of reflect on that from a deeper level with that idea of as below, so above, and so that's really uh what's being described here in this opening section of numbers is reflecting a greater reality above and what that means for us, uh, as well as um in this opening portion, you have again the entrance of the motif of the wilderness. And so we're gonna be in the wilderness for quite a while. Uh, and so that's gonna begin to play into the themes and so forth. And so uh how um how does this nation function, right? And how does how do you function as an individual and then a family, and then um, you know, uh a little bit larger of a community, and you know, these ever-growing concentric circles. Uh, that's kind of what numbers deals with, and so it still has something to say to us today uh about that. And so those are some of the things that we will reflect on uh this evening. All right, so let's uh dive in. So the very opening words of the book of Numbers simply says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses Bamidbar. The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness. Okay, in English, the book of Bamidbar, as I mentioned, is called Numbers. Uh somewhat surprising translation given that Bidbar, Bamidbar means in the wilderness, or some translations might have the desert. Um, that's not a bad translation in the Bible whenever you're reading the Old Testament. When you hear the word wilderness, don't think like forest and green trees and pretty flowers and things like the woods. Uh, the wilderness in the Bible really does mean desert, barren desert, where water is scarce and food and shade is even more scarce, right? And so Bod Midbar uh in the wilderness in the desert. But um, aside from the fact that that's what it means, the choice of calling it the book of Numbers and the Septuagint or the Latin Vulgate or into our English Bibles, it does make sense as the tribes and the families and the individuals, they are counted several times throughout the book, not just once, but several times, uh, but most notably here at the beginning. And that's so the book does have a lot to do with numbers. And this recurring theme raises two questions, at least two questions. Why does the Torah present such a detailed census, especially when you consider at other times when uh in the Bible, when people like King David or other individuals decide to conduct a census, it makes God upset and God doesn't like his people counting and making a census, but here God originates it. So why is the Torah presenting such a detailed census? And given that the Torah speaks to each person in every generation, including our very own, what does this detailed census have to do with us? What does it have to teach us today? So let's reflect on this a little bit. In the 1960s, an individual, Marshall McClellan, uh who was a communications expert, coined a very useful phrase that was has been used ever since, and that phrase is this. The medium is the message. The medium is the message. In other words, he suggested that what we communicate is intrinsically connected to the manner in which we choose to communicate it. We can't really separate the message from its medium. The medium is not neutral. It not only affects the message, but it can even become one with the message. It can become part of the message itself. One of the lengthy census's fundamental messages is that both the nation as a whole, that is looking at you know the group of people as an entity and its component parts, its individuals, its families, its tribes, its clans, its breakdowns of individuals within each tribe, those are all very important and unique. Initially, individuals, then families, then tribes are counted. Then another count is recorded of the three tribes encamped on each side of the tabernacle. And then finally, there is a global figure given for all of the tribes. And so there are many census taken in here, many counts. Again, it starts with just individuals, and then it breaks it down into families, families within tribes, and then tribes, and then it kind of goes out, and then it looks at the three tribes encamped on each side of the tabernacle, and then it's a global figure. The ever larger circles of influence, physically demarcated by the encampments, each have their own dynamic, and every individual constantly operates within these various contexts, either consciously or unconsciously. That is, as an individual, you're part of, you're unique as an individual in this, then you're part of a family, then you're part of a tribe, then you're part of being on the east or the north or the south of the tabernacle, and then what that means, and then you're part of the nation. And each one of those means something, and it identifies who you are, and you have a role in each one of those things. It's part of who you are, it's part of what your role in this world was to be, it's part of your mission, it's part of your identity, it's part of how you relate to others, it's part of how you relate to your creator. And so the Torah chose to make the medium the message by expressly mentioning each individual, then each family, then each tribe in the encampment to reflect the importance the Torah attaches to every component of those parts, the part of the whole and as a distinct individual part. And this teaching is especially crucial in today's highly mobile world, where people find it increasingly difficult, both logistically, but I would argue even more so emotionally to maintain close ties to their families and to their communities. So many people feel cut off from their roots or from their societies or from their cultures or even from their nations and from a set of common goals that they can share with others. And either consciously or unconsciously, they are perpetually searching for a purpose greater than themselves and their immediate needs and desires. And I see this a lot, especially, you know, as a pastor now uh entering now, uh having been a pastor a quarter of a century, as we recently celebrated, right? Uh I've seen that as a change in the younger generation. Uh, that's a change in that younger generation. They are seeking for something that is greater than themselves. They are seeking a purpose beyond themselves. Even though, in many ways, you could argue the world is now flat, right? Because in the palm of our hand, we can know what's happening in China or Taiwan or Spain or in the Middle East. You know, at the snap of a finger, instantly we can not only know, we can even watch it, right? It's flat, right? And we can in real time know what the financial market is in Asia and in Europe and in the United States all simultaneously. Uh, we can have uh relationships and friendships and all of this all over the world, right? It's it's flat, it's small, it's a small world, and yet at the same time, never have we felt more disconnected and more unrooted. And as more and more people travel and move and transplant and so forth, and uh and more children when they go to college and get their jobs don't live near where their parents are and so forth. We're all over the map, and so uh even in different countries, and so many people don't live where they're born, including nationally speaking. And so there is this desire to connect to something bigger than themselves, beyond themselves. And they they desperately are now finally beginning to seek that in God and in their faith and in their religion and and so forth. And this week's Torah portion speaks to that. Um, it has that spiritual technology within that, and that's uh something very important going on in the text for us to look at and to consider. Uh, because despite the scientific and telecommunication revolutions that we are currently living through uh that have created our global village, more individuals than ever feel isolated, confused, jaded, and dissatisfied with life. And so the book of numbers, not just this portion, but the whole book is about how to live in community. How to do community, how to do it as an individual, because remember, we're gonna be doing these concentric circles, right? Individual, family, tribe, nation, globe, right? That's how this is gonna be. So we're beginning to pick up on this spiritual technology. So as we're entering into the book of Numbers, these are things we can begin to think about, begin to pray about, begin to journal about, begin to discuss, begin to think about. These are the things God's gonna be introducing into our life and opening up our minds to understand and so forth. Uh, learning how to balance our sometimes conflicting loyalties and our attachments and a constantly changing world is no small achievement. And this goal is especially vital. Uh, as a Jewish person, I think about it in terms of a post-Holocaust period. Uh, the Nazis, one of the ways they did uh tried to dehumanize the Jewish people was to erase their individuality. You know, if you ever want to know why they tattooed numbers on them, it wasn't just efficiency and it was a way to file who they were as what who they were in the camp. It was a way to dehumanize them. You were no longer a person, you were no longer this individual with this name, you were now just simply literally a number. They tried to reduce them to just simply being a number. They tried to take away their individuality. And thus we must fight against this by reclaiming the sanctity of the individual. And that's why when you read the book of Numbers and you open it up and it begins by looking at all these numbers, it always still starts with the individual and the sanctity of the individual and the uniqueness of the individual and the importance of the individual to the community, to the family, to the tribe, to the community, to the nation, to the globe, right? It all starts with the individual. This is why Hillel taught an individual must also exist for others. Hallel in Pirke Avote said, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? The Torah by creating a very clear context for individual identity, then assists us in realizing how the individual can find his or her place and standing alone while simultaneously identifying and participating fully in family life, in the workplace, in the local religious community, and beyond, including the human race. A very vivid example of this again comes from one of my favorite examples I've been sharing with you in The Garden Within, and that is from Rabbi Shlomur Karlbach. Rabbi Shlomur Karbach was very famous uh for uh when he would conduct his prayer services. Again, he was the singing rabbi, right? He loved to sing, and he was known for just literally walking around the streets of Jerusalem, just strumming his guitar and singing and trying to lift the spirits of people. He was known just to visit prisons randomly and just sing to prisoners, you know. For me, I also think of like Johnny Cash and Fultz and Prism and all you know, Folsom Prism blues, like just a desire to try to spread some kind of hope and inspiration to those who maybe had lost some hope and some inspiration. Uh, and then when he would conduct prayer services, uh, one of them, a service that's known as Kaddish Lavana, which is done um once a month. It's kind of a special prayer service that's done each month. Uh part of this particular prayer service that usually only takes like 15-20 minutes. You kind of read a psalm that kind of gives God thanks for the beginning of the month and you know, creating the cycle of months and the rhythm of the months and so forth. Um, and then you kind of you know read the Psalms, you say the prayer, and then you kind of go about your day. Rabbi Shalomo was known for taking hours to do this. And one of the reasons why is because in this service uh it's was custom to uh say shalom alechem to three people, which is peace be with you. It's you ever been to it's an introvert's nightmare, right? But have you ever been to those churches that begin and like we're now gonna share the peace of the Lord with everybody, right? And as an introvert, you're like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Right? But then the extrovert's like, oh yes, yes, yes, right. And then people go around and like the peace of the Lord be with you, or the Lord be with you. You know, it's a typical greeting. I, you know, that's that's a liturgical greeting, the peace of the Lord be with you. With you comes from the very early church. It's shalom alekum. The response is alechum shalom, and peace be unto you. And the custom is you do that to three people. Okay. Well, Rabbi Shal uh Reb Shalomo didn't like that. He liked each person to go and say that to every person. And then the next person would go and say it to every person, right? Right. Which you can imagine, if you even have 25 people, that's going to take a long time because it's one person saying it to 24 people, then the next person saying it to 24 people. So like that's a long, long time. Um, and then of course he has to sing and he tells his stories and all that. So what is normally 15 minutes was several hours. But it was all designed so that the individual felt connected to the group and part of the group and felt in unison with the group and felt uh that there was some kind of rhythm to it, that they mattered, that yes, this was uh a prayer group and it was a group thing, but it was also something individual and that they mattered within it. And so even though it took a considerable amount of time, everyone had a chance to shine. That was Reb Shlomo's point. And the group provided the energy to make everyone feel important and loved. And somehow the stories were that time stood still, right? It didn't feel like it took that long and people enjoyed it. Uh, another lesson of this importance of the importance of the individual within the collective uh is one of my favorites is uh Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, who for years uh in New York City, um it was I think in 2014, I was able to go and visit. It's called 770 because uh 770 uh Crown Heights is the address of his residence and his synagogue. Um but for years on Sunday night when he before he passed away, he would give teaching and he would literally pack out the place with thousands of people. Uh and people, I mean, even people like prime ministers of Israel would fly over to hear him, and presidents would go and listen to him, and it was just packed with people all of the time. And then after he had exhausted himself in teaching for several hours, he would stand at the door and he would hand out dollar bills to every single person. And the reason he handed out dollar bills is because he would give each person a dollar bill and he would expect them to go and do something charitable with it, right? What whatever it was. He did, but they had to do something, some kind of act of kindness with it, uh, whether that was they saved a bunch of them up and then did something big, or whether they used that as part of a bigger project, right, and just put it in with it. But they it was an impetus to go and and be kind. But at the same time, when he would give them their dollar bills, and this was again every single person of the thousands of people, and by the way, again, presidents would frame their dollar bill, which made him angry because you were not supposed to frame your dollar bill, you were supposed to spend it on being kind to someone else or helping someone else. Um, but you know, he would let you ask him a question, personal question, right? So you were there as a group, you were there as a worship service, because they, you know, there was singing and psalms and there was a teaching, it was a corporate event. But then before you left, you got the individual treatment, right? And you were sent out on your own personal mission, right? In addition to being part of the collective, you also had an individual mission and so forth. And I remember in my previous congregation, uh, I remember going to our business uh administrator going, I need, because I think we averaged about 1,500 in worship on a given weekend, and I'm like, I need 1,500$1 bills, please, you know, and they looked at me like I was crazy. Um, because I did that. I wanted to see what this would do. And so, you know, we did our regular worship service, corporate, uh, you know, song, praise, scripture reading, you know, the things you do in corporate, right? It was about the community, right? And inspiring this the community, being part of that. And then at the door, you couldn't get out. I made sure you had to get in the line and had to come to me, and everybody got a dollar, but everyone could ask me a question, or they could ask for a blessing, uh, or I could pray over them, whatever they needed. It was about me and them. Uh, and then I gave them a dollar. And then the next week we let them tell what they did with their dollar, and the story was amazing. You wouldn't believe what people could do with a dollar. Uh, it was just a really fascinating thing. But that's, you know, why did the Rebbe do all of this? Because he felt it to be of the utmost importance that he personally made contact with each of these people, even if it was for a moment, teaching each one of them the importance of giving charity, of offering each one of them his personal blessing, his prayers. And despite the lengthy wait, people came willingly and they waited for hours without complaint. And in truth, throughout the ages, there have been countless examples of spiritual leaders who've acted in similar ways. And this week's portion, Bamid Bar, it contains, if you read it, if you read it with what's known as Kavana, if you read it with the intention, you're right, you you read it knowing that there's spiritual technology undergirding the words on the page, right? That what's here is relevant for all times and every generation. It contains the secret of emotional and spiritual balance, right? So when you're reading it this week, you know, after you leave our time together this evening, you know that one of the things it can give to you is emotional and spiritual balance, of finding one's inner equilibrium in the context of relating to one's own unique mission in this world, one's relation to their family, to their community, to their broader society, and then ultimately to the planet as a whole. When we learn to function within all of these concentric, ever-broadening contexts, we discover our place in the world and how to relate to our God. For ultimately, he's placed us here to make the world a better place and to bring the light of our Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, to it. The spiritual source of the four camps in the desert. So, in addition to a lengthy census, Babmed Bar, this week's portion, also contains an elaborate description of how the tribes camped and how they marched in the desert. Most strikingly, what I will call the camp of the Shekinah, that is the camp of the divine presence that was contained within the tabernacle. That's what Shekinah means. It's the Hebrew word for the divine presence, right? So the tabernacle right there in the center, that's the divine presence. That's the presence of God living in with and among his people, right? And so when you read like in John chapter 1, verse 14, when it says, and the word became flesh and it dwelt among us, right? The the he the Greek word for dwelt is actually the Greek um participle that means tabernacled, right? So the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And so what you have in the tabernacle is this great foreshadowing of our Messiah, right? So right there in the midst of the people is the indwelling of God's presence in the midst of his people, the Shekinah. It was located right there in the center of the encampment. All right, that's an obvious lesson in and of itself, right? What should be the center of all things, right? The obvious lesson is that the people's spiritual lives should be the axis around which all the other aspects of their lives revolve. The tabernacle's innermost sanctum, the holy of holies, it contained the ark, which housed the two tablets of the law upon which were engraved the ten words, the ten commandments, symbolizing the fact that the people's entire lives, both the spiritual and the material, that that emanates from the word of God. And God's decision to communicate with Moses from between the two cherubs that stood on the ark, emphasizes the closeness to God that that depends on the word as well. The Levites, that is, descendants of Levi's three sons, were positioned on three sides of the camp of the Shekinah in the family groups, while Aaron and Moses and their families camped on the fourth side, which are Aaron and Moses are technically Levites, but so you kind of have Levites surrounding it that way. The second encampment was called the camp of the Levites, and in the third and by far the largest encampment, the camp of the Israelites, three tribes were located in each of the four directions surrounding the two inner camps. Recalling the dictum that the actions of the fathers are assigned to the children, the midrash teaches us that the configuration of the encampment in the wilderness, that it was established to do just this. When Jacob lay on his deathbed and blessed his sons, according to the midrash, he instructed them to carry his body back to Israel for burial. During the march back to Israel, they were to surround his casket in the same configuration that's described in this week's portion. Jacob, the paradigm of the biblical scholar. Remember, you had Jacob and Esau. Esau, the man of the field, Jacob, the man of the tents, didn't mean he was a mama's boy. It meant he was a scholar. It meant he was one who stayed and studied the teachings of Abraham, his grandfather. He was the paradigm of the scholar. He symbolizes the tabernacle in the center of the camp around which his descendants marched. Yet it is important to note that these configurations are hinted to in an earlier incident in Jacob's life. Jacob's dream of the latter. Jacob had this dream on what would one day become eventually the Temple Mount. And prophetically he set up twelve stones around his head before he lay down to sleep. Indeed, when he awoke, he consciously realized, and this is in Genesis 28, verse 17, that this is none other than the house of God. Remember, the house of God, the house of God is another name for the temple. So Jacob is realizing this where he is at, is prophetically, he's realizing this is going to be the place of the house of God, the temple. And this is the gate of heaven. Since the tabernacle in the temple in the wilderness was the prototype for the temple in Jerusalem, it is no surprise that the Zohar teaches us that Jerusalem was established on the twelve rocks of Jacob, three on each side, all surrounding the Temple Mount. Symbolically, these twelve rocks symbolize the twelve tribes that surround Jerusalem, the heart of God's people. Even when the people of God lived in exile, scattered to the four corners of the earth, Jerusalem remained the central focus of all of their hopes and dreams. And that's why, even to this day, no matter where they may be in this world, it is a custom to face Jerusalem when praying. You may hear face east, but why you face east is because guess what's east for you? For you, east is Jerusalem. Jerusalem's position at the center also plays out in other ways. I meant to get an image of this. I had taken a picture of it when I was in a museum in Jerusalem, and I forgot to dig it out of my archives. But in the Middle Ages, the cartographers, though the map drawers, their maps were not terribly accurate, by the way, as you might imagine. Whenever they would draw their maps, they would always draw Jerusalem at the center. And they and it always had Asia, Europe, and Africa. And they were just kind of, and Jerusalem was in the center of it. And that was their map of the world, recognizing the supremacy of Jerusalem, the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, its position from ancient times as the crossroad and the major land trading routes linking Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now at this point, we can ask on what basis did Jacob instruct his sons and the Torah, the tribes, to camp in such a manner? And further, we can ask, why is Jerusalem, which was chosen by God to be the spiritual and physical capital, conceived as being built upon twelve rocks, three in each of the four directions? The mystical tradition teaches that everything which occurs in our material world has its roots in the higher spiritual worlds, that is, as below, so above. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament very much writes its entire book on this principle, that everything that we see below is a shadow, is a reflection of what is above. The tabernacle below is a fractal, is an image of the tabernacle above, not made with hands and so forth. And so, in this sense, our world is a mirror. It reflects the energies that are manifested above. Reality on this plane of existence is a manifestation of forces that have filtered down from above and have taken on material form. And so that is the reason it behooves us to still study this. And we're going to come back to this a little bit later again. And so it is fascinating to discover that according to the tradition, God's throne of glory, the symbolic center of all the created spiritual and physical worlds, is surrounded by camps of angels on all four sides. Each of these camps of heavenly beings is led by one of the four archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael. Reflecting this heavenly reality, the temple was surrounded by the four sets of the three stones, and the camp of the Shekinah was surrounded on all four sides by the tribes of Israel, divided into the four groups named after the leading tribes of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan. In other words, this image is kind of the physical representation of the divine counsel above, where if you think where the tabernacle is, is the tabernacle not made with hands, where the creator of heaven and earth reigns, and where the heavenly hosts surround him in his glory, they are encamped around him like that. And you have like the four chief archangels, you have the four sides and so forth. And so, as below, so above, the four camps of angels correspond to the four creatures that Ezekiel envisions surrounding the throne of glory. You can look in Ezekiel chapter one, and the correspondence beautifully illustrates how a certain truth can manifest itself simultaneously on many different levels and in different dimensions. And this demonstrates how the part A system for studying the Torah reveals the prism that is reality. At the highest level, God symbolically sits on a throne of glory, surrounded by his heavenly host, and this reality filters down to the people surrounding the tabernacle in the desert, and later to the holy temple in Jerusalem, as well as to Jacob surrounded by his twelve sons, and to the twelve stones Jacob placed around his head as he dreamt about the future temple. The tradition makes a similar point in explaining that the earthly Jerusalem are mirror images of the heavenly ones. And that's what we're going to come back to at the end, because that's what John picks up on in the book of Revelation. When John sees in Revelation his glimpse into heaven, now that you've kind of familiarized yourself with numbers and kind of the structure around the tabernacle, when you look into Revelation, you're going to go, oh, that's the same structure, right? It's the same structure. What he sees above is what was manifested below. And so the prophet Jeremiah even refers to Jerusalem as the throne of God. And the list of correspondences is but an example of the fundamental notion that this world reflects the greater forces that simultaneously exist in our higher worlds. The arrangement of the camp, detailed in Ba Midvar, not only taught of the generation of the desert how to proceed, but also offers each and every person throughout history practical and eternal valid messages. It sheds light on the role and the place of the individual and the nation. And it tells God's people what their spiritual mission is, and it provides a roadmap to achieve it. Man's search for meaning. Numbers chapter 2, verse 2. It says, Every man by his banner, with the insignia of their father's house, shall the children of Israel camp. At a distance surrounding the tent of meeting, they shall camp. So this verse is part of the Torah's description on how Israel camped on all four sides of the tabernacle while they were in the wilderness or while they were traveling through the desert. The Midrash teaches that the Israelites envisioned that the presence of God descended onto Mount Sinai, and when it did, when the presence of God did, it was accompanied by legions of angels riding chariots who surrounded the Shechinah on all four sides. Each band of angels had a heavenly banner radiating a unique hue. The vision was so remarkable, and the people's attraction to the flag so profound that they exclaimed, If only we two were like the angels and had banners. And so God responded to their request and gave each tribe and each camp their special banner. The banners were made of silk, and their colors corresponded to the tribe's precious stones, which were affixed to the high priest's breastplate, described way back in the book of Exodus. The symbol on each banner showcased one of the specific tribe's positive aspects, most of which were mentioned in Jacob's blessings to his sons back in Genesis. Yet what was it about the heavenly banners that aroused such deep spiritual feelings in the people? To answer this question, we need to understand what the flags, what the banners symbolize to the heavenly host above. Since angels have no free will, their entire beings reflect their essential nature, the divinely appointed tasks they have been given to perform. The sages teach that an angel can only have one task at a time. For instance, Rashi explains that three angels appeared to Abraham and Sarah shortly after Abraham's circumcision, because three specific tasks had to be accomplished. There was the announcement of Isaac's birth, there was the healing after Abraham's circumcision, and there was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Each of these angels had a task to carry out. The Slonomer Rebbe explains that the heavenly flags were so attractive because they symbolized purpose. They symbolized meaning. You know, they defined The mission of what they were all about, what they were given over to fulfill. And this type of purpose elicits pride, a holy pride, right? We all want to know why do I exist? And if we can ever figure out this is what I'm supposed to do, this is what I'm called to do, this is what God wants me to do, this is why I'm sent on planet Earth to exist, right? Then we're going to have a holy pride about that. It was a deep sense of mission and attachment and purpose that inspired the people who witnessed these banners that caused them to want their own. After World War II, an individual known as Victor Frankel, a survivor of the Nazi death camps, wrote a highly influential book called Man's Search for Meaning. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. It's not that big a book. My son, I believe, I had him read it last year. It is very telling, and it would be a very good book to read while you are reading the book of numbers, because while Frank Frankel never intended it to be a commentary on numbers, no way, shape, or form did he, it is, right? It is about finding purpose and life. And so Frankel was a survivor of the death camps. And so what this book is about is he describes how some people survived the most atrocious things you can imagine in humanity. And not only did they survive, but like there are more than just a handful of cases. There are many cases where they survived and they survived and came out and thrived. They came out and became businessmen and entrepreneurs and millionaires and globe travelers. Like, and so he looked into it and said, why did some absolutely crumble and like within days die? Just give up. And others not only survive, but somehow thrive. And so again, and against all odds, you know, against the most brutal, inhumane conditions that could ever be forced upon a human. And he talks about, you know, while all animals, if you will, are programmed to survive and so forth, he says only human beings have put in them, and he of course is going to attribute this to God, but are programmed to search for a higher spiritual purpose in life. That is, to search for an actual meaning in life. Like your dog, yes, it's programmed to survive. Like when it's hungry, it's going to try to find food. Or if it's threatened, it will fight back and try to survive. All living things, he says, you know, have a survival instinct, but he says it is only humanity, it is only the human being that believes it has a purpose, a real purpose, a divine purpose. And so he said that's what kept him going. He knew he had a divine purpose. And so no matter what a prison guard would do to him, he knew he had a purpose, and it wasn't that. And so he knew he was going to achieve his purpose. He had a purpose, and nothing was going to thwart that purpose because it was a divine purpose, and therefore that is what propelled him forward, and that is why he lived. And that's what these banners were. It was their purpose. You know, so you can, when you're reading about the banners, go back to Jacob's blessings. What did he say about each of his sons? You know, like Benjamin's, like the wolf, and all that, like break down why he said these things. What were these blessings about, right? He was telling them who they were in their core. He was telling them what their purpose was. He was giving them meaning to their identity, right? And that's what these banners represented. These banners were revealed to the people at the giving of the Torah, the Word of God at Sinai. This was their mission. It was revealed to them. The vision of the banners and the people's desires, it was their deepest desire to have a life of significance. It was their aspiration to fulfill their holy mission, to be a light unto the nations, to be a nation of priests, and to be a holy people. And so that is what propelled them on. All right. Now I want to kind of, it'll kind of go back a little bit to some things, but this is going to kind of have more of a shadow of Messiah angle to it. Again, I would encourage you to look in the archives. We did a shadows of Messiah or a Son in Scripture take on this portion a couple of years ago. So always listen to the archives for deeper information. But going back just to the beginning in Numbers 1, verse 2, it says, Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' household, according to the number of names, every male head by head. And so there are several times when the children of Israel are counted in the Bible, and the sages enumerate actually nine such times. So nine times, and they point to a tenth time that will take place in the days of Messiah. And they quote Jeremiah 33, verses 13 through 15 as proof. In that passage, the righteous branch of David springs forth to execute justice and righteousness on earth. And then the land of Israel will be reinhabited, and the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who will number them. This is also, by the way, one of the reasons why the town of Nazareth is called Nazareth, because Nazareth means branch town, that a branch of David would come forth from that town. So here you have in Jeremiah 33 this prophecy of this one, this Nazareth, this branch from uh from David would come forward and eventually number his people once again. So that would be the tenth census. The sages interpret the flocks to refer to the people of God, and they envision Messiah like a good shepherd counting his sheep. And we have that axiom as the first redeemer, so the greater redeemer. Just as Moses, the first Redeemer of Israel, conducted a census of Israel, so the Messiah, the ultimate redeemer, will do so. And may we all merit to be numbered in that counting. The Midrash Tankumah comments on Numbers chapter 1, verse 4, which says, There shall be a man of each tribe, each one head of his father's household. The Tonkumah says, The man in this verse refers to King Messiah, for he is the ultimate head of the household. For Zechariah 6, 12 says, Behold a man whose name is Branch, again, Nazareth, branch town. Also in Isaiah 53, verse 3, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Messiah is the man at the head of the tribes, the head of the whole household. And Jesus refers to himself in Matthew 10, verse 25, as the head of the household. Again in Numbers 1, verse 2, this take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by the fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male head by head. God commanded Moses and Aaron to count every man old enough to serve in the army. That's what this on one level, a Peshat level, is all about. It's about if we need to go to war, or someone's picking a fight with us, how many people we got that can take up arms, right? It's martial. The portion is dominated by the census this week. The Torah records the number of eligible fighting men from each of the tribes. It also provides a look at the role of the tribe of Levi, their encampment formations around the tabernacle and the function of the Levitical families in the midst of the hosts of Israel. We are given a description of the layout of the camp of Israel. Three tribes encamp on each side, thereby surrounding the camp of the Levites. The Levites in turn surround the camp of priests, and the priest encamped the tabernacle. In addition, the Torah portion provides details about the marching orders for the tribes of Israel, and even mentions the tribal standards under which the tribes camped and marched. All of this material is on a Peshat level, military in nature. Bamed Barr reminds us that, yes, one of the aspects of God is that he is a God of war, and that, yes, his anointed one, one of his functions, one of his functions, will be that of a military conqueror. Bible teachers will often explain that the mainstream Jewish rejection of Jesus in the first century was because they did not recognize Jesus to be the Messiah, because they understood that the Messiah was to be a conquering hero. And this was based on their readings of Scripture. They anticipated a military leader, a Jewish Alexander the Great, if you will, who would topple the Roman government and who would take over the world. Most were not prepared for the suffering servant Messiah, the one who would die for the sins of the world. And even though Jewish literature and prophecy does attest to the concept of the suffering Messiah, the popular idea of the Messiah in the days of the apostles was the great military conqueror. And this does stand to reason. Messiah is a king. And even Jesus' own disciples believe they were part of some kind of political revolution. It took them a long time to reorient their thinking. In our day, the situation is the opposite. Believers are so accustomed to thinking of Messiah as the remote spiritual suffering servant whose primary job is to save us from our sin that they have totally forgotten about the military side of the Messiah. The Jewish people in the first century who were seeking a militant conquering Messiah, they were not mistaken about him. They were just premature in their expectation. They did not understand the suffering Messiah would precede the military Messiah. But they did derive their ideas from the prophets. Numerous prophecies and psalms speak of Messiah vanquishing the nations, defeating the enemies of God, and establishing a throne. One of the most quoted psalms by the apostles in the New Testament is Psalm 2, and just take a listen at it. You shall break the nations with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O king, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that he not become angry, and you not perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all those who take refuge in him. And so we must not forget that the Messiah of the Scripture is also militant. In this week's Torah portion, God is preparing the army of Israel for conquering the promised land. And all of the information about army roles, encampments, and marching formations and tribal ranks and the preparation for an anticipated military campaign. Well, what do you think the book of Revelation is talking about, folks? In portion Bahar, we saw one of the functions of Messiah was to be the Redeemer. And when Messiah comes again, we can anticipate him marching into the land to reconquer it. And here, let's look at Numbers 1, verse 3. The host above and the host below. From twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies. So that which is in heaven is reflected on earth. Traditional Midrash as well as the book of Hebrews both teach us that the tabernacle on earth is a copy of the true tabernacle above, the earthly dwelling place of the living God. We also learn that the priesthood of the tabernacle has an equivalent priesthood in the tabernacle above, namely the priesthood of our Messiah. And so the earthly institutions obtained or ordained in the Torah are reflections of heavenly realities. And this would be true of the host of Israel as well. And so in Parishat Bamid Bar, in this week's portion, the Torah offers us a long look at the hosts of Israel. We see them numbered and counted, we see them divided into tribal identities, we see them camped about the tabernacle. If that which is below is a reflection of that which is above, then these hosts on earth must correspond to the hosts in heaven. In the Midrash Rabah, the encampments of Israel described in these passages are said to correspond to the angels around God's throne, the so-called Sabiot, right? The mustering of the hosts of Israel can be compared to the mustering of the hosts of heaven. And so chapter 19 of the Book of Revelation offers us a glimpse of that future. There we see the Messiah as the commander of the Lord's host prepared for battle. He rides as the head of the host of heaven. As in the beginning of the book of Bob Midbar, the hosts of the Lord are arrayed for war, ready to swoop into action. The heavenly hosts that accompany the Messiah into the battle at the second coming are angels. And numerous texts refer to the Messiah's command over those angel legions. Jesus has twelve legions of angels at his disposal. The twelve legions correspond to the twelve tribes. Revelation nineteen, fourteen, describes armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Revelation 19, 7 and 8 describe the righteous bride of Messiah, clothed, fine linen, bright and clean, for the linen of the righteous acts of the saints, ready for war. And so what you see below in numbers is what John saw above in heaven. The same encampment. That is the encampment. As below, so above. Alright, we will close there for this evening. And do remember we will meet again in two weeks. The first Monday in June. All right, let's close with a blessing. Baruchata Adanai Notain Hatarah. Blessed are you, Lord God, who has given to us the gift that is the Torah. Amen. Shalom, shalom, go in peace. 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