Bamidbar Drash 5786

Shabbat 250

[Thanks to Gil & Susan Fried for sponsoring today’s event. In the merit of their good deeds, may we see a refuah shleimah meheirah – a complete and speedy recovery for Susan, Shoshanah Malkah Chaya bat Sarah Riva.]

Isaiah 56:7 proclaims the Holy Temple in Jerusalem as a House of Prayer for all Peoples. Until the Holy Temple is restored, may it be speedily in our days) the synagogue stands in as a “Mikdash Me’at,” a temporary substitute for the real thing. Therefore this House of G-d is also a House of Prayer for all Peoples, open and welcoming to all. I would therefore like to welcome our many guests, some of whom have driven many hours to be here this Shabbat. 

Last Shabbat, we concluded the Book of Leviticus in our weekly reading cycle. This week’s Torah reading, the opening of the fourth book of the Torah, describes the census of the Jewish People taken at the foot of Mount Sinai, just prior to our headlong thrust to claim our inheritance, the Land of Israel.

Census-taking. Unpronounceable names. Number crunching. Head-counts. The material is…well…a bit dry; slim pickings, homiletically speaking. But as always, if we dig a little deeper, we will find treasures below the surface of the narrative. 

This census was taken on the 1st day of Iyar in the second year of our departure from Egypt. Iyar roughly corresponds to the month of May. And you will recall that we left Egypt in April. In those 12 plus months, we had come a relatively short distance, but a very long way. 

We departed from Egypt as an undisciplined rabble; it was a scene of barely controlled chaos. One can easily imagine the frenzy of the departure: three million people running, screaming, arms waving wildly in the air; the strong moving faster, the weak falling behind, parents desperately trying to keep their families together amid the craziness/balagan; mules, donkeys, horses, oxen, camels, wagons – all moving at their own pace. The Torah records that the cowardly Amalekites attacked the stragglers: the oldest, weakest and most tired of the pack. 

Fast forward to our parsha, the 1st of Iyar, just over a year later. We have received the Torah from Gcd at Mount Sinai – an ethical/legal code unparalleled in the history of human civilization before or since; one which guides our conduct to this very day. We have a functioning judiciary and appellate courts. We have an executive triumvirate in the form of Moshe, his brother Aharon the High Priest and his sister Miriam. 

We have an established an orderly community: three concentric circles composed of the Mishkan/the Tabernacle in the center of the camp, surrounded by Machaneh Levi’im/the Levite encampment, in turn surrounded by Machaneh Yisrael/ the Israelite encampment, organized by tribe, clan and family, each with its own standard fluttering proudly in the breeze.

We have an order of march – never again will the weak and the stragglers be left behind. We have an efficient system for disassembling, transporting and re-assembling the Mishkan, itself a marvel of ancient engineering. We have a system of camp-wide communications with the shofarot and the silver trumpets.

And most important of all, we have the Shechinah, the palpable, indwelling presence of the A-lmighty in our midst, with a pillar of cloud to lead us by day, and a pillar of fire to lead us by night.

We’d come a long way, baby. 

Our work at Sinai is now completed. In the space of a year, we have imposed order on the chaos and built a functioning society. We are ready to go, to begin our campaign to reclaim the Land of Israel, the Land that God promised to Abraham, to Isaac & to Jacob and their descendants as an eternal heritage. 

But before we move out, we take stock. We do a head count; we take a moment to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are, before we write the next chapter of the history of the Jewish people.

This Shabbat, we pause to take stock of our American Jewish journey as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. We also open our doors today to welcome our neighbors and friends, coming together to worship together and lift our voices, united in prayer, that G-d A-lmighty should continue to shower His blessings upon the United States of America.

We are grateful that the President of the United States, a president with observant Jewish grandchildren, has declared May 2026 Jewish American Heritage Month, focusing on the many contributions and sacrifices American Jews have made to the tapestry of this great nation.

Some of the earliest Jews to reach these shores were 15 Spanish & Portuguese families who arrived in Newport, Rhode Island in 1658, only 38 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Their families had fled to South America after the Spanish Expulsion in 1492. Unfortunately the Inquisition followed the flag, and Jews were not secure in territories controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese. These exiles moved to Curacao, which was then under Dutch control and beyond the reach of the Dominican and Franciscan Inquisitors. However, when the Portuguese conquered Curacao, the families took a huge chance on Roger William’s promise of religious freedom, and, carrying with them a Torah Scroll written in 1492 on deerskin parchment, they made their way to the colony of Rhode Island. These were the first families of the now-famous Touro Synagogue; that 1492 Torah scroll is still on display there to this day. Those Spanish and Portuguese Jews were sort of…our Pilgrims.

Later, during Kiddush, I hope to call upon people to share some of their families’ stories about coming to America and their experiences as growing up as Jewish-Americans.

Like the census at the foot of Mount Sinai, the 250th anniversary celebrations are a golden opportunity to step back and reflect upon the values of this country, values that all we hold so dear; values that made the American Jewish experience qualitatively different than any other diaspora since we were exiled from our homeland by the cruel Romans in the year 135.

Unique in the history of Western Civilization, the United States was founded upon Torah principles: that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; of the G-d-given universal rights of man; and of equal justice under the law.

G-d has blessed the United States with abundant blessings in fulfillment of the famous verse in Genesis 12:3: Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed, and through you and your descendants, the entire world will be blessed. American power, influence and abundance are an expression of Divine favor, bestowed for the welcoming manner in which America has treated its Jewish citizens. For this we are deeply grateful.

And America has been an ally of the State of Israel since the 1960’s. Israel is not just another nation-state, it is the first sprouting of the Ultimate Redemption of mankind, for, through the ingathering of the exiles and and the restoration of Jewish Sovereignty in the Holy Land, the entire world will be redeemed.

In the immediate aftermath of the miraculous Six Day war, President Johnson and Premier Alexei Kosygin held a Summit in Glassboro, New Jersey on June 25, 1967. Kosygin pointedly asked Johnson: “Why do you support a small country of 2.5 million Jews against a Moslem world of 500 million?” Johnson answered back, “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

Johnson’s was a quintessentially American answer. 

The United States makes common cause with the State of Israel because of shared Judeo-Christian values, a shared worldview, and, unfortunately, a shared rogue’s gallery of common enemies. Today, Israel and the United States are fighting together to dislodge the evil Iranian regime. Without exaggeration or hyperbole, the Islamic regime are the Nazis of the 21st century. Their goals are identical: the eradication of Jews and Judaism from the face of the earth, world domination and the imposition of Sharia law, and nuclear blackmail. 

Let us pray that the efforts of the United States Armed Forces and the IDF prove successful. May the Iranian people be liberated from the oppression of religious coercion and once again determine their own political and economic future. Because liberating them is the right thing to do.

Back home, we are experiencing a renascent Jew-hatred in the United States from both the extreme right and the extreme left. Left unchecked, similar to what we are witnessing in England and Western Europe, we risk losing the Divine Protections that G-d has showered on this great nation since its inception.

I appeal to you today: join with us in the fight against the mainstreaming of antisemitism in all its forms, not out of compassion or pity, but to ensure the continued cascade of blessings upon America from Heaven above. Because it’s the right thing to do.

As we stand on the threshold of 250 years, we must concede that our country has profound economic and social problems that need to be solved: metastatic sovereign debt, the growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots, competing visions of what the American melting pot should look like. But I have every confidence that, working together, we can fix the vexing problems of our times. These problems are fixable. The extremists may grab all the headlines, but I am persuaded that the broad swath of middle America is smarter and has more common sense than most pundits give them credit for; by and large, Americans try to do the right thing. 

The Republic will endure; and I declare before you today: America’s greatest days yet lie ahead.

This morning in the companion reading from the Book of Samuel, we read of the iconic friendship between young David and Prince Jonathan, King Saul’s son. You will recall that Saul had become an avowed enemy of David, whom Saul correctly saw as a challenger to the throne. Who would be the next king of Israel? David or Jonathan, the heir apparent? Such was their love for each other that David and Jonathan were able to put their political rivalry aside and rise above their differences, their bond of friendship being far more important than the politics. And what they did together was the right thing to do, an enduring lesson for all generations.

When Americans of different backgrounds, cultures and historical memories come together like David & Jonathan, overlooking our differences and rivalries and focusing on that which we share and on what is truly important; working together for our common good, neighbor helping neighbor, there can be no doubt that America’s problems will be solved. This morning is a step in that direction; a David and Jonathan moment, if you will: Pensacolians of different faith traditions and backgrounds gathering together in prayer, amity and goodwill to bless and celebrate this great Republic of ours.

Sometimes life is not all about looking forward to the next achievement, the next milestone, the next sales goal. It’s important once in a while to take a step back and look at where we’ve been. That’s a part of what Shabbat itself is all about: for G-d Himself ordained this weekly retreat; stepping back to look at the bigger picture; popping up a level to think about the directions of our lives. For if we don’t know where we’ve been, how can we possibly know where we’re going?

The message of this week’s Torah portion, Bamidbar, is therefore very timely: we join together in ecumenical brotherhood and deep friendship to reflect on the manifest blessings we all enjoy (and all-too-often take for granted) in this great land; to recommit to helping and supporting each other; and to prepare ourselves for the great things that are no doubt coming our way.

Happy Birthday to us on this historic milestone. G-d bless America and Shabbat Shalom.