(ז) וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל משֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי (במדבר א, א), לָמָּה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי, מִכָּאן שָׁנוּ חֲכָמִים בִּשְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים נִתְּנָה הַתּוֹרָה, בָּאֵשׁ, וּבַמַּיִם, וּבַמִּדְבָּר. בָּאֵשׁ מִנַּיִן (שמות יט, יח): וְהַר סִינַי עָשַׁן כֻּלּוֹ וגו'. וּבַמַּיִם מִנַּיִן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שופטים ה, ד): גַּם שָׁמַיִם נָטָפוּ גַּם עָבִים נָטְפוּ מָיִם. וּבַמִּדְבָּר מִנַּיִן וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל משֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי, וְלָמָּה נִתְּנָה בִּשְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הַלָּלוּ, אֶלָּא מָה אֵלּוּ חִנָּם לְכָל בָּאֵי הָעוֹלָם כָּךְ דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה חִנָּם הֵם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה נה, א): הוֹי כָּל צָמֵא לְכוּ לַמַּיִם, דָּבָר אַחֵר, וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל משֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי, אֶלָּא כָּל מִי שֶׁאֵינוֹ עוֹשֶׂה עַצְמוֹ כַּמִּדְבָּר, הֶפְקֵר, אֵינוֹ יָכוֹל לִקְנוֹת אֶת הַחָכְמָה וְהַתּוֹרָה, לְכָךְ נֶאֱמַר: בְּמִדְבַּר סִינָי.
And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness" — Anyone who does not make themselves hefker (open, ownerless) like the wilderness cannot acquire the wisdom and the Torah.
What might it mean to make yourself “hefker (open, ownerless) like the wilderness”? How might that lead to acquiring wisdom?
“Lech Lecha- Go Forth” Rabbi Lawrence Kushner in Journey: An Omer Workbook, Rabbi Jill Zimmerman
Abraham, our father, Was simply told to leave. Go forth from your land and from your kindred and even your father’s house. To the land that I will show you. This is the setting out. The leaving of everything behind. Leaving the social milieu. The preconceptions. The definitions. The language. The narrowed field of vision. The expectations. No longer expecting relationships, memories, words, or letters to mean what they used to mean. | To be, in a word: Open. If you think you know what you will find, Then you will find nothing. If you expect nothing, Then you will always be surprised. And able to bless the One who creates the world anew each morning. So it is with setting out on the path of liberation, leaving everything. He would even have to discover The way he would discover While he was on the way. |
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, “East Coker,” III, 142-44
In order to arrive at what you are not You must go through the way in which you are not. And what you do not know is the only thing you know. |
- What resonates (or not) with you in these texts? What do they add to your discussion?
- What is the wilderness for you right now? What have you left behind? What do you not know that you used to know?
- Have there been wilderness journeys in your past (or present) that resonate with the texts above? What did you discover? What “Torah” did you receive? What connection is/ was there (if any) to “the path of liberation”?