Fire, Water, and Wilderness

The word “bamidbar” is often translated as desert. This translation does not capture the landscape of the biblical region in its entirety…Anyone who has travelled in the south of Israel knows that the region is better captured by the word “wilderness.” It is mountainous and cavernous, often struck by flash floods and hardly monochromatic in color. Images of nature created by our prophets confirm both the danger and the unsettling sensations of being in the wilderness…

There is something about the expansiveness and simplicity of the environment that makes people contemplative and aware of their insignificance. The enormity of the terrain highlights our smallness and often, in place of fear, religious awe arises. Wisdom, too, like a spring or sudden flood, rises where least expected. But it is not only this spiritual rawness which is possible in the vastness of the wilderness that leads to knowledge. It is the desire to put order in the chaos, which leads to the acquisition of Torah. Because humanity feels dominated by the landscape do we try to overcome this impotence by building structures of human intelligence.