Thoughts
on The Parsha
Parshas
Bamidbar
All
for One and One for All
By:
Daniel Listhaus
אִישׁ
עַל דִּגְלוֹ בְאֹתֹת לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם
יַחֲנוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מִנֶּגֶד
סָבִיב לְאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד יַחֲנוּ
“The
Children of Israel shall encamp, each man at his own division (by his
flag) according to the signs of their fathers' house...”
-Bamidbar
2:2
The
Medrash1
states that when Hashem came to Har
Sinai
to give the Torah to the B'nei
Yisroel,
twenty-two
thousand chariots of malachim
(angels)
came down with Him - each with their own flag. When the Jews saw this
they also had the desire to have their own flags. Hashem agreed that
each shevet
(tribe)
should
in fact each make for itself a flag.
What
does this mean? What did the Jews see in the flags of the malachim
which caused them to want to have their own? Also, what is the
significance of each shevet
having
its own flag?
In
order to answer these questions, we must first realize what a flag
is. Webster translates a flag as, “any
of various monocotyledonous plants with long ensiform leaves”2.
However, in reality, a flag
is something which brings people together.3
It symbolizes a unit. The navy, army, and air-force each have a
different flag representing their own unique missions and goals. A
flag is supposed to be something with which everyone in that group
could identify. It is a sign to forget differences in order to
achieve common goals as a unit.
At
the end of Yaakov avinu's
life, he called to his sons and
gave each of them a b'racha
(blessing).
While doing so, he
pointed out the unique qualities of each son, simultaneously charging
each of them with a different mission in life based on their
qualities.4
Immediately after this event, was the death and funeral of Yaakov.
Rashi5
explains that the way the Jews surrounded
the coffin of their father, Yaakov, was an allusion to the exact way
that their descendents would later encamp in the desert around the
Mishkan
(Tabernacle),
after yetzias
Mitzrayim (the
exodus from Egypt).
Each of the twelve sons of Yaakov represents a different goal to
achieve. Only when each of their individual goals is achieved, could
the ultimate umbrella goal of true avodas
Hashem be reached. Yaakov, as the “wholesome man, abiding in
tents”6
represents this idea of what the real purpose of man is; while his
twelve sons surrounding him, and later surrounding the Mishkan,
represent the different entities which must form a circle to complete
their overall purpose and goal.
On
the third and must painful day after Avraham's circumcision, three
angels disguised as men showed up at his tent. Rashi7
comments
that each angel came to complete a different task. One to tell Sarah
that she would give birth to a son in a year's time, one to destroy
Sodom, and the third to heal Avraham. Rashi
explains that the reason why three separate angels were needed was
because one angel cannot perform two missions. Each angel represents
a different and specific aspect of Hashem's ratzon,
which is why each has their own unique flag – a symbol of what
their sole purpose is.8
Just
as each angel has its own mission and unique will of Hashem, each of
the twelve shevatim
represents a slightly different area of man serving Hashem. When the
Jews in the desert saw the different flags of the angels they desired
to each have their own flag so that all the members of each tribe
could see and remember what the responsibilities of their tribe were.
It is no coincidence that the colors of each tribe's flag were the
same as their respective stones represented on the choshen
(breast
plate) of
the Kohen
Gadol9.
Ruach
Hakodesh assigned
each of the shevatim
a color, representing each shevet's
unique qualities and responsibilities; and the Jews wanted each tribe
to make a flag in order not to forget this
With
a flag, though, comes a bigger responsibility. People united under
one flag are responsible for each other. Just as soldiers in the same
unit division must supplement what the other does not complete, and
the whole camp is punished if the groups' tasks as a whole are not
completed, so too each member of
B'nei
Yisroel has
the responsibility to look out for a fellow Jew
- “kol
yisroel areivim zeh lazeh”10
(every Jew is a guarantor for one another). On the smaller scale,
this requires each tribe to be responsible for its members. On the
larger scale, this demands each individual to be responsible for his
or her fellow members of K'lal
Yisroel
as a whole.
As
aforementioned, however, each tribe's flag is really only one-twelfth
of the puzzle. The choshen
is
only completed when all the colors are present, Yaakov could only be
buried – with passing his responsibilities of the wholesome man to
his sons – once each shevet
was in its rightful place alongside the coffin, and the Shechinas
Hashem
only travels when each shevet
is surrounding it along-side its flag. Only when all twelve
individual units are complete could the true ultimate big-picture be
realized – that the ultimate purpose of man is to be surrounding
the Mishkan,
serving and coming close to Hashem. The Mishkan
is the flag of flags uniting the individual units together.
When
every Jews stays true to his shevet's
flag, nothing evil could break the force which is created. If each
shevet
works to become one with its responsibilities, then a full Shechina
is present - for all twelve pieces of the puzzle are in place. This
was in fact the case when Bilam tried to curse the Jews.11
Balak had hired Billam to curse the Jews but when Bilam lifted his
eyes to do so, he saw that the each tribe was by its respective flag.
At that moment Bilam understood that his attempts to curse the Jews
would be futile because he realized that the Jews had achieved the
level of being by their flags – uniting each tribe within itself,
and the flag of the shechina
bringing the twelve parts into one whole.12
We
must realize
that everything is really one. Hashem is one, His name is one, and
His nation is one. These factors are not meant to be added together,
for they are in reality all one and the same. Hashem's name is one
and Jews are called “goy
echad b'aretz”
(one nation in the land). When these two echads
intersect at the right point then the ultimate oneness is present.
This is alluded to through the gematriya
(numerical values of the Hebrew letters) one calculates when adding
together these two “echads”.
The gematriya
of echad
is thirteen plus another echad
equals twenty-six13
which is the gematriya
of the explicit name of Hashem.14
This
idea of connecting the achdus
(unity) of the Jews with Hashem is further displayed by the Tefillin
we wear. Tefillin
is the wireless network, so to speak, connecting us directly with
Hashem. When we wear Tefillin,
we show that we are tied, literally, with Hashem. For this reason,
our Tefillin
has the Shema
written in it, declaring, “Hashem echad”
- that G-d is One. On Hashem's side of the connection, the Gemara15
tells us that Hashem also wears a pair of Tefillin
and on it its written: “Who is like your nation Israel, one
nation
in the land”. This is why the Gemara16
states that whoever recites shema
without
tefillin
is as if he bears false testimony on himself.
Judaism
is not merely a religion, it is a way of life. Each of us has the
duty to balance our individual responsibilities while remembering
that we also belong to a bigger picture. It is true that each shevet
has its own responsibility it must work towards, however, there is
yet a bigger picture. Each shevet's
flag shares a common denominator, that all of their flags have a
collective flag - the shechina
- located exactly in the center of all four camps.
Every
individual must look up at one's tribe's flag and recall one's
mission. Then, each tribe as a unit must produce its complete gem, as
represented on the choshen,
in
order to conjointly achieve the ultimate goal: true service of Hashem
through building the relationship of oneness between He, who is One,
and His nation, who is one – two sides of the same coin.
Being
in galus
(exile),
we have lost touch with the small picture responsibilities of each
tribe. However, let us not forget the bigger picture, the ultimate
goal of the entire Jewish people to be close with the shechina.
This is what we hope for in the future by the times of Mashiach;
the day we describe three times daily at the end of Aleinu
L'shabeach17
as,
“On that day shall Hashem be One and His name be One”.
2Webster's
Dictionary :“flag”. (Don't worry, Webster is not totally off his
rocker, under the flag entry there is also: “a
usually rectangular piece of fabric of distinctive design that is
used as a symbol”.)
6Beraishis
25:27
Rashi
there explains that Yaakov would spend his time in the tents of Shem
and Eiver studying Torah.
8See
Rashbam 2:2
and other commentaries who describe what was on each shevet's
flag.
For example: On the flag of Yehuda was a lion; and on the flag of
Yosef was an ox.
10
Rashi Vayikra 26:37
and Sanhedrin
27b.
Note: The word “areiv” literally means a guarantor. Just like by
monetary law a guarantor is forced to pay in place of the
original debtor (if the debtor is unable to pay and other conditions
are met), so too every Jew is in some way responsible for what
another Jew does or does not do.
Photo Credit: Edited picture based on http://www.thefoundationstone.org/images/stories/israel.jpg
