The book of Numbers tests our ability to weave the bewildering threads of life into a fabric of beauty, dignity and meaning. View the study sheet here. View the zoom recording here.
Leviticus constituted a halt in the Israelite march to freedom. Focused on the patriarchal structure of the priesthood and drained of virtually any narrative movement, it served as a waystation for storing up supplies of rituals, ethics and instructions that would be useful upon arrival at the promised land.
Released from Leviticus’ constraint, the Israelites enthusiastically rouse themselves at Numbers’ beginning to get under way once again. Clans are organized, banners are unfurled, lines of march assigned. Its dynamics describe not just ancient life but one known by you and me as well. There will be enthusiasm and despair. Courage and cowardice. Praise and complaint. Death and new possibilities.
The trail through Numbers will be marked by bewildering stories. Water gushing from a rock. A bronze serpent that heals those bitten by snakes. Earth opening its mouth to swallow the rebellious. An ordeal of bitter water effective at judging the truth of a suspected adultery. A donkey that talks.
Can any sense be made of all this? Are we merely readers of fanciful tales? Or do we have a hand in them as well?
Who is to blame? The weaver?
Ah! the bewildering thread!
The tapestries of paradise!
So notelessly are made!
(Emily Dickinson, “A Shady Friend for Torrid Days”)
Language will play a prominent role in untangling Numbers’ bewildering threads. In a moment of despair, Moses, the one who struggles with speech, will call out, “Shall I be like a nursing father carrying an infant?” Moses’ bewildering words reveal both stored memory and imagined possibility. Moses was himself raised by a wet-nurse. The word for “nursing father,” omein, is built from the Hebrew root (alef-mem-nun) which also provides the words for believe, nourishment, faith, and master artisan. It will take active engagement with language to see the many possibilities latent within a single form.
Shira Barzilay is an Israeli artist living in Tel Aviv. She began as a fashion designer and later expanded into broader art media. Presented here is her digital sketch Bewildered. A single line that produces multiple faces. Barzilay says that “being able to see beyond the obvious and explore the unseen always fascinates me.” For her, art is “an infinite exploration, seeking stories in the shadow of stories untold.”
Beyond the reporting language of Torah is the poetry of Torah. And that is the language of imagination, the language which frees us from the obvious, from the prison of the past and the seemingly inevitable of what must be. To read Torah’s text as the liberators we are summoned to be is to weave bewildering threads into a tapestry of dignity and beauty and meaning.
Join us here at 7:00 p.m. (PT) Thursday May 18 as we explore the bewildering thread.
Digital sketch Bewildered by Shira Barzilay
