Genesis has become a household word in America. Recently the PBS did a series on Genesis that spawned study groups throughout the country on Genesis. “Joseph and His Technicolor Dream Coat” is a Broadway hit (soon to return to Memphis). Exodus has long been a favorite of the movies, from Brenner to Spielberg. Many of the day schools study Genesis for much of elementary school, squeeze in a few years of Exodus, but hardly anyone ever gets to the book of Numbers, or, as we call it, Bemidbar (often pronounced Bamidbar). 

And it is a shame. Here’s a book with spies and rebellions, talking donkeys, healing snakes, sex, and violence, and yet the book seems to get one collective yawn from most Jewish readers. Let’s explore what this oft-neglected book is about, because we will be reading it in shul all summer. Actually, it is the fact that we read it during the summer that causes it to be lost in the sands of the beach or the frivolity of vacation. 

The first feature of Numbers is that is it waxes, wanes, and then waxes again. It begins by setting the stage for the conquest of Israel. Expectations rise as the Jews are counted for battle, as tribal leaders are selected, tribal flags waved, and a camp formation constructed with the Holy Tabernacle at the center. They even have a system for gathering the troops and traveling. They blow the trumpets and off they go. Tekiah indicates that all the leaders should gather together. One teruah if to march, two if to halt. How exciting! We’re ready for the Promised Land! (Of course these details, while part of a riveting introduction, often put the reader to sleep in all their detail. But like many good novels, it just starts off slowly. Do read on.) 

Then, just as they are about to march ahead, everyone starts to complain, sin, and rebel. And I mean everyone. The complainers complain. About what? They desired a desire. What did they desire? Who needs an excuse to complain? They just complained. Some wanted meat. Here’s where the special effects come in. Just as they are chewing on their quails from the sky, G-d zaps them. Moses complains that he cannot supply enough meat. Moses complains that he cannot take all the work from the people. Miriam, his sister, is caught talking loshon harah, slander, against Moses yet. Here’s another op for a great movie, when Miriam’s skin goes white. Then the spies provoke a rebellion, leading to the decree that they will not enter Israel. Then Korach leads a rebellion, which ends in one of the most graphic scenes, the swallowing of Korach and family by the earth. As if things weren’t bad enough, now the Jews complain that Moses is killing everyone off. Well, that didn’t go over too well. A plague broke out and 14,000 died. Moses needed to use a little hocus pocus to save the day at this point because G-d was really mad, and could barely be appeased. Aharon went out and spread some incense around to atone for the people and stop the plague. This is the low point of the book. 

Then they all died. The people die. Miriam dies, Aharon dies. There are about 38 years of desert missing from this book whose Hebrew name means desert. Here’s where the book takes an upward swing and low and behold- the Jews do begin conquest, albeit not in Israel but in Trans-Jordan, but we take what we can get. Israel conquers vast lands and defeat Og the Giant. (For giant lovers, the spy story also has giants.) In this section of the book, two things happen. Firstly, Moses hits the rock. “So what?” you may say. The answer Maimonides gives is that G-d is no longer angry with the Jews. He is ready to give water. Moses talking to the rock was to reflect this new attitude. When Moses hits the rock he conveys an inaccurate reflection of G-d’s mood, so to speak. Moses could not deal with the new reality in which sin is tolerated, so he could not be the new leader. 

At this point the Jews sin with more complaining. This time, though, they repent; they have contrition, albeit after G-d sends out the snakes against them. As a result G-d provides a model snake that will serve for them as a reminder of G-d at all times. G-d has come to a point at which He can accept the Jews with their sinning and will not allow the entire destiny of the Jewish people to be scuttled because of their sinful ways. 

As the book continues on this upsurge, the question is, can G-d really remain on our side, since we have sinned so much? The answer comes from the mouth of a gentile prophet and a donkey. Bilaam is paid to try to curse the Jews, and surely he could find negative traits to underscore, but G-d doesn’t let him, showing that no matter what, G-d will stick with His people. The Jews will conquer, and the promise to conquer will be fulfilled.  

At this point, the Jews almost self-destruct, as we are sometimes wont to do, as they fall into the licentiousness of Midyan, a neighboring tribe. Pinchas saves the day by spearing the sinners to death (this is the “R” rated part), showing the Jews’ commitment to morality, and saving the Jews from destruction. This didn’t stop 24,000 people from dying, but at least the rest were spared.  At this point the book mimics the beginning of it, by taking a new census, and preparing for the entry into the land. The penultimate section of the book is about setting up cities of refuge for those who murder unintentionally. This reflects G-d’s approach that although the Jews will sin in the land, there can nonetheless be atonement. But this time, the people are anxious to go to the land, as is reflected by the last story of the daughters of Zelaphchad who want to have an equal share of land in Israel. It is in the merit of this enthusiasm, that this time the Jews will make it to the Promised Land. 

Genesis is about unsuccessful families who somehow G-d allows to survive in the form of Jacob’s family despite its sinfulness, and murderous thoughts. Exodus is about G-d saving a people who could not save themselves, and granting the Torah to those who don’t deserve it. Numbers is about G-d giving the Land of Israel to the Israelites despite their sins. In all three books, G-d had hoped for uniformity, conformity, and perfection. But in all three books the Jews eventually earn their privilege not by being so pure, but by truly confessing and repenting, as was the case of the brothers in Genesis, Moses on behalf of the Jews in Exodus, and the Israelites in Numbers.  

This teaches us an important lesson. We are never beyond hope. Our sins in the past are not an impediment to our future growth as Jews. The gates of repentance, even if only a partial one, are always open.